String termination question

[Richard Brekne]

I'd say you have a very accurate basic picture of the standard bridge / 
bridge pin termination described below. 

Cheers
RicB



    Aha! This is the answer I was searching for. In fact it even did a
    lightbulb
    routine above my head during breakfast this morning. Reading your
    response
    just confirmed that what I had realized actually made sense.

    The problem isn't that we are limited to only one axis of
    termination at the
    agraffe/capo bar, it's the reason why we are forced into having two
    at the
    bridge. The bearing at the agraffe/capo bar is aggressive enough to
    define a
    positive termination point. But at the bridge we can't have that
    much "down"
    bearing due to the fact that it would flatten out the soundboard and
    prevent
    it from vibrating. So, with the need for lower downbearing at the bridge
    adequate termination is not possible without some help. Therefore,
    in order
    to create a definite termination at the bridge the use of two pins
    to put
    that "S" kink, or clamp, in the string was developed. This clamping
    provides
    a sideways bearing that's pretty much equivalent to the bearing already
    present at the agraffe/capo bar. Now we have good termination, but
    we are
    now also stuck with two axis of termination. One against the side of
    the pin
    and one against the notch in the bridge. Hence the need to be
    careful that
    both those axis are in alignment.

    Physics can be pretty cool sometimes. Thanks to all for the replies.

    -- Geoff Sykes, Los Angeles