Bridge Pin Shootout: Does Material Matter? | Plastic Metal Ivory | Acoustic Guitar Test 

Ebony for me. I like the combination of Bone nut and saddle with Ebony pins.

Who else plays along with you guys on the intro? I do. It's one of my favorite parts about your videos- you start with a play along and the viewer can join in. It's a great way to practice AND demo the instruments showcased. Please never stop that part of your productions.

Love that they are honest and say that it sounds amazing but the looks would stop me using them. This is why guitars are so personal.

When I changed to brass pins on my Alvarez baritone guitar, gosh, what a difference that made from the standard issued ones. The sound is now very much clearer, brighter sounding, with a more pronounced ring to it. A definite improvement.......

Martin Liquid Metal and the Ebony for me were the fullest sounding, and the plastic was a huge tonal difference. Great video guys !

Interresting comparison video!! In trying different types of bridge pins without any big difference in tone... I decided to not use any bridge pins at all... Instead I drilled 6 string size holes through a 1/4 inch Wood Dowel and have the strings going through it and placed the Wood Dowel on the underside of the bridge.... And that got me the best Volume so far..... And I am also using medium gauge strings to minimize string breakage and offcourse to Maximise Volume... 😀

I have ebony bridge pins in 4 of my 5 acoustic guitars; the other has Tusq "Presentation" pins. I get the ebony pins from Journey Instruments for about $7.99 a set, and they work great.

This is a true to life way of determining if bridge pins sound different or the same . Great Guitars ✨✨✨✨✨✨🇺🇸🇨🇦☮️

Ebony for me

Hi - A believer in material-differences here and I personally tune with various materials after each individual string and each individual guitar. Typically with brass in the bottom, then some mid-bone and bone, plast or wood for the top. I sense you accept the thought that it matters. However it's best heard when the strings begin to fade. New strings shout too loud to really allow the nuances across. The final strumming told a lot. Plastic lost while brass & bone were blooming. Thanx for testing. Keep having fun

Perfect timing! I’m reconditioning an old MIJ Alvarez that I recently bought. It came with mismatched, stained old plastic pins. I decided that this was an opportunity to upgrade, but I couldn’t decide which type to get. I’m going to listen to your A-B-C-D-E-F (whew!) comparison a couple more times with good phones, but my ears are pulling me toward ebony. Gentlemen, as always, thanks for these interesting and informative videos. Keep ‘‘em coming! (Build that center block acoustic!)

Thank you for another great and helpful analysis. A step in a neverending chase of the "ideal" sound. Looking forward to the next Alvarez video.

I put ebony pins and bone saddle and headstock nuts on my AJ60SC. I made a big difference, it projects better across the the tonal spectrum.

Hey guys, Thanks for another great informative video. We all appreciate the hard work you put in to making these. Always something new to discover and fun to watch.

I've been a instrumentalists for over 40 years and have always used bone for the nut, bridge saddle and bridge pins... Either Buffalo, Cow or Camel bone, but whatever I choose I keep consistent with all 3 areas of the instrument, consistently is the key... I find bone gives a warmer, earthy sound with a great natural response once the instrument is set up correctly... Another element that I believe changes response is Machine Heads, there has been a lot of debate about this, however I can honestly say I've changed out Machine Heads from cheap to good quality ones like Grover, Gotoh or Schaller and found a definite change in tone... For starters a good set of quality Machine Heads will help stability with tuning the instrument, the high precision in engineering means no rattles or buzzing and finally I believe the extra weight of the quality Machine Heads at the headstock inproves the sustain, although some say it only subtle differences in sustain, I've changed out Machine Heads on Acoustic/Electric Guitars, Banjos, Ukuleles and Mandolins and noticed improvements in all 🎶🎶🎶🎸🪕

Clearly Martin liquid metal and especially the Ebony result in a bigger sound, slightly more amplified and with better definition, both with individual notes and/or strumming. But I was really surprised to hear such a distinctive degradation of the sound (e.g. less volume, not so well pronounced) with the plastic pins which was somewhat expected I guess. Great video thanks Alvarez!

I listened with my studio headphones and studio monitors quite a few times and one thing that was noticeable was the plastic pins were quieter. After listening a few times the difference is quite subtle but I liked the ebony pins probably best. The liquid metal made the guitar louder and boomier. I use bone nuts and saddles on all my acoustics and wont be changing them. Sound is subjective and what one person likes someone else doesn't.

