Why We Don't Leave Almost Well Enough Alone?

At the beginning of June, I bought a Gretsch G5122 double cutaway.
It's a very well built Korean import. Never mind that Fender is the hands upon the reins. There are a few touches that reflect choice of economy.
I need to find better tuners, that is for certain.

But in a quest for all things tone related. I bought a new bridge.
The original is a very serviceable Gretsch version of the Tune-O-Matic attached to a very cheaply finished base. The fit of the base to the guitar is touchy at best.
This is critical in the transmission of vibrations. This is an acoustic guitar.

I could have just bought a new base piece, rosewood or ebony.
Interesting note: the preferred base piece has less contact with the guitar body than the OEM base. Its feet are each half the size of the factory original part.

But I was intrigued by what is called the Rocking Bar Bridge.
It has no saddles to adjust intonation. It is a bar with appropriate grooves cut into it.The vertical holes by which it is attached to the base are larger than the studs allowing the bridge to move when the Bigsby is applied.
As it is solid, that too aids in transmitting the vibrations.

I learned a new trick as well for floating bridges. Anyone with an archtop will appreciate this one.
Pinning is a process whereby a luthier or tech pierces the surface of the guitar and plants studs which meet holes places into the bottom of the bridges base.
After this is done the only way to manipulate the intonation is by adjusting the saddles.
The bridge will never again slide across the surface of the instrument.
Well rather than permanently holing my guitar, I thought of the violin in the corner of my office.

Rosin!
Undoing the tension of the strings, removing the bridge and then applying rosin to the feet of the base.
Never mind that I replaced the bridge facing the wrong direction and discovered this only after having re-done the intonation and wondering why it was harder than normal.
[Sigh]
Once I had it correctly oriented and affixed to the guitar, I tuned and checked intonation. Perfect!
Rosin has just the frictional characteristics desired and yet will leave virtually nothing but dust behind as it ages and degrades. It won't harm a new poly finish.
Check with a luthier before applying it to a nitro finish, although I suspect it'll do no harm there either. After all, most decent violins are nitro finished.