There have been a few posts recently where bridge pins have come up in the comments, so I thought I'd just share my recent experience.
Yesterday I changed the nasty plastic bridge pins on my Mini Koa for a nice set of Ebony ones. The pins I used were the standard Taylor replacement bridge pins that you can find online on the Taylor store, or in my case from a local store who sells original Taylor parts. This is a cheap upgrade - replacement parts only cost the same as a few beers...
For information, these pins can be found all over the place, and there is nearly always a 'disclaimer' stating that the pins are good for the 300 series and up. Well they are perfect for the Mini, fitting snugly in the bridge holes, and the pin heads, though fractionally larger than the plastic ones, sit perfectly on the bridge.
My pin change was primarily to improve the aesthetics on my Mini - the shiny plastic pins stick out like a sore thumb, whereas the ebony ones compliment the look of the bridge area. Actually I'm quite surprised that Taylor ships the Mini with plastic bridge pins - the difference in cost between plastic and ebony is negligible, whereas the aesthetic improvement with the ebony pins is significant.
As for musicality, I'm informed that this upgrade will improve the sustain of the guitar. To be honest, I didn't notice any difference, but then I didn't pay too much attention to the way the guitar sounded before the upgrade. So I'll defer to the opinions of those who've researched it more than I have...
Anyway, here's a before and after photo. As usual, apologies for my photographic technique - this time I've managed to hi-light the fact that I didn't clean the bridge area before replacing the bridge pins :-)
Before - those nasty black plastic pins...
And after - with the lovely Ebony pins...
