Can somebody give me a simple answer as to why you would sand the saddle?

[ctvolfan]

Is it for intonation? Does it improve the volume or tone to get the strings closer to the bridge? I see some people that sand it to lower the action. Why is adjusting the truss rod not sufficient enough to lower the action? I would assume that since the truss rod takes bow in or out of the neck that maybe no matter how much you adjust it, you could still have high action if the nut and saddle are too high. It would seem to me that the nut would affect the height of the strings more than the saddle since the saddle is not part of the neck.

Sometimes I think that I wouldn't even pay attention to this stuff if I hadn't heard about it from somebody somewhere and it gets me worrying about stuff I would not have worried about if I had never heard about it in the first place. I have tweaked my truss rods for years but never touched the nut and saddle unless I have had my tech that I use switch them out.

[JayBee1404]

This is a very long read, but it’s excellent and everything you need to know about guitar set-up is in there. I recommend that you read it all, very carefully.

http://charlestauber.com/luthier/Res...May%202015.pdf

[Rev Roy]

Yep, Charles’ article is excellent.

[beatcomber]

Simple answer:

The truss rod only controls the relative straightness of the neck by adjusting its curvature, it does not by itself enable consistently low action up and down the neck.

To get a proper set-up, the neck curvature (truss rod) and string height (bridge) have to be adjusted in tandem.

[zeeway]

A lot of this depends on the geometry of the guitar you are trying to fix. But first, you adjust the truss rod to get the proper bow or lack of it. If your action is still too high, you would reduce the height of the saddle through sanding...but it is a good idea to have a spare on hand...(DAMHIK). That should usually fix it.

[Goat Mick]

This is not something that has to be done routinely, but it is an adjusting technique to sort out issues with action and intonation. Because you're asking the question, it's not something you should be doing right now. But if you do some research and read everything you can find about it, it may save you some money later down the road if you encounter a guitar with too high action, buzzing issues, etc..

[Jaden]

Sanding down the saddle always results in loss of torque, power and tone, but is done to lower action, which should instead be done by lowering the nut slots first. Truss rod adjustment affects relief and influences how ‘soft’ the action feels - it has the side effect of altering the height of strings above the fretboard but it’s not it’s primary purpose.

[vintage40s]

Originally Posted by Jaden

Sanding down the saddle... is done to lower action... which should instead be done by lowering the nut slots instead...

Lowering the nut slots helps playability near the nut, but you could file the slots down to the first fret height and hardly effect the action at the 12th fret.

[mcduffnw]

Originally Posted by ctvolfan

Sometimes I think that I wouldn't even pay attention to this stuff if I hadn't heard about it from somebody somewhere and it gets me worrying about stuff I would not have worried about if I had never heard about it in the first place. I have tweaked my truss rods for years but never touched the nut and saddle unless I have had my tech that I use switch them out.

Go back to the "ignorance is bliss" time in your playing life, and stop worrying about all this stuff. Some folks wander down this road and get hopelessly lost in the land of "set up spec's" and end up losing their ability to just enjoy playing their guitar and making music.

Don't be that guy...Don't go through the looking glass...just have fun and play.


duff
Be A Player...Not A Polisher

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by vintage40s

Lowering the nut slots helps playability near the nut, but you could file the slots down to the first fret height and hardly effect the action at the 12th fret.

That is correct. I edited my previous post to explain the nut slots should be adjusted first. The only reason I can think of to sand down the saddle is to lower the action further.

[beninma]

Originally Posted by mcduffnw

Go back to the "ignorance is bliss" time in your playing life, and stop worrying about all this stuff. Some folks wander down this road and get hopelessly lost in the land of "set up spec's" and end up losing their ability to just enjoy playing their guitar and making music.

Don't be that guy...Don't go through the looking glass...just have fun and play.


duff
Be A Player...Not A Polisher

That's not at all a problem... more realistically the problem is people who go buy another guitar, or 5 more guitars, cause the one they have isn't setup right and for some reason it seems too hard/undesirable to get the setup dialed in.

It doesn't take a whole lot of time to "polish" one guitar so it plays perfectly. It's a lot less time & hassle than building a collection of guitars.

Posts like, "what guitar can I go buy that has a low easy to play action" are the problem. Just take the guitar you have and get it setup for a low easy to play action. Even if you go take a class and buy your own tools you'll end up spending less money than buying even a cheap asian guitar.

For the OP... saddles get sanded on the top differentially to change/fix intonation. Sometimes material is sanded evenly off the bottom of the saddle to lower the action at the upper frets.

Nut Slot height - affects action in the lowest frets
Truss Rod - affects neck relief, has the appearance of changing the relationship of the middle frets to the lower/upper frets
Saddle height/neck angle - affects the upper frets

If the Nut & truss rod are setup really well but the action is too high at the saddle it'll be noticeable when playing up the neck. It might not matter if you spend all your time strumming chords up in the first 5 frets. If you want to go play triads down by the 12th fret it's really noticeable.

[justonwo]

The truss rod does affect action to an extent, but the main purpose of a truss rod is to adjust relief - the amount of bow in the neck. This affects, primarily, the extent to which the guitar will buzz in the lower registers.

The saddle height is adjusted once the relief is set to finalize the action. You sand the bottom of the saddle to accomplish this (assuming you have a drop-in saddle).

[justonwo]

Originally Posted by mcduffnw

Go back to the "ignorance is bliss" time in your playing life, and stop worrying about all this stuff. Some folks wander down this road and get hopelessly lost in the land of "set up spec's" and end up losing their ability to just enjoy playing their guitar and making music.

Don't be that guy...Don't go through the looking glass...just have fun and play.


duff
Be A Player...Not A Polisher

Eh, I agree there are a lot of rabbit holes, but having your optimal relief and action settings at your fingertips is quite useful. Nut action, relief, 12th fret action. You can then make all your guitars play the same. I think you avoid a lot of headaches this way.

[justonwo]

Originally Posted by Jaden

Sanding down the saddle always results in loss of torque, power and tone, but is done to lower action, which should instead be done by lowering the nut slots first. Truss rod adjustment affects relief and influences how ‘soft’ the action feels - it has the side effect of altering the height of strings above the fretboard but it’s not it’s primary purpose.

This is only true if the saddle is extremely (and I mean extremely) low, so that there’s no significant break angle of the strings over the saddle.

I’ve received a lot of newly built guitars that required (not surprisingly) sanding of the saddle after the first few months. Lightly built guitars will almost always require adjustments in the first couple of years. In no case was there even a hint of change in the tone. People shouldn’t be afraid to lower the saddle if it’s needed. That’s what it’s there for. Most luthiers build these predictable adjustments into how they pitch the neck so that there’s plenty of saddle left once the guitar settles in.

[ship of fools]

We do it so we have a lower action when we are playing past the 12th fret. You don't want the action hiugher at say the 14-15 fret especially if your guitar is not a cut away.