Bridge caps

[Ron Nossaman]

>Ron:
>You're right on the manner in which this practice became generalized. At our 
>shop, though we have a drill press set up to take bridges to be drilled at 
>any angle and depth we like. After pinning (left slightly high, but totally 
>bedded in the bridge, i.e. all the way to the bottom), the tops are filed 
>down to a perfectly even height which should be no greater than the diameter 
>of the string which contacts it. This way, we get as much of the pin in the 
>bridge as possible, yet have just enough dimension left for evening out and 
>getting rid excess pin height which leads to energy-leaking. 
>PR-J

Paul,
I drill them a little deeper than necessary and drive to finished height,
which tends to be a little under 3mm. I entirely agree with getting as much
pin in the bridge as possible, but can't see a real concern for bottoming
in the hole, or the criticality of the pin height above the bridge. Where,
exactly, does energy leak TO if the pins are left higher than string
diameter? I can see that keeping them short should keep the resonant
frequency of the pin flag poling higher when the pins get loose in the cap,
but the string mass is part of that equation too, and the mass difference
of a millimeter or so of pin height isn't all that great. True, I suppose
it could make a few Hz difference, which could conceivably make a
difference in later false beating, but the same can be said about leaving
them longer. 'Splain this to me, will you? Where does the energy leak to?

Ron N