Tilted saddle slot. Ok or bad?

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by mitch145

I can't find any problems with the intonation. Thank you thats relieving

Hi again Michael…

How do you tune it now, and have you tuned it up and then checked the intonation of the fretted notes compared to notes in open position?

Just curious…because if it's not an issue to you, you're good to go.

[mitch145]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Hi again Michael…

How do you tune it now, and have you tuned it up and then checked the intonation of the fretted notes compared to notes in open position?

Just curious…because if it's not an issue to you, you're good to go.

I tune it in standard. I check the intonation by tuning open strings then checking the harmonics and note fretted at the 12th with a cheap korg pitchclip tuner. Its near perfect intonation only slightly sharp sometimes but not always but that may be due to overpressing the string or something. It sounds good to me though.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by mitch145

I tune it in standard. I check the intonation by tuning open strings then checking the harmonics and note fretted at the 12th with a cheap korg pitchclip tuner. Its near perfect intonation only slightly sharp sometimes but not always but that may be due to overpressing the string or something. It sounds good to me though.

Hi Michael…

Sounds like you're good to go.

[mitch145]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Hi Michael…

Sounds like you're good to go.

Yeah it's great, I was just worried the tilt of the bridge would cause potentional damage and wanted to find out any reasons for why the bridge might be tilting

[Tony Burns]

When in doubt -walk away

[Erithon]

It does look intentional so maybe the builder was going for something similar to what some luthiers today do? Michael Bashkin has been building with an angled saddle for years. I know others like Mark Hatcher also do it. From the Bashkin website:

"The saddle slot is cut at an 8 degree back angle, which has several advantages. First, the string pressure is focused down towards the bottom of the saddle slot, rather than forward against the front edge of the slot. This minimizes the stress on the front edge. Direct downward string pressure also enhances the performance of under-saddle pickups."

You can also read Mark's AGF post about it here (#68):

Originally Posted by Mark Hatcher

I also tilt the saddle back at an angle for several reasons. One is this relieves some of the forward pressure from strings wanting to pushing the saddle from behind. That forward pressure can cause a bridge to crack out after time.
The second reason is the saddle is set at an angle is to help keep the guitar from loosing intonation when the saddle is raised or lowered. The higher the saddle the further back the string break point goes which helps offset the addition stretch on the strings when fretted from the greater height.

Now neither of these things are really vintage ideas but they are subtle changes and, well, better is better.

I use my egg beater hand drill for this purpose now. It is remarkable how much easier it is to hold the angle correctly with this than a heavy powered drill. The egg beater is perfectly balanced and the handle is in line with drill bit. A power drill is faster while the egg beater is slower and more accurate. I'll take accurate over faster.

Your tilted bridge looks to produce a similar effect for the saddle, albeit it via a different approach from angling the saddle slot.

[mitch145]

Originally Posted by Erithon

It does look intentional so maybe the builder was going for something similar to what some luthiers today do? Michael Bashkin has been building with an angled saddle for years. I know other like Mark Hatcher also do it. From the Bashkin website:

"The saddle slot is cut at an 8 degree back angle, which has several advantages. First, the string pressure is focused down towards the bottom of the saddle slot, rather than forward against the front edge of the slot. This minimizes the stress on the front edge. Direct downward string pressure also enhances the performance of under-saddle pickups."

You can also read Mark's AGF posts about it here (#68):



Your tilted bridge looks to produce a similar effect for the saddle, albeit it via a different approach from angling the saddle slot.

Yeah I though about this aswell, I just never heard of anyone tilting the saddle frontwards instead of backwards for said reasons