My 5th Arch-top

[ship of fools]

Bruce how tall is that saddle from the bottom to the top of the strings. I found another folk who is familar with a few of your early builds here.ship

[Bruce Sexauer]

Ship; the saddle currently in the bridge is unlikely to be the one I use, but I do know my targets. I will expect the final saddle to be 3/8" tall in the center not including the PU. The bridge is adustable height, so I will do the woodwork to allow this to happen, leaving 3/32 or so of downward adjustment possible. The bridge height is the spec' thing in this case, and will be higher than others in my experience. The customer asked for 38 mm from the top to the strings, whereas I think of 28 to 32 mm as the norm. 38 is making me squirm, so i am going for 33 to 36 mm as this guitar's healthy range. Higher bridge height theoretically increases volume but also increases the likelyhood of choking the instrument. I have made the top slightly thicker than my norm to combat this tendency. This is why I strung it in the white.

Where are you that someone you know is aware of my early work? I would like to know more about my early work.

[ship of fools]

We were talking about two weeks ago while I was test driving another car and he mentioned that when he was playing he had a chance to try out a Bruce Sexauer guitar I believe he said it was either in the late 70's or might have been the early eighties and somethiung about the fretboard popping up on it and you fixing it back up for him ( to be honest I can't remembver if he was the original owner or if it was one of his friends, I'll check with him next time I see him )
I am sure you should be able to work a saddle in that tall, I recall playing a DAquisto Centuras that had a saddle a touch taller and it sounded great ( the D'Aquisto has a really weird sliding saddle to adjust string height ).Ship

[Bruce Sexauer]

When you said early I thought you meant my first ten years, when I was in British Columbia. Post BC (1978) I think of as my mature years, and post meeting Eric Schoenberg (1997) my late work. I do not recall having a fingerboard come up, perhaps you mean a bridge, which has happened more than once, especially before I went to HHG (late work).

Just so we are on the same page: On a guitar, the saddle is the part that last contacts the strings at the bridge end. The bridge is the entire unit. You are talking about bridge height, I think.

[ship of fools]

Thats what I meant, thanks and I'll see if he can remember which guitar of yours it was Bruce

[Bruce Sexauer]

I am in the approach pattern to leave for Woodstock on Thursday, and have decided not to touch the JZ until my return. The finish is complete, and the longer it sits the harder it will be to block out, but at the same time the less likely I am to burn through it.

I am seriously looking forward to meeting some of you who have said they plan hit Woodstock. This will be my first time in the area ever, and there are an increasing percentage of my customers in the vicinity. I will have with me the Catalpa OM, my JB-0, and a Cocobolo/Engelmann 00 just so there will be a more typical example of what I do. I will play these guitars in my concert at 11:30 Sunday morning.