Taylor ES2 with Bone Saddle - Lessons Learned

[Ric Hollander]

I want to share what I've learned about replacing the stock Micarta saddle with bone on an ES2 equipped Taylor in the hopes that my experience will help others achieve the same success.

A little back story first. I am a fingerstyle player and and also a luthier. In addition to enjoying my own guitars, I own and play a few guitars from other builders. In 2017 I purchased a Lowden O-22 from Matt Umanov Guitars in NYC. I went there specifically to check out their Lowdens and the O-22 did not disappoint. On that day I also tried a Taylor V-Class 814CE Deluxe. I was taken by its sound as it was unlike any Taylor (pre V-Class) that I had played. Although the Lowden came home with me I did hesitate a bit between the two. Having owned an 812CE in the past, I wanted something completely different at the time.

Fast forward to the present and the sound of the 814CE Deluxe was still bouncing around in my head. So much so, that I ended up purchasing a 2021 914CE with ES2. After owning the guitar for about a month and enjoying it, I felt it was capable of more and decided to explore replacing the stock Micarta saddle with bone. I read all the threads I could find on the subject and saw that the reviews were mostly negative regarding the amplified (ES2) sound and mixed on the acoustic sound.

I purchased the bone wave saddle from Taylor and was surprised to see that the quality of the bone was lacking. The density was very inconsistent. I've attached a photo showing the Taylor saddle held up to a light source so you can see this for yourself. I compared it to a saddle blank I purchased from Stew Mac and it was very uniform throughout. I gave Bob Colosi (guitarsaddles.com) a call to discuss this and he too only uses high quality, uniform density saddle blanks. I'm sure that Taylor is banging these out by the thousands so some will be good while others, like the one I received are lacking.

The intonation from the stock Micarta saddle was great and the Taylor bone saddle used the same shape. I'm sure both were made using the same CNC pattern. I decided to make my own, by hand, following the Taylor pattern. It took a little time but I was able to match it exactly.

Now came the long awaited moment of truth. I installed it in the guitar, tuned it to DADGAD and gave it a test drive. The guitar was noticeably louder with longer sustain. The lows were powerful, the mids were balanced and focused and the highs had more richness and harmonic complexity. But, at the same time the sound was, for lack of a better term - a bit wild/out of control. I was a bit surprised as I've always had good success with bone saddles. I plugged it in to my sound system and the results were horrible. Very tinny and small sounding, very low output with out of control bass feedback. I tried adjusting the tone controls on the guitar as well as the outboard EQ, but there was no way I was going to be able to get the results I was looking for.

Disappointed, I removed the bone saddle and put the Micarta back in. The guitar sounds really good, but I know it has more to give...

I thought about the whole experience for a few days in the hopes of finding a solution. I retraced my steps and then I had an idea that I wanted to try.

When I initially installed the bone saddle I immediately tightened the pickup adjustment screws to apply light tension to the saddle. I then installed the strings and tuned it to pitch. I wondered if that was a mistake, and it was. By applying tension to the pickup sensors before installing the strings and tuning the guitar, I was not allowing the saddle to fully seat itself within the saddle slot of the bridge. This not only adversely affected the guitars acoustic tone but pretty much made the ES2 sound useless.

So today I installed the bone saddle and left the ES2 sensors loose, i.e. no tension on the saddle. I reinstalled the strings and tuned up to DADGAD. The sound was terrific, everything I knew this guitar could deliver! It has all the good qualities I described above and none of the bad. The sound was powerful and very musical with a richness and responsiveness that Micarta was lacking. But how would it sound amplified?

I plugged it back in to my system and slowly adjusted the tension screws of the ES2, applying just enough pressure to activate the sensors. The bone does add more high end sparkle which I was able to dial in by backing off the treble control on the guitar. No need to touch the outboard EQ. I was still getting some 6th string feedback, but in all fairness I was sitting right next to the speaker. I inverted the phase using the switch inside the guitar and there it was! The amplified sound was impressively close to the acoustic sound and much better than the stock Micarta saddle. It took some work and experimentation to get to the results I was able to achieve, but it was definitely worth the effort. Great acoustic sound and impressive amplified sound too!

I wonder if others who were not happy with the sound of their ES2 equipped Taylors after trying a bone saddle also tightened the pickup sensors before reinstalling the strings.

I hope this post will save anyone interested in giving a bone saddle a try the frustration and disappointment I initially experienced. For me, the bone saddle I made is a keeper!

Ric

Taylor Saddle


Stew Mac Saddle Blank


Completed Bone Saddle

[SpruceTop]

Thanks for doing this, Ric! I wonder how a Tusq saddle would sound in comparison to Bone and Micarta in your Taylor? Tusq seems to be the only material I've come across in my limited experience with dropping guitar-related things that makes a musical tone when dropped on a hard surface. This may be good or not but maybe it's worth a try?

[martingitdave]

Thanks for sharing. I learned this very lesson the hard way back in 2015. :-)

[Marty C]

I ordered my bone saddle through McNichol, but never thought to check it through a light source for consistency. Thanks for that tip. I’m sure consistency makes a big difference.

I too found the phase reversal switch to have a bigger impact than I thought. I just have to pay attention to the phase reversal switches on my gear when playing through other components. I don’t know if there is such a thing as out of phase if both sources don’t match up, but there seems to be a difference.

How about strings? What brand, type and gage are you using with the bone saddle?

Thanks for your post. It was very helpful.

[OneThing]

Thank you Ric for taking the time to share this information with us. You have a knack for teaching, I see. You laid out the information so well. Much appreciated!

[Ric Hollander]

Originally Posted by Marty C

How about strings? What brand, type and gage are you using with the bone saddle?

I'm using Elixir Nanoweb Light (12-53) Phosphor Bronze strings. I may give the 80/20's a try at some point, but the Phosphor Bronze have a beautiful richness and complexity. The bone saddle accentuates these qualities in a positive way. Everything from a soft, light touch close to the neck, to a hard - all nail attack close to the bridge. Harmonics (natural, artificial and slap) are clear and bright. The strings and saddle deliver a very wide dynamic range.

This 914 in combination with the bone saddle is very responsive to my pick attack and I can really shape the tonal response in seemingly endless ways. It was difficult to put it down last night!

[Marty C]

Originally Posted by Ric Hollander

I'm using Elixir Nanoweb Light (12-53) Phosphor Bronze strings. I may give the 80/20's a try at some point, but the Phosphor Bronze have a beautiful richness and complexity. The bone saddle accentuates these qualities in a positive way. Everything from a soft, light touch close to the neck, to a hard - all nail attack close to the bridge. Harmonics (natural, artificial and slap) are clear and bright. The strings and saddle deliver a very wide dynamic range.

This 914 in combination with the bone saddle is very responsive to my pick attack and I can really shape the tonal response in seemingly endless ways. It was difficult to put it down last night!

Thank you Rick. I also use the exact strings. Just wondered if you were doing something different. Hard to beat the response of the string as well as the reduced string noise.