An acoustic guitar without bridge pins. What?
First of all, to understand what this means, we have to know how a bridge works and its relationship to the guitar strings. The anatomy of an acoustic guitar is pretty straightforward. There is a body, a neck attached to it, six steel strings, six tuning pegs on one end of the neck and a bridge mounted to the top of the body. Each string is attached to a tuning peg on one end and the bridge on the other end. The strings are each tuned to a specific note and are under a tremendous amount of tension.
It’s how the strings are attached to the tuning peg and bridge that matters. The string is attached to the tuning peg by threading the string through a hole on the tuning peg and then wrapping it around several times to secure it. Now comes the bridge connection for the string. This is quite different. Traditionally, the string is attached to the bridge using bridge pins. Here is how it works.
One end of each string has a ball on it. This is the end of the string that connects to the bridge. The bridge is a flat piece of wood mounted on top of the body and has six tapered holes drilled in it. The ball end of the string is inserted through the tapered hole in the bridge and a tapered bridge pin is inserted to secure the string. What makes the string secure is the ball is trapped by the tapered pin on the underside of the bridge. Pulling on the string only makes the ball end wedge tighter to the tapered bridge pin. Quite a design and it’s been done this way for a long time.
Now, that you understand how a bridge pin works, what is a pinless bridge? First off, there are no bridge pins, but the bridge is also made different. Instead of tapered holes on the top of the bridge, there are six horizontal holes (sort of) in the side of the bridge. The holes actually go horizontal and then upward at a slight angle. The beginning of the hole is large enough for the ball end of the string to fit through and then transitions to a smaller hole just large enough for the string itself to fit through. As the string is tensioned, the ball pulls into the large hole and seats against the small hole securing the string. Now, you know what a pinless bridge is. By the way, this style of bridge is similar in concept to how an electric Les Paul guitar secures the strings at the bridge. Have an awesome day. Cheers!