Bridge Pin Problems

[IbanezDudeCK]

I just started restringing and installing a bridge truss on my 12 string that I bought used a couple months ago. When I tried taking the old strings off, the old pins WOULD NOT come out. It took some humidifying, a lot of pushing and a lot of wiggling with a pair of pliers to get most of them out where my good acoustic generally takes a slight push from the inside or gentle tug to remove. Even worse, I got brass pins to put in and they sit about 5mm above the top of the bridge. I'm pretty sure it's not a good idea to muscle a piece of tapered brass into the bridge so I'm assuming it needs a little modification. I know you can carefully us a round file or regular reamer in place of a bridge pin reamer, but how tight should the holes be and should there be a slight gap between the bottom of the pin head and the top of the bridge or should it fit flush against with a slightly snug fit around the edges? The pins are the round, flat top ones instead of the regular 'ball' top ones.

[Dean]

The pins should set in all the way.The string should bite with the pin all the way in.from what you described ,sounds like the guitar set for a while,and got dry.Making the wood shrink.You might try humidity to add moisture to the guitar, then recheck the pins and holes.Other then that, the pin holes just might need to be ream out.

[Workingman]

I would be careful about adding humidity. A guitar humidifier could help if the wood is dry. Typically holes in wood get larger when they are dry (the wood shrinks away from them) rather than bigger. I would look to see if I could get pins that fit before modifying the bridge.

[Dean]

+1 workingman ,don't know what I was thinking.