An acoustic guitar’s saddle is one of the most important parts of the guitar. The guitar’s action, radius, intonation, and tone are directly directly influenced by the saddle, so it’s important that it’s perfect. Unfortunately, not every guitar enjoys this luxury:
This poor Ibanez had lost it’s original (most likely plastic) saddle somewhere along the way, and so somebody attempted a quick fix by buying an off the shelf replacement, which obviously doesn’t quite fit. It’s very tall, causing the action to be extremely high, and it’s leaning forward at a bizarre angle – which throws off the intonation, and can sometimes even cause the the bridge itself to crack. Clearly, a replacement is needed.
Much like making a bone nut, there’s much to making a saddle that is somewhat unquantifiable. I take measurements where I can (length, height, width, & radius), but much of the final shaping is akin to sculpture: file a bit away here, sand some there, and viola! A beautiful bone saddle!
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It takes a great deal of patience and skill to carve a square piece of bone into a compound shape that fits exactly into a bridge slot. Somehow, I find this process ridiculously fun. I think the best part is shaping the top, and carving in a compensated angle to allow the strings to intonate properly. It’s not easy to see in these pictures, but it makes a zig zag between the wound and plain strings, which is just plain cool:
I usually make acoustic guitar saddles out of bone (cow bone, but unicorn is available by request), which I I think is far superior to synthetics. Most manufacturers have largely abandoned using bone in favor of using corian, plastic, and other unpronounceable polymers – so a real good, inexpensive way to improve the tone of your instrument is simply having a new bone saddle made for it. You will generally experience more volume, more snappy low end, and extended treble response with a bone saddle over a synthetic. Plus, if your old saddle isn’t compensated, you’ll gain a bit more accurate intonation with a new compensated saddle on the plain strings. Better sound, better intonation, and cheap! What’s not to like?
I am a bassist, guitar tech, and founder of Strange Guitarworks. When not working on guitars, I create experimental music under the moniker of UFO Death Cult, utilizing microtonal instruments of my own design.The saddle is a vital part of an acoustic guitar. Protruding above the bridge, it is one of the primary action adjustment points for the instrument. Without a well made saddle, proper setup will not be possible. Though they can be made from many different materials, for this article, we will be focusing on the process of hand cutting a new acoustic guitar saddle out of a piece of bone.
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Using a measuring tool called a caliper, we measure the length of the saddle slot then mark the desired length on our saddle blank.
We carefully shape the blank, adjusting the length, width, and rounding the edges, until the piece is properly seated in the saddle slot. A poorly fit saddle can eventually cause the wooden saddle slot to crack. A correct fit should be snug, but not excessively difficult to remove.
Instruments with under-saddle pickups may require some extra finesse to ensure that the bottom of the saddle rests firmly against the pickup that is installed on the bottom of the saddle slot.
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After measuring the fingerboard’s radius (curvature), we use our radius gauge to draw the profile of the fingerboard onto the saddle blank. Then it’s over to a disc sander to remove material, sanding a matching contour on the saddle’s top.
“Compensation” is a term to describe adjustments made to the functional length of the string in order to fine-tune the intonation of the instrument.
To accomplish this, we first mark the saddle between the second and third string since this marks the switch from plain to wound strings in a standard acoustic string set.
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Then we draw two lines diagonally across the length of the saddle. These will serve as a guide of where to file. We then shape the top of the saddle, removing material on either side, until the desired compensation has been achieved.
Had we been making a traditional saddle, without string compensation, the top would simply have been rounded over to produce a crown across the length of the saddle. Compensation is a bit more work but yields better intonation in the instruments upper register.
Back over to the guitar, we install the outer two strings to take an action measurement. If needed, we will perform additional sanding to achieve the desired string height we are seeking.
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Once the action and intonation have been set, we use sandpaper to remove any rough tooling marks before switching to a dedicated buffing wheel to polish the saddle to a high shine. Besides aesthetic appeal, thisprovides a smooth surface for the string to rest against.
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Calico Guitarworks is the area’s premier destination for fretted musical instrument care and maintenance. Owned and managed by Erik Salomon, the shop is dedicated to providing quick, honest and reliable service. The staff at Calico Guitarworks has a combined 25+ years of professional guitar repair experience. Sharing the knowledge that we accumulate in this focused pursuit is at the core of what we do. Contact us with any questions or book your appointment today.An acoustic guitar saddle performs vital functions. It establishes the height of the strings or action of the guitar while also setting the radius to work with the curvature of the fingerboard. The strings will increase in diameter and mass from high e to low E while also decreasing in tension from high strings to low. With each increase in diameter and tension change each string will likely get a little higher off the fingerboard. The saddle takes the pressure and vibration from the strings and transmits them to the bridge which in turn transmits that energy to the top. Having the right material, height above the bridge and string angle from saddle to bridge pins are all a part of the mix.
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When a saddle is worn out, cracked, damaged or loose in the slot it should be replaced. One of the first things I check is the location of the saddle slot in relation to the scale length of the instrument. If the location of that slot is off just a little bit, the intonation will suffer and making a new compensated saddle might not fix it. There's no use putting the time into making a new compensated saddle if the saddle slot is in the wrong place. So from time to time some instruments need to have the slot filled with wood, saddle re-located and slot slot cut before beginning to make a new saddle.
Careful attention is necessary to properly fit the saddle blank to the slot. Here the bone material is being thinned down to just the right size.
Another thing I always like to check is how flat the slot is so there is good coupling between the saddle and the bridge. There's no sense making a perfectly flat saddle bottom if the slot it rests on isn't flat. Over time a guitar top will settle in and pull up so it isn't unusual for the saddle slot to have a slight convex curve from one end to the other.
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Once the saddle slot is prepared I will fit the thickness of the saddle to fit with width of the slot and then fit the ends of the saddle to fit the ends of the slot. If a saddle is too tight it won't couple with the bottom of the slot. If the saddle is too loose it will lean forward under the string pressure creating unnecessary stress at the ends of the slot which will also lead to cracks developing in the bridge. If the saddle leans forward it can also throw off the intonation of the instrument.
After the saddle blank has been shaped to fit the slot I mark out a rough height to the blank, measure the radius of the fingerboard and match it on the saddle. The saddle gets shaped to match that curve and either rounded over (
A refining of the shape and polishing of the surface rounds out the job for a saddle that rings true, feels good to the player and performs the joWhen it comes to making a bespoke bone saddle for an acoustic guitar there are lots of factors that are all really important.
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I make my saddles from a rectangular blanks especially for your guitar's bridge which means that it's 100% tailor made to be spot-on for the best playability, sound, looks and performance.
If you don't have a bone saddle in your acoustic guitar you are missing out big time, it really is my favourite tonal upgrade for acoustics
Some guitars have a saddle in that's too thin. Not only is that terrible for string-to-soundboard transfer
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