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Hey folks,

What would you consider the minimum distance between the back of the saddle and the bridge pin holes?

I've made a bridge out of piece of ebony; the saddle slotting went awry, so instead of scrapping it, I turned it upside down and started over, removing the spoiled area, just to see what it would lead to. In some areas it's a little short, and I ended up with the center of the pin holes ~8mm below the bottom of the saddle (the edge of the drill holes are a little over 6mm from the saddle, prior to reaming it out). Now I'm wondering if that's too little of a distance. Would appreciate inputs.

Thanks! - Bill

Posting a picture..

Looks good to me.

That is no tighter than many that I have seen - especially if it is a smaller bodied guitar (but even if it isn’t it should be fine). A smaller and lighter bridge is a good thing in many ways, as long as it is long enough to overlap the arms of the X-braces, or whatever you have underneath there.

Try to keep the reamer angled back to retain the maximum distance from the saddle, and don't ramp the string holes very much at all, just a small radius at the top to ease the bend in the strings.
A higher break angle can put extra strain on the wood in front of the saddle.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Thanks guys! I appreciate it. - Bill

I think it's fine...

Looks really nice. I'd be happy to have it.

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Peter Havriluk

Thanks guys!
After some consideration (and finding I routed the saddle slot deeper than I intended - I think it was something like 2.4 mm left from bottom of slot to bottom of bridge) - I'm just going to start over. Which is fine. That said - the look of this bridge has started to appeal to me, it's going to inform what I do now. It was fun to experiment.

Bought a DeWalt 611 with a plunge base that I hope will help address some of the ridiculous issues I've allowed to occur.

I don't understand how the saddle slot being deeper is cause to make a new bridge. I thought that a deep saddle slot just means less material is taken off the bottom of the saddle when it's mated to the guitar, part of the adjustment everybody makes.

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Peter Havriluk

The references I have indicate you want 3mm / 1/8" of bridge material between the saddle and the top.
My read of this is that less would perhaps be unsound. Though I haven't seen that stated explicitly.
Is that a wrong takeaway?

Perhaps a better answer would be, I was targeting 3 mm and would like to refine my process to be precise and predictable, so I'll do it again.

I've got an early '70's Guild D-55 that I bought new and the saddle goes right through to the top. There have been a number of guitars built that way.

Having a deep saddle slot is really not a problem, and certainly not a reason to discard an otherwise good bridge. You can even shim the bottom of the saddle (ebony is good) if you need it to sit higher.

Thanks guys, that is helpful.

I think it's good to have some wood below the saddle, but I think you're O.K. with 1/10th of an inch. Although some guitars may have the slot cut through to the soundboard I think that is a bad idea. The spruce top is much softer than the ebony or rosewood of the bridge and I think more likely to be compressed by the pressure of the strings (but I could be wrong).