PSA saddle & nut jig

[fazool]

Just got mine.

Very poor quality manufacturing - fit and finish are low quality. The sliding plate binds, the springs don't fit well, the bearing/wheels don't roll well.

There is no documentation. I had to measure to figure out the depth change per division markings.

I ordered it and it came in a completely chinese printed box with a mis-written return address named "customer name" with the seller's address in the return box.

I just finished trying it out and it was fairly poorly made but, that said, it actually worked. It takes a little fidgeting to get it just right. For example the "zero" depth is not flush with the metal base because of the wheels. So you have to place it in and adjust the screws by feel. The screws can ride up the curved face of the nut so you have to futz with it.

I carefully calculated exactly how much I needed to sand off but I had to redo that four times to actually get what I wanted (because of the above).

As a holder and keeping things square it works great. But its still a trial and error solution with no determined adjustments.

[mirwa]

Originally Posted by fazool

Just got mine.

Very poor quality manufacturing - fit and finish are low quality. The sliding plate binds, the springs don't fit well, the bearing/wheels don't roll well.

Shame, as the genuine item is a great tool

Steve

[redir]

There's that old saying, you get what ya pay for.

[joeguam]

Originally Posted by redir

I've never come across any peer reviewed data that suggest perfect fitting is better for tone.



Piezo's bring up a good point though. In fact it's not uncommon to purposely make the bottom of the saddle less then flat to make the pickups sound full across the strings. Much of that is due to the fact that a bridge might distort over time and so the bottom of the saddle slot is actually arched. I suppose one could argue that the correct way to fix that is to re-rout the saddle slot but in 5 minutes I can fiddle with the bottom of the saddle and get it just right too.

To this point, I sand a saddle for an undersaddle piezo dead flat then purposefully sand an “arch” under each individual string as needed to reduce its volume and ultimately create the balance of string volume across all the strings that I prefer. For example, I prefer the high E string to be just a little bit louder than the rest based on my playing style. (I’ve documented my process in this thread if you’re curious: https://www.acousticguitarforum.com/...d.php?t=560105)

I’ve found that even after sanding the bridge slot dead flat without string tension on the bridge/top, it often gets pulled out of perfect flatness when the strings are tuned to pitch. Compensating the bottom of a saddle for a piezo has been the only way I have achieved string balance.