Quote:
Originally Posted by SpruceTop
I made an adjustment to the saddle as I believe it was a bit too long and may not have enabled the saddle to sit all the way down on the saddle-slot floor, especially on each end. The Martin D-18 came from the factory this way with the saddle snug on both ends and not enabling any back-and-forth of the saddle along the length of the slot. This indicated to me that the ends of the saddle may not have been sitting on the slot floor. The tonal problem with the Ultra Tonic installation could be that the Ultra Tonic's 6th and 1st strings weren't getting their full dose of direct vibration through the saddle, bridge, and bridgeplate. Although I noticed this saddle snugness earlier, and with the Ultra Tonic being an SBT, I didn't do anything about it as I figured it wouldn't affect the ability of the Ultra Tonic to pick up the overall vibration of the guitar. Think about it though, the Ultra Tonic's main sensor sits right under the line of the saddle and thus is getting stimulated by direct vibrations through the saddle/bridge/bridgeplate sandwich. I removed about .015" inch from each end of the saddle while maintaining the rounded ends, and I put a short upslope on the bottom of each saddle end. It's now my firm belief that correct saddle fit is very important for obtaining the best performance from any pickup system be it an SBT or UST.
I'll post some sound files of what I hear as being an improvement in the Martin D-18/Ulta Tonic's tone. More to come ...
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If your suspicion is correct, the saddle fit might also have had some bearing on the HFN's tonal balance.