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Old 06-22-2022, 09:41 AM
ChrisN ChrisN is offline
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Default Taylor - Mismatch Between FB Radius and Saddle?

This video says some Taylors come with a Tusq saddle that's radiused at 9.5", while Taylor's fretboards are radiused at 14".

I measured my '14 Ltd and (stock) it's got the "wave" saddle, not the standard Tusq one show in the video, and it appears to be the proper radius.

Any Taylor-focused readers have any intell if there is such a mismatch on at least some guitars, and, if so, why Taylor would do that?
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Old 06-22-2022, 09:55 AM
John Arnold John Arnold is offline
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I generally raise the saddle on the middle strings a bit to get the lowest action without buzzing. That is accomplished with a saddle that has a smaller radius than the fingerboard.
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Old 06-22-2022, 10:18 AM
12barBill 12barBill is offline
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Not that it particularly matters to your question, but Taylor acoustic guitar necks are made with a 15" radius (not 14" as the guy in the video says).
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Old 06-22-2022, 10:27 AM
ChrisN ChrisN is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John Arnold View Post
I generally raise the saddle on the middle strings a bit to get the lowest action without buzzing. That is accomplished with a saddle that has a smaller radius than the fingerboard.
That makes sense, though my first less-than-informed thought upon reading it was, "wouldn't that make for uneven finger picking?" My second thought was, "no, having the strings less in-plane with each other should make it easier to pick individual strings."

Another voice is a luthier local to me, who takes the position the saddle and FB radius should match to be "ideal" to "play consistently across all of the strings," and that a curvier saddle yields a more "awkward" feeling/playing guitar.
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Old 06-22-2022, 11:29 AM
ChrisN ChrisN is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 12barBill View Post
Not that it particularly matters to your question, but Taylor acoustic guitar necks are made with a 15" radius (not 14" as the guy in the video says).
True.

I also double-checked my '14 Ltd, and checked my '10 GC5 (bought used, but looks like the original tusq saddle), and both seem to have saddles that match the FB radius.
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Old 06-26-2022, 04:05 PM
Robin, Wales Robin, Wales is online now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John Arnold View Post
I generally raise the saddle on the middle strings a bit to get the lowest action without buzzing. That is accomplished with a saddle that has a smaller radius than the fingerboard.
That's a very interesting response John. Through trial and error I have ended up doing the same thing simply because it always seems to be the D and G strings that buzz first when lowering the action. So rather than raising the action across the set I thought "I'll just radius the saddle at 14" on my 16" radius fretboards. And it seems to do the trick.

I haven't got the maths clear in my mind but I wonder if when bending a curved surface (adding relief to a fretboard) the effect at the egdes is different to the effect in the middle? And this is why having the middle strings sitting up a little works? I'm not sure about this as I have trouble picturing what's going on.
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Last edited by Robin, Wales; 06-26-2022 at 04:10 PM.
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