So I shimmed a saddle today

[TBman]

I was playing my Seagull folk and I had noticed the 6th string sounded a bit dead. I have been playing it everyday now for about a week and for some reason took notice of the the 6th string tone. I guess playing at 10 at night when you're 65 has its drawbacks,

I looked at the saddle and realized that years ago in my quest for easy playing I had gone overboard with the saddle. It didn't buzz and played very easily so for what it was I must have decided to leave it.

I have a bunch of wood shims in my toolkit and once I convinced the saddle to come out I cut the shim to length and restrung it with D'Addario NB mediums. I have it in a lower tuning so I'm pretty sure the bridge won't be on the ceiling one morning .

The 6th string sounds a bit better now

[mtdmind]

I am finding I prefer the action on my guitars a little stiffer now than I used to like.

[soma5]

When I'm playing a lot (like when I'm gigging a lot, unlike these days) I prefer higher action because 1) my technique is more solid 2) I can drive the guitar more and get more headroom. 1 and 2 are related, of course. A third benefit is that casual players don't like the setup. Sometimes raising the saddle is just the thing.

I usually make a new saddle instead of shimming, but I've shimmed my saddles in the past and not noticed very much tonal loss. In fact, quite the opposite. I attribute that to the higher saddle, and not the shim. I made a recent investment in tools from Stew Mac and making saddles has become easier and more effective.

Anyway, I can echo and validate the OP's experience. It is often just the thing to do!