B 458198, string deflections

[Ric Brekne]

David Love writes:

Judging from this picture the severe indentation and the slightly angled
indentation that leads to the new string position, it appears as if the
migrating pins were caused by very aggressive string seating.  In other
words, someone actually banged the string down so hard at the pin that 
they moved the pin.


That was my impression as well. 

I see little reason to suspect that the string angle in itself is going 
to be responsible for any major problems. And tho it may look nicer with 
nice pretty straight lines, thats not a reason to start recommending 
anything in particular to customers.  On the on the other hand, Kent 
does point out that there is more deterioration in the area with the 
most severe string angles. Ok... its a 30 + year old instrument that has 
seen no doubt many interesting experiences through its life.  And since 
I've seen many a instrument with similarily offset backlengths that do 
not exhibit  the kind of deterioration Kent relates I dont really see 
any reason to go out with warnings to customers about the condition.  
Certainly addressing the direct problem of hitch pin placement is not in 
the realm of a field tech.

Just my take.

RicB