How to sand saddle to lower action?

[Monk of Funk]

Thanks for all the info guys! Super helpful.

[BT55]

Rodger Knox is absolutely correct in his evaluation about Taylor neck adjustment. But fine tuning the bridge saddle can be done to set playability to the owners preference. If you’ve checked the neck to bridge alignment and find that it is within specs sanding the bridge saddle is a very acceptable procedure to tweek string height. Personally I store the OEM bridge saddle and setup a new bs to my preference.

[mirwa]

Taylor shims come in 2 thou increments, each size up or down equates to around 5 thou of string height adjustment at the 12th fret.

The goal is to have a neck set with no relief and then slide a straight edge down along the fretboard and touch the top of the bridge.

But, in another way, you can use the same theory for simply setting action, example if an action is say 120 thou at the 12th, and you want it to be say 90, then you would adjust the shims by a number 12 (ish)

Steve

[bausin]

Mirwa,

>> Taylor shims come in 2 thou increments, each size up or down equates to around 5 thou of string height adjustment at the 12th fret.

I think you have that backwards. The action change at the 12th fret will be half the amount you adjust at the saddle.

[Rodger Knox]

Originally Posted by bausin

Mirwa,

>> Taylor shims come in 2 thou increments, each size up or down equates to around 5 thou of string height adjustment at the 12th fret.

I think you have that backwards. The action change at the 12th fret will be half the amount you adjust at the saddle.

He's not adjusting the saddle, he's adjusting the neck angle. Taylors use shims to adjust the angle of their bolt-on neck.

Thanks, Steve for that information. Your info implies that any adjustment to the saddle would be less than 0.01", anything more than that could be done with shims.

[mirwa]

Originally Posted by bausin

I think you have that backwards. The action change at the 12th fret will be half the amount you adjust at the saddle.

Nope, the shim is not flat, 2 thou shims, are deviations from one end of the shim to the other by 2 thou, so its not lowering the action, its changing the neck angle

Originally Posted by Rodger Knox

Your info implies that any adjustment to the saddle would be less than 0.01", anything more than that could be done with shims.

Yes, I have interpretted your comment as 10 thou, hope I got that right, we are metric not imperial here in Aussie land. Shim changes on the neck will raise and lower the action at the 12th in approx 5 thou "action" increments, sanding the saddle could accomodate for 4 thou in either direction of that shim change. if someone is out by 10 thou that would be the max I would consider playing around at the saddle with personally, before reshimming the neck

Steve

[BillRomansky]

True story regarding shaving a bridge. On a tour of Martin, I saw the repair guy with THE LESTER FLATT BEVERLY HILLBILLIES GUITAR, sent up by Marty Stewart for the bridge to be shaved. The repair guy had a sanding disc on a drill, and NO MASKING! I congratulated him on the size of his balls and asked him if I could hold this historic guitar. “No, sir, nobody’s allowed to hold any of the repair guitars,” he said as he handed this incredible piece of history for me to hold and touch.