Liquid Metal and Ebony sounds almost similar, then comes Tusq and Bone. Considering the availability and price, I would go for Bone

two different guitars played by two different players and hands, in different ways (obviously!). FANTASTIC COMPARISON guys... excellent

Good video - thanks. Was surprised how bad the plastic ones sounded. Everything else sounded better! Ebony sounded best to me with individual strings being played. Strumming wise anything except the plastic was good.

You would need a audio spectrum anylizer to truly determine the difference

13:15 little anecdote. easiest to watch the video i made, but, i bought some "olympia" strings, that i'd never heard of until a few weeks ago, and i put them on my 66 j45, they were decent enough but the strings and the guitar weren't particularly special, and back in the case it went for a while. then it's turn came up again to be played and it blew me away, it sounds at the moment, better than it ever has in the forty five years i had this guitar. same thing happened with the maton i have, strung it up, played it, okay but nothing special, then it's turn to be played came up again, and to be honest i was even thinking of selling it, and bingo - it too sounds amazing. guitars have minds of their own.

I love the wood pins that come in the Alvarez Masterworks series ... They look better than bone or plastic in appearance . I want to say they sound better but I have no idea .

Another great and helpful video, and I always look forward to your videos. Very interesting and entertaining and I love that you did one of the comparisons on the FMY66HD, my new favorite guitar. However I am happy with the ebony pins in my two Yairi's and my Alvarez Mahogany parlor. Thanks again and keep it up.

Always love the lessons learned from watching Alvarez TV. I have installed liquid metal pins on my DYMR70SB and it went from a cannon to a howitzer. For fingerpicking it is a perfect fit. Might project a little too much with heavy pick use, but they are staying on my guitar for my style of playing. In addition to the booming effect, the liquid metal pins allow each string to ring true and long.

Ok I’m going to say right off that I wear hearing aids. The differences in all of the pins were very subtle to my old ears. I’m not sure I could pick out any one better than the other but I think the bone was my favorite. They seemed cleaner to me. Saying that though the ebony look the best. I just purchased one of your Alvarez MG75ce models. I would like to see you compare the cedar top with your other models. I really like the warm sound, but my ears have trouble with the highs anyway. Thanks for doing these videos.

Bone VS Ebony VS Brass nut?

I like wood pins in my wood guitars. I have a CF that I’ve got Brass pins in. But it’s a parlor for all intents and the purposes. And it adds volume. I used to use them in my old 5013 with 10-50 gauge strings years ago. It was every bit as loud as wood pins with 12-53’s. In listening to the comparo. I liked the ebony best.

Wonderful video. Love your acoustics.

I love watching, and listening, to you two play at the beginning of the videos. Oh, and I enjoy those, too!

I've tried several materials looking for the right one. Of course it depends on more than one factor, but I like how the rosewood and ebony pins works great in combination with bone saddle and nut. But in the other hand, I've tried ebony saddle and nut as well, if I want a darker sound. But in matter of tastes there's nothing written. Thanks for sharing this video!

My wife patiently listed to me describe your guitar videos. THAT is an accomplishment!

Came back a day later and listened to the video again. My perceptions stayed the same. MIssing, though, is Bison/Buffalo horn and fossilized ivory. You can get fossilized ivory in either walrus or mammoth varieties. Would also like to hear comparisons between bone, tusq, and fossilized ivory saddles.

Thank you. Enjoyed. I liked Ebony and then Tusq. Love my Alvarez Lefty Parlor and Baritone

Ebony, then Tusq for myself. One of my guitars, Oregon Breedlove, has an ebony string though bridge and I've wondered if it isn't better to skip the pins all together. Sure makes restringing easier. It's sitka on myrtlewood and is completely different in voice than my Alvarez cedar on acacia. Love them both.

Wow I didn't think the difference would be that audible! Another great video 🔥

Surprisingly, I liked the sound of the brass pins. I thought it would be more metallic, but it sounded warm and round to my ear with good note seperation. Maybe since the strings are metal and the pins are metal, there is less of a dampening effect on the vibration...maybe brass pins allow a more direct transference of the string vibration into the top, verses a softer non-metallic material? I don't care for the aesthetic of brass pins either.

Nice comparison guys. I have a dark mahogany guitar, has a nice deep low end tone, was thinking of going for brass pins then it'll brighten up top end but hopefully keep the deep tone as well.

