[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by PeteyPower16

I heard on a YouTube video that eventually Micarta saddles go dead and need to be replaced.

Is this true?

Hi PP

In 1994 when my Olson arrived it had an LR-Baggs LB-6 saddle (a brass blank with 6 piezos embedded in it, topped with Micarta. The guitar sounded amazing.

10 years later I decided to have a new pickup/mic system installed (K&K trinity), and as part of that process the LB-6 was removed and replaced with a bone saddle.

The first chord I played after picking it up, I was amazed at how much better the guitar sounded acoustically. I was surprised at the improvement (because the Olson was already more amazing than any guitar I'd played or owned up to that time).

My gigging partner came over the next day, and he picked it up and immediately asked what I'd done to the guitar. Two more players repeated this scenario over the next week.

From that point on, I've replaced every Tusq (Taylor's saddle material) and Micarta saddle that came in a guitar with bone, and the change has always sounded better with me playing my styles of music.

At one point around the time I swapped the pickup system in my Olson, I was on the phone with James Olson and we were talking about possibly putting a new LB-6 in mine, and he said that since I'd bought my guitar, a different company had purchased Micarta and the Micarta was softer in the new saddles, (he was adjusting them before sending new guitars out).

Hope this contributes to the discussion…