At 05:36 AM 11/25/2007, Stuart Walsh wrote: >Christopher Stetson wrote: >>Hi, all, >>I'm fairly new to this early guitar thing, and I just got a small parlor >>guitar. I'm wondering if anyone has any hints for mounting gut or nylgut >>strings to a pin-style bridge. I've tried just tying a knot, but it >>keeps popping out the pin about a 4th lower than target pitch. I've >>thought of putting a bead or the little washer from a steel string into >>the knot, but haven't yet tried it. Any advice or experience would be >>appreciated. >>Best, and keep playing. >>Chris. >> >> >I've got a 19th century guitar with pin-style bridge. But I'm using nylon >strings - though I'd like to try gut some time. > >Just tying a knot seems to work fine - after I got the hang of it. The way >I have done it on my guitar is to tie a simple knot at the end of the >string, then poke the string through the peg-hole in teh bridge, then put >the peg in, aligning the string with the groove on the peg. Then tighten >up slowly with pauses, sometimes pushing the peg back down.
I have a couple 19th-c. guitars. I usually use synthetics, but sometimes use gut. I simply knot as well: usually a simple double-overhand knot in unwound b and e' and a single on the rest. Gut can be trickier for the fine strings, but I can make it work in similar fashion to that described by Rob. Grooved pins are a relatively recent development. Both my 19th-c. guitars still carry old and un-grooved pins. I'm not certain if it makes much difference, but I suspect the un-grooved pins might be a little less prone to allowing knot ejection. Best, Eugene To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
