I tie an ordinary knot in the string (nylgut or gut trebles) and then put on a small homemade thin leather washer (small - about 3 to 4mm sq small enough to go through the pin hole) before putting it into the pin hole. This also provides some protection to the soft belly underneath (usually there's no reinforcing type plate under the bridge on these early instruments) - I know of no evidence that this was done in earlier times. I then hold it down whilst bringing up to pitch. MH
"Eugene C. Braig IV" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: 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 --------------------------------- For ideas on reducing your carbon footprint visit Yahoo! For Good this month. --
