This looks like a terrible idea - your thoughts? Power Pins

[Dave Bagwill]

http://bigrockeng.com/powerpinsnew.html

[Tim Benware]

Terrible idea. Why add all that weight to the top?

[ken cierp]

Really ?? What is it that I always say -- oh yeah "just because you can, does not mean you should"

[Dave Bagwill]

A good friend of mine sent me that link asking my opinion. He was thinking of the ease of changing strings, not having pins to drop under the sofa etc., - but all I could think of was the time we all put into trying to build something really responsive, and then adding weight to it unnecessarily. Apparently those pins are getting quite a bit of attention, but I mentioned my concerns to him.

[John Link]

Besides the weight problem, this gizmo changes the downward force on the saddle. Most pinless bridge designs accommodate the need for downward pressure as part of the design. This gizmo simply elevates everything for the convenience of not having pins and severely reduces downward pressure. Two thumbs down (three if I had three).

[John Link]

Here is a video of before and after installing the Power Pins:



Note that the guy says installing the Power Pins raised the action. This suggests his saddle is too small for the saddle slot, perhaps too tall as well. That is, in the normal pin mode the saddle is forced to lean forward from the pressure of the strings, effectively reducing its height. With the Power Pins rotation forward is eliminated, hence the strings are slightly higher.

In any case, the J-45 does sound better with the Power Pins. May be he could get the same result with a better fitting saddle. Or perhaps the Power PIns actually work. Or that the sound part of the video was tampered with.

[John Link]

Here is another comparison, this time with a D-18:




Clearly there is more sustain. Whether that is good or bad depends upon one's taste. Myself, I don't like it. There is just too much and previously played notes interfere with current notes.

He does show screen shots of the sound files he captured. The lower one, "after installation", shows what look to me like artifacts - the regularly spaced, square shouldered spikes that extend past the main body of the tracing. However, there is some of this in the upper tracing too. That said, the upper tracing is more organic looking, the way natural sound looks. It is possible the Power Pins, in producing all that sustain, simply generate these odd looking, overly regular tracings.

The source of this video appears to be Bigrock Engineering, the manufacturer of Power Pins.