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Old 08-11-2022, 09:11 AM
PTL PTL is offline
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Default Carbon fiber vs Tusq Saddle....?

Just saw a CA with Carbon Fiber saddle. It literally still has the CF weave on the face of the saddle.

Anyone know what the effect on tone will be if we swapped to a Tusq saddle?

Thanks.
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Old 08-11-2022, 09:39 AM
bryaharrell bryaharrell is offline
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acoustically I don't notice a difference. But I will say that I needed to get rid of the tusq saddle on my Rainsong because tusk is a natural material and thus imperfect. I tried two tusq saddles and it made the plugged in sound uneven due to dead spots. Put a man-made saddle on and it evened everything out.
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Old 08-11-2022, 11:38 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bryaharrell View Post
acoustically I don't notice a difference. But I will say that I needed to get rid of the tusq saddle on my Rainsong because tusk is a natural material and thus imperfect. I tried two tusq saddles and it made the plugged in sound uneven due to dead spots. Put a man-made saddle on and it evened everything out.
Umm… TUSQ is very definitely man-made. Tusk, of course, is not.

https://graphtech.com/pages/tusq-saddles
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Old 08-11-2022, 03:05 PM
Aspiring Aspiring is online now
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I wonder what they may have mixed into the material for that application. Traditional carbon and epoxy I would expect to wear and groove very quickly.

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Old 08-11-2022, 03:18 PM
SpruceTop SpruceTop is offline
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I wonder what they may have mixed into the material for that application. Traditional carbon and epoxy I would expect to wear and groove very quickly.

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+1, especially if carbon fiber sheets are laminated to saddle thickness with strings running across the top edges, and even if sealed using carbon-fiber edge sealer, they are likely to tear and splinter. The above is based on the OP saying that he saw the weave on the face of the saddle, and with my work experience with making carbon-fiber communication satellite cores and the related carbon fiber paneling for components. A composite saddle made from a mix of ground-up carbon fiber and a composite mixed with resin would be somewhat more wear-resistant than a carbon fiber laminate but not by much IMHO.
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Last edited by SpruceTop; 08-12-2022 at 12:45 PM.
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Old 08-11-2022, 03:23 PM
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Originally Posted by David Eastwood View Post
Umm… TUSQ is very definitely man-made. Tusk, of course, is not.

https://graphtech.com/pages/tusq-saddles
LOL! Another property of TUSQ is that I've found it's the only material that produces a distinct musical tinkle when dropped on a hard surface. Whether this is good or not, I don't know but being a fountain of questionably useful or useless information, I thought I'd share that tidbit.
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Old 08-11-2022, 09:38 PM
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Back in the day, Michael from McNichol's (used to be a carbon fiber guitar dealer in the Salt Lake City area), put a bone saddle in the RainSong Shorty I had at the time and did a set-up for me (the guitar came with the action higher than I care for), taming a bit of the "zing" that the guitar had. I liked the tone on it; liked it even better after the bone saddle.

Getting that first Emerald showed me that CF guitars can have a range of tones, just like wood guitars.
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Old 08-12-2022, 12:14 PM
casualmusic casualmusic is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PTL View Post
Just saw a CA with Carbon Fiber saddle. It literally still has the CF weave on the face of the saddle.

Anyone know what the effect on tone will be if we swapped to a Tusq saddle?

Thanks.

The carbon fibre saddle sounds like an innovation that didn’t become mainstream. Carbon fibre would need work to laminate the carbon fibre layers, cut the laminate into saddle blanks, grind them smooth and grind the compensation slopes.

A new injection molded Tusq saddle is inexpensive, about the same as a set of strings.

Would love to hear your report on similarities and differences.

Cheers.
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Old 08-17-2022, 02:30 PM
PTL PTL is offline
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I can report back that the Tusq result in greater overtones. It makes the guitar sound a bit brighter.
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