Question about reaming Gibson bridge pin holes.

[michaeljohnr]

Gibson handles drilling their bridges differently than Martin.

 

Gibson drills their hole to match the wildest portion of the bridge pin while Martin does not which is why Martin pins sit proud and Gibson pins sit at their collars.

 

Both holes are straight though, neither company tapers the hole.

 

The problem comes when attempting to ream a Gibson hole to fit the taper of whichever bridge pin taper you have.

 

By reaming out a hole that has been fit already to the widest section of the pin, I would think that you would not allow the pin to sit deeper, as it would with Martins, but only make the existing hole larger, in essence making it fit worse because the pin already seats to it's collar. The widest portion of the hole - the bottom - is already over size compared to the pin taper at either 3° or 5°.

 

If you have a slotted Gibson bridge, how do you properly ream the existing holes or are you locked into filling them and reaming the newly filled hole in order to really do this properly?

 

The current Gibson stock pin taper is 3° and it's really tough to find 3° un-slotted pins. I could go oversize, but it's even more difficult to get slightly over sized 3° un-slotted pins in any material.

 

Thanks.

[gibson75]

I have a new 2012 Fullers Gibson AJ and I had my luthier install the Antique Acoustics Reproduction Gibson bridge pins from Elderly Instruments and they worked great. Before reaming the new pins stood 1/8" above the bridge surface. The ones I used were the 1946-1970's pins and are equal to a size 2A-5 degree pin. They come in slotted and unslotted. Excellent bridge pins!

[michaeljohnr]

I have a new 2012 Fullers Gibson AJ and I had my luthier install the Antique Acoustics Reproduction Gibson bridge pins from Elderly Instruments and they worked great. Before reaming the new pins stood 1/8" above the bridge surface. The ones I used were the 1946-1970's pins and are equal to a size 2A-5 degree pin. They come in slotted and unslotted. Excellent bridge pins!

 

Thanks for the reply. I tried a 2A and it was too loose for the hole.

 

I am going to try the 1T size and see if that fits better.

 

Once I get the proper pin, I'll look into reaming the hole.