X7 with bone saddle

[Barb1]

Hi folks,
I just had a bone saddle made for my X7 and I am very satisfied with the change in tone. The bone saddle made the guitar more balanced as it tamed the bass and made the trebles sing. I also changed the strings I was using from D'addario EJ16 to Newtone Master Class 80/20 (12-52) and I am extremely happy with the sound.
The X7 is a great guitar!
Barb

[bsman]

I put a bone saddle pretty quickly on mine to raise the action a bit, and it had the added benefit of improving the tone.

[bsman]

I also started using .13s which beefed up the tone as well.

[Aspiring]

I have bone on my X7 Nylon. I also didn't care for how quickly the stock saddle was getting grooves in it

[Barb1]

Aspiring,
I have a bone saddle on my X7 Nylon too. In fact, I have put bone saddles on all but one of my carbon fiber guitars.
Barb

[mountainmaster]

Originally Posted by Aspiring

I have bone on my X7 Nylon. I also didn't care for how quickly the stock saddle was getting grooves in it

The nylon strings were cutting grooves? How is that possible?

I actually had to make one of the grooves slightly deeper on my X20 nylon because it was not keeping the string in place, which resulted in an uneven string spacing.

[Aspiring]

Originally Posted by mountainmaster

The nylon strings were cutting grooves? How is that possible?



I actually had to make one of the grooves slightly deeper on my X20 nylon because it was not keeping the string in place, which resulted in an uneven string spacing.

I was shocked as well. It was lightly grooved when I received it from the previous owner but that and the fact that I wanted to eliminate the stock element pickup meant I needed to replace the nut anyway and I went with bone. I had an x7 steel string before that which also wore grooves remarkably which also lead to my decision to just ditch the tusq immediately.

[esimms86]

Originally Posted by Barb1

Hi folks,
I just had a bone saddle made for my X7 and I am very satisfied with the change in tone. The bone saddle made the guitar more balanced as it tamed the bass and made the trebles sing. I also changed the strings I was using from D'addario EJ16 to Newtone Master Class 80/20 (12-52) and I am extremely happy with the sound.
The X7 is a great guitar!
Barb

Your post has me wondering about switching to a bone saddle on my X30. Nobody ever complained about the X30 not having enough bass, however, it requires an adjustment in technique to give it a less boomy sound.

[Barb1]

esimms86,
Give it a try and keep the original saddle so that you can put it back in if you don't like the bone. It is a win win situation.
For me the bone saddle brightened up the tone of the guitar and I felt that I could darken it if I wanted to with a change in strings. That being said, I do still have the original saddle.
Barb

[mountainmaster]

Originally Posted by Aspiring

I was shocked as well. It was lightly grooved when I received it from the previous owner but that and the fact that I wanted to eliminate the stock element pickup meant I needed to replace the nut anyway and I went with bone. I had an x7 steel string before that which also wore grooves remarkably which also lead to my decision to just ditch the tusq immediately.

Now I understand. Light grooves prevent the nylon strings from sliding sideways over the smooth tusq material. These grooves are made by Emerald in the factory.
And as I mentioned, on my X20 one groove wasn't even deep enough to do that job until I fixed it.

I assume sideways sliding is not an issue with bone because it is a rougher material.

So it is not the nylon string cutting through the tusq as I feared. Nylon, unlike steel, should be not be able to do that.

[Aspiring]

Originally Posted by mountainmaster

Now I understand. Light grooves prevent the nylon strings from sliding sideways over the smooth tusq material. These grooves are made by Emerald in the factory.
And as I mentioned, on my X20 one groove wasn't even deep enough to do that job until I fixed it.

I assume sideways sliding is not an issue with bone because it is a rougher material.

So it is not the nylon string cutting through the tusq as I feared. Nylon, unlike steel, should be not be able to do that.

I do also use high tension flurocarbon strings by preference over traditional nylon.

I was unaware that they grooved the saddle at the factory so that may explain what I saw. I will say that I am absolutely shocked at how much and how quickly the grey tusq saddle on my steel string x7 wore grooves and I have not seen similar on bone saddles that I have on most of my other guitars.

I will also add that my KoAloha guitalele which comes with a normal tusq saddle and is strung with normal tension flurocarbon guitar strings tuned to terz is starting to show very slight grooving in the saddle and it did not come from the factory with any.

I'm curious about the grooving though. I have one classical that is intentionally grooved and the two that are not. I can see the grooving helping with intonation.

[esimms86]

Originally Posted by Barb1

esimms86,
Give it a try and keep the original saddle so that you can put it back in if you don't like the bone. It is a win win situation.
For me the bone saddle brightened up the tone of the guitar and I felt that I could darken it if I wanted to with a change in strings. That being said, I do still have the original saddle.
Barb

Thanks Barb1, I think I’ll give it a try.

[JackDaniel]

Originally Posted by Barb1

Hi folks,
I just had a bone saddle made for my X7 and I am very satisfied with the change in tone. The bone saddle made the guitar more balanced as it tamed the bass and made the trebles sing. I also changed the strings I was using from D'addario EJ16 to Newtone Master Class 80/20 (12-52) and I am extremely happy with the sound.
The X7 is a great guitar!
Barb

Sounds interesting but my thought is this: dont carbon guitars tend to sound too bright to begin with? Isnt that the complaint people have when they compare to wood guitars? I realize trying to describe tone using words is tricky though so I suspect i'm missing something of what it actually sounds like.

[KevinH]

Originally Posted by JackDaniel

Sounds interesting but my thought is this: dont carbon guitars tend to sound too bright to begin with? Isnt that the complaint people have when they compare to wood guitars? I realize trying to describe tone using words is tricky though so I suspect i'm missing something of what it actually sounds like.

I can't speak for other CF guitars since the only one I've played is my X-20 (original saddle). I wouldn't describe it as bright, rather more on the warm or darker side.

[Aspiring]

Originally Posted by KevinH

I can't speak for other CF guitars since the only one I've played is my X-20 (original saddle). I wouldn't describe it as bright, rather more on the warm or darker side.

Carbon seems to vary quite a bit in tonal spectrum depending on construction just like wood.


I have played Rainsong, X7 steel and nylon, Journey of and rt, Klos travel and Full size.

The x7s were on the warmer end. Rainsong was probably the brightest.