Saddle and nut upgrades for Recording King RD-A9M

[WilliamTK1974]

I got an inexpensive Recording King RD-A9M, and have been working on making it a better player. I need to do some work on frets 14 and 15 because they sit high. I also want to put a better nut, saddle, and bridge pins on it.

These guitars were sold as having real bone nuts and saddles, but they don't seem too high-quality. The nut on mine had a crack that I had to repair with superglue. The saddle is supposed to be compensated, but it appears that only the B string got any of that, and very little at that.

Looks like StewMac item# 6025-VS might be right for the nut. It's a Martin-style 1 11/16" width with a flat bottom. My cheap plastic calipers measure the existing nut at 1 11/16". Item 6033-VS might be good for the saddle. It's a Martin-style with a B-string intonation.

Has anyone else made any upgrades like these?

Thank you,
-William

[charles Tauber]

Regardless of what nut you buy, the depth of the nut slots will need to adjusted to provide optimal playing height of the strings.

Almost regardless of what saddle you buy, expect to fine-tune where the strings break over the saddle to provide the best intonation.

With a few exceptions, most "drop-in" nuts and saddles are a starting point from which one needs to fine-tune them to the specifics of the instrument. Tool are required for that, as is some know-how.

[WilliamTK1974]

Originally Posted by charles Tauber

Regardless of what nut you buy, the depth of the nut slots will need to adjusted to provide optimal playing height of the strings.



Almost regardless of what saddle you buy, expect to fine-tune where the strings break over the saddle to provide the best intonation.



With a few exceptions, most "drop-in" nuts and saddles are a starting point from which one needs to fine-tune them to the specifics of the instrument. Tool are required for that, as is some know-how.

Yes, I am aware of those things since I've done similar work before. Guess I should have said so, as well as phrasing the question to ask whether or not those parts would be appropriate starting points for this project.

It may be possible to find parts of equal quality for less $ than what StewMac wants for them.

[charles Tauber]

The cost of having Stew Mac slot and shape the nut is $13. If that is value-added for you, then their pre-slotted nuts could work for you. Stew Mac uses "proportionally-spaced" nut slots: if you like that, it could work for you.

Similarly, you pay $9 to have Stew Mac shape the top of a saddle. If that is value-added for you, it could work for you.

I generally by blanks and cut/slot/shape them myself. Doing so allows greater freedom, particularly for string spacing at the nut and saddle compensation. I'm going to compensate each of the strings anyway, so a "pre-compensated" saddle is of no value to me unless it is an exact replacement for a stock saddle that is already properly compensated.