Should I swap plastic bridge pins for bone or wood?

Evan

I’ll get some from Amazon (bone with abalone) - they’re about 13 quid and get decent reviews. They’re made by Crosby.

DavidR

IVORY PINS. Tips for the unwary.

Some pins advertised as ivory are plastic, but ivory coloured. 
Acoustic Guitar Bridge Pins Pegs-6pcs with 1pc Bridge Pin Puller Remover，Ivory : Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments & DJ

Mammoth ivory pins? All the way from from Russia? For £2 a set on Amazon UK? (Yeh right! This would fail the 'if it's too good to be true, it's not true' test IMO).
Set of six guitar bridge pins cream / ivory with pearl abalone inlay : Amazon.co.uk: Musical Instruments & DJ

I've never tried ivory. - mammoth, elephant or any other sort. I would expect it to be little different or worse than bone. Also, it shouldn't be for sale should it?
Dealing in items containing ivory or made of ivory - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

:-(

Mellish

@DavidR ; IMO no, ivory bridge pins (or in ANY form) should not be for sale, nor should FMI be harvested. It's just my opinion but I think it's wrong

ICBM

‘Ivory’ is a colour name as well as a material, so I don’t think the descriptions on Amazon are wrong - I don’t think anyone would expect to get actual ivory pins for that sort of price even if it was legal.

I don’t like the colour of mammoth ivory anyway. I know it’s fashionable that everything should look like it’s been gigged in a smoky bar since the 1930s now, but personally I’m not a fan of nicotine staining and mammoth ivory reminds me too much of it.

I really don’t understand the prejudice against “plastic” - not all “plastics” are soft crap, in fact some of the hardest and most durable materials are types of (usually thermosetting) plastics. For example you won’t find snooker balls made from ivory any more... because phenolic resin is a superior material in every way.

CE1

ICBM said:

‘Ivory’ is a colour name as well as a material, so I don’t think the descriptions on Amazon are wrong - I don’t think anyone would expect to get actual ivory pins for that sort of price even if it was legal.

I don’t like the colour of mammoth ivory anyway. I know it’s fashionable that everything should look like it’s been gigged in a smoky bar since the 1930s now, but personally I’m not a fan of nicotine staining and mammoth ivory reminds me too much of it.

I really don’t understand the prejudice against “plastic” - not all “plastics” are soft crap, in fact some of the hardest and most durable materials are types of (usually thermosetting) plastics. For example you won’t find snooker balls made from ivory any more... because phenolic resin is a superior material in every way.

It’s down to fashion and perception. Plastic is now seen s being cheap and therefore poor quality. If you look back in old magazines from the 20s and 30s plastic is a massive selling point on a wide range of products as it was the new wonder material. And as you very rightly point out some plastics are far superior at the job compared to traditional materials, but musicians as a whole aren’t always the most forward looking group of people.

artiebear

ICBM said:

artiebear said:

One of my guitars came equipped with "mammoth ivory" pins. I was totally ignorant of the fact for 3 years after receiving it. I actually found the whole thing a bit distasteful, worried that it was simply a way of describing ivory obtained from a much more contemporary creature ? ( I haven't been inclined to do much research in this area, others may know better ).

No, mammoth ivory is a real thing - there are thousands of dead mammoths in the permafrost in Siberia... maybe millions, since even a dead mammoth that was scavenged or completely decomposed would retain the tusks. It's apparently quite common to find them, and it's a legitimate source of the material. It's not hugely expensive as it can't be substituted for elephant ivory normally, since it's a very different colour due to ageing over thousands of years.

My '71 Martin D12-35 apparently has a walrus ivory nut, which I think is now illegal to sell as well - although I could be wrong. I'm not actually a fan - it tends to 'grab' the strings when tuning, in a way that hard plastic (eg Corian) and bone don't seem to... especially annoying on a 12-string. It's not quite bad enough to bother changing it, although I have thought about it. I'll never sell the guitar though, so it's not an issue from that point of view.

Thanks for the info. Not as horrific as I feared, but still just seems like another pointless attempt to add value without any tonal improvement.