Bone saddle to be or not to be

[Justinbeene]

Was really thinking about putting a bone saddle in my guitar as an upgrade.
I've played some of those expensive guitars that come from the factory with the bone nut and saddle and those sound great but my Martin sounds great and I'm not sure if it's gonna make that big of a difference what do you veterans say?

Anyway I found a guy online wanted to check him out to see if anybody has used him before any information would be awesome i am new here to this forum so I don't really know anyone here. this is the guy http://www.guitarsaddles.com/products.asp

[Bingoccc]

I get my saddles from Bob Colosi at the site you have. I think he's the best in the business.

[efnef]

Colosi is well thought of by many here. Regarding your guitar. Martin uses Tusq saddles on their guitars mainly for two reasons. Economic reasons on the lower end guitars. And they use them quite often on higher priced guitars that come with under saddle pickups. Why, I don't know. Can anyone weigh in on this?

[Ben-Had]

Originally Posted by efnef

And they use them quite often on higher priced guitars that come with under saddle pickups. Why, I don't know. Can anyone weigh in on this?

Tusq is supposedly more uniform in consistency than bone and many feel they transfer sound from an UST better than bone.

[Morkolo]

Just make sure to keep your stock saddle, that way if the bone replacement changes your sound in a way that you don't like you can always go back.

[capohk]

If you have some sandpaper and maybe a small file, making your own from a blank is a really satisfying little job. It was one of the first things I tried as a beginning guitar maker and was much easier than expected. Plenty of "how to" on youtube and the like. You can really fine tune the compensation for intonation with a bit of patience.

As previous poster said, keep the old saddle - you'll need it to pattern the new one from. Totally reversible mod, so nothing to lose.

Matt

[Doubleneck]

I just bought a new to me higher end guitar and it came with a bone saddle. The previous owner had sanded it incorrectly so I had to correct. End result was a action that was just a little low. I wanted to experiment so I order a $10 Tusq off ebay. It did actually make the tone more consistant across the strings. I will probably order a Colosi bone saddle just to see how it sounds. Be interested in your impressions. Bottom line cheap experiment and keep all your saddles. You never know how guitars will react to different materials through your ears.

[Herb Hunter]

I replaced the Tusq saddle and nut on my 814 with bone and the difference in tone was negligible. Tusq is consistent whereas bone, like anything in nature, is variable. It could be that a nut and saddle from a different bovine donor might have yielded a greater difference. It could also be that some claims of a dramatic change are exaggerated. Anyway, I’ve decided not to replace the Tusq pieces on the rest of my guitars.

I should also point out that while most were happy they’d made the change, a few of our members reported that after replacing Tusq with bone, they decided to go back to Tusq.

[martingitdave]

If it ain't broke...

I have had success and failure with different saddles. Every saddle and guitar are a little bit different. Different results are expected. Some are good results, some bad, some negligible. If you like the setup and action of your guitar, as well as the sound, keep the original intact and experiment with a different one. Don't shave, sand, or otherwise change your current one.

[Ned Milburn]

Originally Posted by efnef

And they use them quite often on higher priced guitars that come with under saddle pickups. Why, I don't know. Can anyone weigh in on this?

I have replaced saddles with custom bone saddles on countless guitars. It is a very standard job for any repair shop. So far, I have had only 2 conflicts with UST's and new bone saddles.

1) The first was a rigid UST (rigid bar as opposed to braided shielded wire). The ORIGINAL plastic saddle was banana shaped on the bottom, and over a decade and a half of the UST with this banana-saddle, the UST "learned" and conformed to the banana shape, meaning that any PROPERLY made saddle (whether plastic, bone, or other material) would not conform unless the equivalent banana shape was crafted into the saddle bottom. The pickup response was imbalanced from treble to bass. I was able to rectify the issue by using a small amount of pickup-mounting sound-conducting putty on the underside of the saddle, with a very, VERY small amount of wax paper covering the putty to ensure the saddle wouldn't stick to the UST. Problem 100% rectified.

2) Another bone saddle made for a braided UST had a LESSER but BALANCED output across all strings. We (the guitar owner and I) double and triple checked the saddle for levelness, square bottom, and proper width/length, and all were okay. Yet still the pickup had lower total output. Very strange indeed.

When managing factory resources (thousands of guitars per year), 1% failure rate can even be a problem and result in profit loss. Also, plastic can be injection molded, rather than bone which must be made to shape by removing the unnecessary material until the final shape is revealed (destructive manufacturing). Injection molding is much much less time consuming than destructive manufacturing. Hence, plastic is still the main material used in factories.

That said, I haven't heard any guitar of reasonable quality and upwards that has not exhibited a tonal improvement by replacing the original plastic saddle with a well-made (note "well made") bone saddle. Clearer, crisper notes with more "presence".

[Doubleneck]

Just replaced my Tusq saddle with bone and it was an improvement. Not night and day but did seem to be better presence, crisper as per the above comments.

[Justinbeene]

Great to know thank you i will use him then.

[Justinbeene]

Hey everyone thanks for all the info. I am new here to this forum and love all the talk.I thought i knew a lot about Acoustic Guitars, Y'all got it whipped. Im a big Acoustic Guitar Player and Fan.

I started a website about Acoustic Guitars a few months back just to have something to do when I'm not playing. www.thebeanproject.com "still working on it but Getting better everyday" Again thanks for the info i will use Bob Colosi to get this done.

[Doubleneck]

Nothing against Bob but I used a bone saddle off ebay for $15 from McNichol's in Utah. My guitar takes a Martin compensated saddle perfectly and thats one they had.

[Khornet]

made a bone saddle for my NS-32CE. A world of difference. Much better. Maybe nylon is more sensitive to the effect? Dunno. Had him make one for my Martin OM-1. Also better.