I've been experimenting with pins for about 40 years, and, of course have heard a lot of argument. Apart from appearance, I have never found a convincing difference between them. Now it may just be I have tin ears (or plastic?), but here are a couple of thoughts. It's generally agreed that lighter bridges convey sound better than heavier ones, meaning that the guitar is more responsive. What is not agreed is how big a difference in bridge weight or density leads to a discernible difference in responsiveness. However, changing out pins won't change the overall wei ghtof the bridge by much (the weight difference between pins is a small percentage of the total bridge weight). Also the sound is being transferred via the saddle, further reducing the impact of bridge material and pin material. Finally. there are several pinless bridge designs on high end guitars which seem to work just fine. That said, the saddle material makes a massive difference. If you get hold of a bunch of saddles (say all bone) and drop them onto a hard surface (I use a granite countertop) they all sound different. Since this is the point at which the sound is transferred to the top, that's where the smart money is. However, as I said in response to a different post, what really counts is if YOU prefer one to another. You'll be happier with the sound and you'll play better because of it.

Holy buckets! The difference between the liquid metal and brass pins was nuts! The liquid metal had a very full sound! I am a big fan of ebony, but would try Tusq if they offered unslotted pins.

Tusq for me. thanks for another great video.

I love this video and I'm a huge fan of Alvarez but did I miss the part when you mention the strings you're using in each comparison. Not to hate on the content but I think it'll really come down to the guitar chosen and string selection of each individual guitarist.

You could always paint the heads of the brass pins. Those mahogany models remind me of the old Cris Craft speed boats.

Hey guys....informative video, but what would really indicate true differences between pins would be some type of audio analyzing software.....the human ear can only discern so much....

I actually like the sound of the liquid metal. To me it was a toss up between them and the bone. One thing I got from this, is I only really heard a difference when it came to the plastic pins. There was a big decrease in sound and clarity to me, where all the others were pretty close in sound and tone.

Thanks for the comparison. I do wish you also demo'd rosewood pins. Seeing those online and I'm curious

Those Alvarez guitars sound amazing!!’ Gotta get one now. Thanks guys! Lol

I had several guitars and always used bone or tusq nut and saddle and Martin or Elixir strings. For all mahagony guitars used rosewood or for the second one with blackwood bridge ebony pins, for spruce-rosewood guitar with rosewood bridge I used rosewood pins and interesting for spruce top - pau ferro back and sides guitar with rosewood and the second one with laurel bridge obtained for both best sound with some brass pins. This is my personal experience with the bridge pins. Greatings.

Bone and Ebony sound the most natural to me. The brass/Liquid Metal /TUSQ sound brighter in that order.

Awesome video!

Great video!

love the comparisons and tests with different materials! the only thing i would ask for is that you play some lead lines or some scales so we can hear the sounds on different frets positions on the fingerboard. keep it up guys. i bought 3 of your guitars in the last year

Great content! Appreciate the time and effort put into this presentation! I liked the Tusq and Ebony the most. Perhaps because I'm used to that sound ( my Furch Yellow Master's Choice Gc-CR has ebony and my others have Tusq. Well definitely Tusq nut and saddle actually need to double check the pins. But in any case those were my preferences for this comparison. I would definitely love to see a demonstration of those types of material for the nut and saddle. While my Furch has Ebony pins, the nut and saddle on my guitars are all Nubone/ Tusq.

Ebony is best for my ears fwiw…might just have to invest in some! Those Martin Liquid Metals shone out too.

Have been messing with my Martin 000 28 EC ,Taylor 810 , and Gibson Maestro and have done bone and wood pins in all. The guitars sound best to me with ebony,,,, too bright with bone... one guitar worked on was an Alvares MF 610..... My original PLASTIC MARTIN PINS WORKED BEST IN IT. SOUNDED AMAZING WITH those pins and Daddario white coated strings.. Slotting the pin hole makes all sound better, the pin string fully rests on the bridge. Pins do make a difference good to have several sets to try out, most are in the range of the price of strings. $10 to $40 all make a difference, each guitar and ear is different. play around and make your guitar better, takes a while but is fun......................

Great episode, I made 6 individual antler saddles and bought bone pins for my 1989 Washburn Stephen Davies Lexington extended cutaway 6 string and it woke it up. Was fun as well

I have been using pallet wood bridge pins in my D28. I haven’t tried any comparison but they seems to have a good sound. Much better than plastic.

FYM66HD, absolutely my dream guitar! Great video!

