Tom OBrien wrote:On a very mundane and practical note, a pinless bridge is a pain in the backside during a tricky setup. With a pin bridge you can easily take tension off the strings, pull the pins and get the strings out of the way so you can pull the saddle, file a fret, or whatever else. Not so with a pinless bridge. I've installed this kind of bridge on two different projects this year. I love the look and the owners love the ease of restringing, but it can be awkward and impractical under certain circumstances.
Amen to that!
When I do a set up on a traditional bridge, I use one set of strings and I can still play on them once the set up is done. I almost never break a string. But when I did the pinless bridge, since you have to almost completely remove the tension on the strings to do anything to the frets or saddle, I broke a few strings. It also takes longer because of having to remove them. Not an issue for me since I am not a production shop, but it does up the PITA quotient quite a bit.
Don't even get me started on the locking tuners I had to install on a koa dread. Those things break the strings almost each time you de-tune to adjust the saddle. I went through about 5 sets of strings getting that guitar set up.