Diagonal Compensation Bone Guitar Saddle

Compensated Bone Saddle including Tailoring.

Material
This saddle is made from high density Ox bone and is for use on steel strung acoustic guitars. These saddles are renowned to give excellent tone, playabilty and instrument projection.

Dimensions
Often saddle dimensions are 3mm wide, 72mm long and 8.5mm high, but they do vary a lot, so this saddle is offered with a free tailoring servce of width up to 3.5mm, height up to 9.5mm, length up to 79mm. It has rounded ends. Larger sizes are accomodated in our other adverts.

Width:Many saddle slots are 3mm wide - please select the width to ensure a good fit which will benefit the tone.

Height:The height of the saddle will determine the action (fret to string distance) - this should be about 2.6mm for low E string at 12th fret and usually a bit lower for high E string at 12th fret. A useful fact is that a change of saddle height by a certain amount - 1mm reduction for example, will make a change of half that amount - so 0.5mm at the 12th fret.

Length:The length should fit the saddle slot and I make the ends rounded.

Radius: Fretboard for steel strung acoustics are generally curved from low E to high E - this makes it comfortable to play. The curve Radius ('curvature' or 'Profile')
This saddle has a FIXED curve of approx 18 " radius shaped to give action reduction from low E to high E of about 0.4mm. (See our other saddles for tailored curvature).
Compensation Shape.
This design is one of the commonest saddle compensation designs in which the string contact points of EADG lie on a diagonal from back to front of the saddle. The B string is set back and the upper E is set forwards. Please see photo on this advert to see the string contact line.

How a Compensated Saddle works. Acoustic guitar saddle are often shaped to provide "compensation" - which results a better sounding & more accurate pitch of the fretted notes. The length of each individual string is alterred by adjusting the string contact point at the saddle. In turn this alters the pitch of fretted notes. On most guitars fretted notes may not vibrate at exactly the ideal pitch (a chromatic tuner will show this). This is due to a variety of effects such as the strings stretching when pressed down into the fret. Saddle compensation design helps to adjust the pitch of the fretted notes to be closer to the ideal. The closer the pitch of the fretted notes is to the ideal will result in better sounding harmonies between notes (better sounding chords) and a guitar that is more in tune all the way up the fretboard.

We supply complete design and manufacture ensuring that you end up with the best possible sound and playability from your guitar.
FREE: We include fitting instructions and a DVD showing how best to install a saddle.
FREE: We include plenty of abrasives and polishing material - the better the fit the better the tone