Great comparison! I have found that If I make absolutely sure that the ball end of the string makes really firm contact with the underside of the bridge plate, the pin material makes less difference. Most factory guitar pins need a little fitting (especially the big strings E,A, sometimes D?) before they stop binding on the sides of the strings. That said, I use Tusq pins for simplicity and consistency. The plastic ones can be fitted properly, (and they sound better when they are) but I feel like they are a bit dead. This demo really brings this out.

I put brass pins in my Alvarez Baritone and notices a difference in tone with them. The Baritone was less muddy and more bright with the Brass pins. In my Sitka/Rosewood guitars, I like the tone that Bone pins give.

Ebony, then tusq, then bone. Really noticed a drop off in volume with the plastic.

Maybe it's all in the color: black bridge pins absorb sound, and white pins reflect sound back into the bridge and top?

Thank you guys...now I have learn much from your movie..... love bone sound but Ebony sonds good too !🤞🤞🤞💝💝💝

Liquid metal by a decent margin. Pick one for any position after that as they are all very close. Followed in last pace by the plastic pins which sound adequate enough to be the stock pins that the guitar comes with. The guitars sound great. I'm really impressed by your guitars and love the channel.

You can paint the brass pin heads black

Ebony for me guys , great video's always !

Brass pins Without Doubt, looks don't come into it, but sound does, I have them in 2 of my Acoustic's 😊😊😊

Thanks for doing the work! I enjoyed the comparison. All very similar. To my ears, or my speaker system perhaps, the liquid metal had the same lows and more highs and more sustain. Bone was next. Plastic was the only one that was really distinguishable. I could see the benefit of ebony on a bright guitar. Tusq was almost exactly the same as bone. I suspect I could not tell the difference blindfolded.

I think i prefer the ebony ones, but it's not too easy to determine the differences between some of them! Does somebody know which is the size of the pins for the Alvarez guitars? I'm thinking about buying an AGE95CESHB and I don't know if the Planet waves PWPS1 could fit OOB or if they'd need some additional work to make them fit. Thank you for the videos !! they're really helpful

I use ebony and tusq and like the texture of both. In my opinion the Liquid Metal sounded a little muddy. I moved away from bone several years ago. Never used plastic or brass. My Dy84’s have tusq in them, my Martin and my DY68 have ebony in them. My Takamine Limiteds don’t require pins as the bridge is a different setup.

3 of my accoustic guitars take bridge pins . I fitted Ebony, Bone and Brass pins on them ,it altered the tone and improve sustain on all of them. I recommend doing this it's the cheapest way to improve the tone on your guitar. Ebony gives it a mellow woody tone on the bass strings while sounding pleasant on the trebles, Bone sharpens the trebles while having a full pleasing bass , increasing the volume and resonance. Brass makes the trebles sound really sharp and increases the sustain and volume considerably. If you dont like the shine on bell brass pins just paint them black.

Thank you for the demonstration. Just curious, are all these bridge pins unmodified (for example, beveling the bottom of the pin for better seating of the ball end of the string)? Also, are these slotted or unslotted bridge pins? The guitars sound great!

Hello thanks for your video, i prefer the sound of brass, but it's possible to have the reference or the brand of it ? Do you think it's possible to install on the Taylor gs mini ? Thank you 😊

Great idea 😎👍

Sometimes things like this seem goofy to me. All this fuss over a minor guitar part ends in a 2% difference in sound (maybe) while tweaking any of the dozens of knobs most of us have on our rigs provides a 0.01% to 99.9% difference in sound.

Ok here is how I hear it liquid metal first put I’m not paying for that small bi of difference Brass next I can’t feel it but I hear it Closely Next is Tusq I already am an Ebony player but I have a guitar or two to try something different. I’ll go one Brass(as fitting a visual design I can find) And one Tusk Great video Easy to hear Great sound engineer! Perfect guitars! I also appreciate hearing the same model guitar under the same conditions right next to each other I’ve never heard that before and I’m amazed, even though I knew it was a thing, to hear the difference sounds from two identical guitars. Kudos to The Maker…

Another informative and entertaining video. I wonder if in this video you had played all the pins without telling us which was which could we have distinguished the difference. Then in a follow up with the same video labeling each to tell us which was which. Not sure I could have heard enough difference between the $30 set and the $170 set to make it worthwhile. I do think I heard a distinct difference with the cheap plastic pins that I did not like.

