Nut and Saddle of my Grand Concert 612C

[Arno Ehlscheid]

Hallo J.R., thankyou very much for this new special " Taylor Forum ". Very nice to have it now. There are so many questions, which are not treated in the " Tech Sheets " by Taylor and so many personal experiences with our fine Taylor Guitars, we can talk about now.
I am the proud owner of a wonderful Grand Concert 612 C from 1993, with a sitka spruce top and leaf maple back and sides, mahagony neck with ebony fretboard, inlays and abalone rosette, in natural finish but still without a pickup system.
The guitar sounds outstanding, yes, seems to become better from year to year like good wine. Also the guitar feel is good, the adjustments corresponds to the specifications of the " Taylor Tech Sheets ". ( The truss rod adjustment is correct ! ) Nevertheless, particularly for me, the action is somewhat uncomfortably and so i am thinking about some adjustmentwork at the nut and saddle, to improve the playability.
I use Gore Elixir light strings .012-.053.
Unfortunately, removing the saddle seems to be a difficult and tricky thing. Although Taylor says, that the saddle is not glued, after some carefully tries, I gave up.

Can you give me a tip (perhaps it is a little trick), how to remove the saddle out of the bridge, without damaging the guitar?

Who of you knows, what the hight of the nut and saddle should be?

According to the taylor specs the nut and saddle is tusq .... what material is that?


Thanks for your reply in advance

Regards

Arno, Wesel/Germany

Originally posted by Arno Ehlscheid:
Can you give me a tip (perhaps it is a little trick), how to remove the saddle out of the bridge, without damaging the guitar?

Who of you knows, what the hight of the nut and saddle should be?

According to the taylor specs the nut and saddle is tusq .... what material is that?
[/B]

Arnold,

Some of the nuts may be a bit tight due the
the expansion of the bridge wood clamping
on the saddle. A saddle "should" be snug
and not fall out if you turn the guitar upside down. I've always used a pair of wire cutters turned flat-side down, and grasped the the saddle just enough to get a "bite"
and then rocked the cutters and worked the saddle loose. That being said, from the questions you are asking it is evident that you are probably not experienced in tackling something such as lowering the action.
Action is a function of proper neck relief,
nut slot depth, and saddle height all adjusted in concert. I would recommend that you take the guitar to a technician and explain to him what you don't like about the action and have it adjusted for you.
Tusq is a brand name for a synthetic nut and saddle material that is used as a lower cost alternative to bone. Some claim that it transfers string energy to under-the-saddle pickups better than bone since it has a slight bit of flex and can compensate for less than perfectly leveled saddle routes.

Best,

Michael-

[Jim Grainger]

Your nut & saddle aren't tusc unless they've been changed. Mycarta was used in 1993. Changing to tusc will brighten up your guitar, but current saddles and, especially, nuts may not be a perfect fit. Some of the older saddles were routed a little longer than the current ones. Bone will brighten it even more, but bone can sound somewhat "brittle" when used with undersaddle pickups, tusc or mycarta often giving a nicer tone when plugged in. Mycarta does wear like iron, however, and I expect it will outwear tusc.

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