HEAR A PIN DROP
The Evolution of Bridge Pins on Martin Guitars
C.F. Martin used many bridge designs on his guitars, and even those designed for gut strings in the earliest years incorporated bridge pins.
While the pin style bridge is generally associated with steel string guitars, you can see that Martin used pin style bridges with gut strings close to 100 years before introducing steel string guitars.
Here we trace the evolution of bridge pins used by Martin and his descendants through the years.
The "moustache" bridge, with a fretwire saddle, appears on early Stauffer and Martin "Stauffer Style" guitars.
These early pins were made of ebony with abalone dots.
A number of early Martin and Martin & Coupa guitars, such as this one, have the "badge" or "shield" style bridge, in either ebony or ivory, here seen with an added ivory pendant. Some ivory versions have a fretwire saddle similar to those on the Stauffer "moustache" bridges.
The earliest pin style pyramid bridge is only a slight step away from the "tie style" pyramid, with a similar "lipped" or scooped back.
These pins have the flat heads typical of the period.
This scooped back ivory pin bridge on this very early Hudson Street Martin is likely a replacement, but the decorative ivory and pearl pendants are most likely original from c. 1837. It's entirely possible, however, that this guitar did originally have a pyramid bridge.
These are later round back pyramid bridges in ivory, which appear until about 1919:
This 2 1/2 - 17 is from 1889:
Some beautiful bridge pins have "eyes".
At this point ivory pins are just beginning to replace wood pins on fancier Martin guitars.
1905 00-42S
During the boom years of the Hawaiian craze in the mid-teens, as Martin was struggling to keep up with demand, the company purchased "Chicago Style" bridges supplied by Lyon & Healy, with flat, raised wings, and a long, through-cut saddle.
Here we see the first use of plastic bridge pins.
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