Hi, great test about materials, but slotted vs unslotted ? thank you

I have two Alvarez guitars . A DY 45, and a 12 dtring, and along with my Martin D-15 I've always used Rosewood pins. They soun the best and bring out the Mahogany. They are not new and have openened up. Thanks.

What a great presentation..the Ebony was clearly the winner for me. The brass was an interesting sound but esthetics are not there. Neither is the Martin Liquid Metal imho. Thanks for making these comparisons of which I have long wanted to do on my collection of Alvarez and Martin guitars. Well done

#1 Martin liquid metal #2 Brass #3 Tusque #4 Ebony #5 Bone #6 Plastic

I watched the entire video and the guitars all sound great no matter what bridge pins are installed. Anyway, I decided to try bone bridge pins in my Taylor GS mini replacing the plastic ones that were in it. I really haven't noticed any difference in sound or sustain. Wondering if I should try some metal ones as I would like to get a bit more sustain but avoid it becoming too tinny sounding.

My 12 string did a bone saddle and notched the bridge with solid pegs, tryed bone, too brite, ebony was better but i landed on rosewood pegs. I found out how much they do make a differencein tone.

The liquid metal and ebony for sure!

Thank you for your videos. I’ve done a similar comparison. Plastic pins lessen the sound quality. I DO like the brass pins in my Martin D15 and 00015. Great clarity and sustain For my Eastman and Alvarez I use Tusk. Better sounding to ME, than Ebony. Thank you

What about the multi colored metal picks that match Daddario string colors. I personally like the tusk black as inexpensive and sound great. Love what y’all are doing. Educating people on how to buy and maintain your instrument. Ho about one on cleaning and polishing . Warm washcloth then polish or. Cleaner wax then polish. Maintaining the finish

Very nicely done. (Subbed)

I like the sound of the brass pins too but I think I would paint the heads black to match the bridge.

I use Tusq bridge pins. They definitely make a difference.

Can you talk about slotted vs. unslotted pins and where you use each? Shouldn't the slot be in the bridge, not the pin?

Ebony sounds the best for sure. Big, full sound.

Love ur videos. You inspire me to pick up one of my guitars and play instead of watching guitar videos on RU-vid

What about the argument I heard from a luthier, that grooved pins lead to the ball sitting 1/2 on the bridge plate and 1/2 in the groove of the pin - thereby interfering with the transfer of acoustic energy via the plate?

To me both the liquid metal and bone had virtually the same sound and sustain length. I'm just wondering though, since I've never used bone pins, do they have a tendency to crack or check over a period of time than any of the others when you consider that you remove and replace strings periodically (for me every couple or three months) to maintain their sound. Of course the pins are routinely taken out to do that ..... whereas the bone on the bridge and/or nut are normally NOT something that is removed in order to accomplish restringing, and so when they crack it's exceptional. Anyone who uses bone pins know the answer to the cracking question? And do you have to take exceptional care when removing them?

What size and taper bridge pins for a modern Yairi? In my case, a DYM60HD which came with ebony unslotted pins but I don't have a good way to measure them. Liquid metal pins sounded the most metallic and brash, others had subtle differences although I'm now curious to try brass on some strings. I do feel I can get greater differences at low cost and time by trying plectrums/picks of different materials and shapes, even with how I hold the pick.

Does it make a difference if the bridge plate is slotted and modified to used non-slotted bridge pins?

Brass and Tusq are both nice, for different ends. Liquid was loud, but a bit messy. It seemed to send harmonics of each string into conflict with their neighboring string. I bet if you soaked the brass in vinegar, it would make a really nice patina that gives better aesthetics.

Tone test timestamps: 14:36 - Brass 14:43 - Tusq 14:50 - Martin Liquid Metal 14:58 - Bone 15:05 - Plastic 15:13 - Ebony Strumming timestamps: 15:21 - Brass 15:28 - Tusq 15:34 - Martin Liquid Metal 15:40 - Bone 15:47 - Plastic 15:53 - Ebony

The Liquid Metal pins sound Massive. How? Why? They clearly make the sound crisper, sharper and louder, all-out attack. The Brass seemed muddier and fuzzier in the mid-range in comparison. Ebony seemed to ring really well, and plastic was the least crisp, less loud, less clear, and faded out the soonest. Very noticeable differences between Liquid Metal and Plastic, in terms of sound performance. The others just weren't distinct enough for me to separate them from each other.

Surprised by the results: 1 - Liquid Metal 2 - Brass 3 - Ebony 4 - Bone 5 - Tusq