Brittle-bronze, sometimes called by its German name, "glocken-messing" (bell-bronze) is an extremely hard and very dense alloy. Because of its composition, it is able to effectively store any energy that is transmitted to it, which is why--for centuries--it has been used as a material for the manufacture of bells.

A great deal of the energy that is generated by the striking or plucking of an acoustic guitar string is dissipated at the bridge and therefore wasted. The more solidly-built electric guitar utilizes its string energy much more effeciently than the lightly-constructed bridge area of even the finest acoustic guitar. However the John Pearse KingPins™ eliminate much of that energy loss, acting almost like small energy 'batteries' at the bridge-end of each string, allowing a more efficient use of the string energy--and greatly improving both sustain and tone.