Personally, I could not change the saddle on any of my Martin guitars, that would be done by a qualifed Martin guitar luthier. I've never replaced the bridge pins, and now you've got me wondering if I should get both the pins and saddles replaced on my Martins. Both are less than 10 years old - D28 and GPC PA4.

@TC_Conner It's the most simple upgrades one can do. Your local music store should easily be able to handle it for you.

@@JohnnyRebKy I don't have a "local" music store, unfortunately. I have to take them to a music store in Pittsburgh, about an hour and a half from where I live. But I've taken them there before and trust them to do good work.

Yes, pretty much all Martins come with plastic pins.

Only the modern deluxe models come with the liquid metal pins. All others are plastic. I swapped for wood on my HD-28, but I am trying to decide if I like the metal or the wood better. Either is better acoustically than plastic, but almost everything I can find compares metal to plastic, That's 2 very distant ends of the spectrum. First time I changed the strings on my HD-28, I noticed they were bent badly from the pressure, so I got some ebony pins, and they sound great for just $12. Can't see spending over $100 on bridge pins, but no reason to change them out on the the OM, since they came with it.

My d28 authentic. 6,800$. Plastic pins lol. The plastic pins actually warp around the ball of the string and that bend locks the bridge pin into the bridge plate and the ball of the string. Thats pulls up on the bridge plate distributing energy throughout the top. You have to remove them a specific way to prevent damage to your bridge plate. Its all subtle difference with customization that you can do to a guitar to personalize it. If you want the martin sound. Thats it. Whether they were designed specifically for that? Or its a happy flaw that became a mechanical property of martin’s designs? My 1955 gibson j45? Plastic bridge pins. Never warped.

@@treatb09 my $1500 streetmaster 000-15 came with ebony pins

@@trey_dizzle4161 its about compression of the pin. How the the different woods change under humidity changes. The plastic Slotless pins are rather soft. Ebony, spruce, maple, or other various materials over the years all change differently under humidity changes. Aliphatic resin creeps alot, but hide glue doesnt. . Modern tech affords confidence. But the old world technology wont crack or warp as easily. The instruments today just dont sound as good. But the authentic sounds proper. The hid glue gives under tension rather than compromising the wood. Its expensive craftsmanship... but worth it if you will play the rest of your life. I could explain every single detail but itd take a book