Pinless bridge procedure please

[Dave Bagwill]

I know that Herman and perhaps others of you make pinless bridges, along the lines of Lowden.

I would love to see some pictures - worth a 1,000 words! - showing your procedure for drilling the holes for the ball ends of the strings.

Thanks in advance!

Also - I find this idea intriguing - do you see any problems with it?

[Herman]

Excellent looking bridge, but without the removed wood it looks heavy to me.
But making it would not be a big issue. Just a tiny router bit to make the grooves and some drills to go through, and countersink the balls-end.

About my routine:
-first I rout the saddle slots.
-Then I make the outlines of the bridge.
-Then I rout the depth behind the saddle down to 4mm from the bottom of the bridge.
-With a round-top cutter this slot is routed to a round form , you could chisel and sand that.
-The tail side of the bridge is deepened with a round rasp, so that the ball-ends fall into it.
-After laying out the string spacing I mark the string line up .
-Then drill with a 2mm drill bit, from intended ball position slightly upwards to the saddle direction.
-I do the latter by hand. Looks not machined, but no one will notice.
-Then make it smooth and shiny.
Well, that is about my way.
Hope it helps a bit
Herman

[Herman]

This is how it turns out for me:

[Carl Dickinson]

Dave,
Here's a couple of links to the procedure I've used for 6 strings and an acoustic bass. Used my drill press at its highest speed, various 1/8" router bits and a HF milling vise to accomplish it. https://jennybiddle.com/day-23-design-the-bridge/ and https://jennybiddle.com/day-24-bridge-engineering/

[Dave Bagwill]

Thanks fellers. Food for thought.

[peter havriluk]

I made one guitar with a pinless bridge (one guitar ago). Now I know why guitar bridges use pins. SERIOUS PITA to adjust frets or saddle. For me, one and done.

[Carl Dickinson]

You're right Peter, unless you slot for the strings like the first picture that Dave had in his question. I'm in the process of making two more and will use the same design as I did before but will add slots graded to the string diameters.