jarf (jess),
Kind of childish of you come from the Acoustic Guitar Forum and try to pretend to be someone else on the Collings Forum just for the sake of dogging my posts. You have become quite an expert in a short amount of time. I see from your posting on the Acoustic Guitar Forum you have generally taken on critical, negative tone with other posters. I generally respect the Collings Forum members. I am pretty sure you do not measure up to the rest of the group. If you stick around try to add something positive.

Geez, what fun

Anyway...

rick-slo's opinion is that pins do nothing.
sp1976's opinions is that pins make a significant difference.

I think you should leave it at that since neither one of you is wrong in your own specific case.

In "MY" case, I tried FWI pins, then swapped them back for the stock pins. I recorded the guitar each time I swapped pins and played in various styles. In the end, three professional audio engineers didn't notice much of a difference. It was impossible to match the performance each time, so there's some variance in that fact, but otherwise there was no appreciable improvement in tone, in this "specific" case.

This subject has been covered before at this forum and in the end it was decided that some like them, others do not.

Recently, for the past 3 weeks, I've been playing my 0002H with a set of D'Addario's bluegrass strings which is basically a combination of medium on the bottom 3 and medium light on the top. The bass was definitely louder but it lost definition. Last night I put on a new set of Martin SP-PB lights. I really like these strings and I'm noticing that it's really just the very bottom string that seems less defined than the other 5 strings. I'm going to have someone take a look at the angle of the bridge and see if there's any room for improvement there.

Thanks for the replies and I'll let you know what I find out.

quote:

try to pretend to be someone else on the Collings Forum just for the sake of dogging my posts.

I didnt know I had to legally use the same name here Rick. Im not dogging anything. What Elambo said is true, (This subject has been covered before at this forum and in the end it was decided that some like them, others do not.) It just grates at me so see people like you asserts your opinions as if they are facts. Did I say THESE WORK. PERIOD. ??? No. So stopping DOGGING what you in all liklehood have little experience with.
Love, JESSICA ya happy?

Yes Jessica,
I am happy you posted this last post. Keep up the good work here and elsewhere.
Your biggest fan, Rick

quote:

When reading the subject my first thought was to put cornflakes in your shorts.

It reminded me of a Cajun joke. Gaston and Boudreaux worked together and every day at lunch Gaston would put a small bag of potato chips in his shirt pocket and save them until last. Boudreaux liked to reach out and slap Gaston on the chest and crush his potato chips. One day before lunch the supervisor saw Gaston putting a stick of dynamite in his shirt pocket and asked him what he was doing. Gaston explained about Boudreaux and the potato chips and said that today he was going to blow his hand off!!

quote:

Originally posted by rocknrollrjm:
I'm thinking that maybe a change of bridge pins for my bottom two or three strings may get me there but I'm unsure which way to go.

I've tried lots of different strings and mixed them all up with some pretty interesting results but all of that has lead me to ask this question here.

Is there a certain change that you all would recommend that would add a certain crunchyness or harshness to the bottom end yet leave the mid-top end smooth and crisp. I'm looking for the bottom end to contrast that piano like tone that Collings are known for.

Thanks, any suggestions are appreciated.

A couple of thoughts.

First, have you heard your guitar from out front? Of course, there are only two ways to do this: Have someone else play your guitar, or record it using an accurate signal chain. My point, is that what we hear when we play a guitar is from above, and sometimes slightly behind, the face of the guitar. There's quite a difference in the tone from these two listening persepctives.

Second, what is your right hand doing to produce the bass notes? Are you flatpicking, fingerstyle? Perhaps some adjustement to your right hand chops would accomplish what you want, and improve your playing at the same time.

Stephen, thankyou for the thoughtful response. I have heard my guitar from the listeners perspective but it's true, it's hasn't been since I bought it and my desire to want more contrast out of my bottom end is coming from listening from behind the guitar. Maybe an alternative would be to record and take a listen.

I'm playing mainly fingerstyle but when I have used a flatpick, the difference is still there. I'm 100% sure that I have room for improvement on my technique but I haven't been able to do anything different to affect the tone in the way I'm saying.

I'm not sure if you read the post where I said that it's seeming more & more that it's really just my bottom E string that is lesser. I would say it's volume is 20% softer and by softer I mean volume and tonal shape, if you will.

I'll have to get set up to do some recordings and at the very least have someone do some playing for me.

quote:

I'm not sure if you read the post where I said that it's seeming more & more that it's really just my bottom E string that is lesser. I would say it's volume is 20% softer and by softer I mean volume and tonal shape, if you will.

I'll have to get set up to do some recordings and at the very least have someone do some playing for me.

Be careful, though. Recordings can be very misleading about matters of balance. Different mics and mic placements, even very slight adjustments, can have an enormous effect on the tonal palette of the recording.

an interesting progression on this issue that I thought I'd share.

I took my 0002H into Westwood Music, where I bought it, and got with Fred. I told him what my objective was, while we were talking he handed it to a guy sitting on the couch who proceeded to play things and make music with that little guitar that I just couldn't believe. But...my experience of that bottom E string remained.

Fred suggested using an Elixer bottom E and he proceeded to put it on. That was about 3 weeks ago and I must say that the percussive, thumpy nature of the Elixer strings added quite a bit of thumb to it. While it did lose the clarity, especially in the harmonics, I think it did help and this loss is less noticeable than on the higher strings.

I think it will also help come to a conclusion when I switch back to the regular bottom E after playing with the Elixer for the past 3 weeks.

Oh, by the way, the player on the couch was Bernie Leadon, founding member of The Flying Burritos and eventually The Eagles, boy could he play. I had mixed emotions, I almost felt bad that I couldn't make use of that instrument the way he did. I'm workin' on it.

The easiest way that I've found to change the tone of whatever guitar I'm playing is to swap picks. Obviously that applies to flatpicking. For fingerstyle, I leave well enough alone - swapping fingers is out of the question.