A simple modification, tremendous effectiveness!

[delaorden9]

[QUOTE=kydave;3650549]See if you can find a set of non-metric Allen/hex wrenches. Across the flats of those is a very handy method of measuring between the top of the fret & bottom of the string!

Also - Lowering the saddle X will result in lowering action at the 12th fret by 1/2 of X. 1/8" lower saddle equals 1/16" lower 12th fret action.

OK Kydave , that was very helpful ! Appreciate !

[joeguam]

Originally Posted by DanPanther

Joe;
I didn't check the links you posted, so I don't know what they recommended, but I do have a question. You said the action is lower now on the Low E, how is it across the neck, for the rest of the strings ? I assume you shaved material from the bottom of the saddle, and not just the Low E, from the top Correct ?


Dan

Absolutely Dan, the top of saddle is shaped to match the radius of the neck, so I didn't want to disrupt this shaping. I used the method described in Bryan Kimsey's site: Sandpaper on a flat surface (granite countertop), a square object to create a fence (the ruler side of my digital calipers), and slowly sanded it down measuring routinely and frequently to bring it within 0.0001 accuracy. It took patience mostly, but I'm loving the results. So simple, so tremendous, can't say it enough - its a totally different instrument!

...
Joe

[Brucebubs]

I make my own bone saddles from blanks like these;
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/10Pcs-NEW...6ecdbc6&_uhb=1
I use the original as the `master` so I can always go back to it if I make a mistake. Like you, I also use digital calipers but I now have a `Dremel` tool for shaping the bone blank.

[mhs]

About 5 years ago I got my only Taylor, a 714 (2006), slightly used. I thought it was a great sounding guitar the day I got it, and after reading posts in this forum, got some sort of weird saddle-fever ;) where I felt I had to try out a bone saddle instead of the tusq that came with it. The guitar sounded terrific with the tusq saddle, but off I went to Colossi and got and shaped a nice perfect bone saddle.

It was truly sad, the worst sounding thing.. I could hardly imagine this was my once-great sounding guitar. Highs were strident, bass were tinny and I didn't want to play it again until I switched back to the tusq that night.

For some unknown reason, my guitar and bone didn't mix. Probably, again, due to this forum and the strange forces it exerts on me, I decided to try yet another type of saddle, West African Hard Ivory.. Why? I couldn't tell you in a million years, but in a few days I had it perfectly shaped and installed and it sounded just great. Very beautiful sustaining tone with balance and well, it was not only my guitar that I loved again, but it was better.

Normally I don't even get into these saddle/bridge/pins threads because they seem so trivial but I had forgotten my own journey through this territory. I have a bone saddle that's sat in my case for years, a few tusq saddles, and onboard my Taylor, a guitar I play endlessly and gig with, the Ivory saddle. It can be pretty amazing what a difference a saddle can make.