Official Luthiers Forum!

Sorry for so many posts!!!
What saddle angle do you use????? 3 degree ofset????

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

90.

Is the angled saddle one of those things that is more hype than substance?

I ask that in total ignorance and hope the question does not offend anyone. It is not intended to.

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

Steve.
The saddle is angled away from 90 degrees. This is for increased
compensation for the wound strings. I am curious if people use 93 degrees
or some other angle

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Andy, I do 90 degrees and then conpensate the saddle itself.

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Maybe my question is confusing. I know none of you use 90 degrees.
I am seeing picts of your bridges on the other thread.l
I am referring to the angle of the saddle, actually saddle slot in your bridges.
Is 93 degrees about right?   (Angle off centerline)

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

[QUOTE=azimmer1] Maybe my question is confusing. I know none of you use 90 degrees.
I am seeing picts of your bridges on the other thread.l
I am referring to the angle of the saddle, actually saddle slot in your bridges.
Is 93 degrees about right?   (Angle off centerline)

[/QUOTE]

Now you lost me!

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Some builders lean the saddle back (tilt) some 2-3 degress.... ist that what you mean?

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Sorry
The saddle slot is routed in the bridge several degrees off of 90 from the
centerline. I am not referring to tilting the saddle back a bit. I strictly am
curious to the angle used to compensate the saddle slot. The slot is closer
to the scale length on the treble side than the bass side. That is what I am
interested in. Sorry for the confusion.

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

oh I see!
You want to know how far back to move the saddle on the low E side. I don't do it in an angle per say... I conpensate it .100"
Get your high E right on scale length + .010 or so and move the low E placing .100 back and join the marks. There's your angle. peterm39028.8618518518

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

Hesh
I am looking at a pict of your bridges. John W cut your saddle slots on a
angle. If I take a line down the center of the guitar crossing your bridge,
your saddle slot hits this line at an angle. It looks around 93 degrees or 87
degrees depending on what side you measure.   What angle did you choose?


I am sorry for being so confusing. Before I design a new bridge cut saddle
slots, I just want to see what all of you do

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Sorry posted just after you Hesh. Didn't see your response

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com

Andy, after the angle is determined how are you going to determine where to place the bridge?

When you find the exact place where the saddle should go, just move back the low E part of the saddle .100" and that should give you the needed conpensation.

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Peter M.
Cornerstone Guitars
http://www.cornerstoneukes.com

In the beginning, I did just like Cumpiano said to do it but have since tweaked my jig for better results. I can't remember exactly what I did but I use the same jig all the time so don't think about it. See the whole story in the Jigs, Tools and Technique section here.
John How39028.8980555556

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Tickle your guitar daily, and it'll tickle you back.

I'm using the same jig as John How, Andy and it's been nearly two years since I madeit, but I do believe the saddle makes approx. a 3 degree angle with the center line.
I never actually measured it, I just marked where the ends should be (according to my books) and connected those points. Look at a plan and measure the slot ends from the front of the bridge and connect the dots. With a jig like John's, you only have to do this once. Of course, if the front of your bridge isn't square, it will be more difficult.

Ron

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OLD MAN formerly (and formally) known as:

Ron Wisdom

Somewhere in the middle of Arkansas......

Andy,
Now I get it!

I started slotting the bridge after it is glued on. Like those who posted above, I have no idea what the angle is.

This is what I do -

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"An adventure is only an inconvenience rightly considered. An inconvenience is an adventure wrongly considered." G. K. Chesterton.

I use the StewMac intonator thingy after I've glued on the bridge, then
rout the slot accordingly. You can use little dowels or strings or whatever
instead of the SM jig, but it's pretty slick. Anyway, I don't know the actual
angle!

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Mike

"The Dude abides. I don't know about you but I take comfort in that. It's good knowin' he's out there. The Dude. Takin' 'er easy for all us sinners. Shoosh." The Stranger

i started doing individual compensation, i.e., gluing on the bridge, then determining the individual string saddle locations, then routing the saddle, on new bridges after my initial reading of don teter's first repair book back in the seventies, and by choice do nothing else now.

the stew-mac tool referred to above certainly makes it a lot easier these days.

not compensating a string by having its saddle on the scale length will to my mind lead to it playing out of tune.

crazymanmichael39029.0690277778

I think that most folks use more of a measurement of compensation in length rather than an angle. I've used about 2.5-3 mm of compensation on my last 2.
-j.

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“If God dwells inside us like some people say, I sure hope He likes enchiladas, because that's what He's getting”
-jack handy

Hi Andy,
            In his book , Cumpiano has an 1/8" diference between treble and bass . This equates to not quite 3 degree.
Martin use three degree and Gibson do , or have done 4 degree.
Three degree equates to nearly 5/32" difference . It gives the low E string a little more length which seems needed .
With three degree , and an 1/8" saddle , I can get near perfect.
I would however, like to be able to have the saddle ramped down to the bridge pin on the low E and B strings as recommended by Somogyi . A 3/16 " saddle would do it
A split saddle is able to do this also.
I've added 1/8" to the scale length on a 25.4 " scale
,,,,,,,,all IMHO

Regards craig Lawrence

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CRAIG LAWRENCE of AUSTRALIA
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Andy,

It all depends on scale length, tunings, string gauges etc, and I have found a split saddle works best for me. I also do it a bit like Michael - from trial and error on my different instruments I have worked out the points of intonation for each string and then worked out the angles for the split saddles that connect these as near as possible to give the intonation point as close as possible to the centre of the saddle. Unlike Michael I don't cut the slot with the bridge attached but use different jigs based on the model I am building.

For a guitar with scale length (defined as twice the distance from nut edge to middle of 12th fret) between 635mm and 655mm (25" and 25.75"), with 0.012"-0.053" gauge strings the following rule of thumb works pretty well for me:

Length of string from edge of nut to saddle break point in addition to scale length from high to low: 2mm, 0mm, 2mm, 4mm, 6mm, 7mm.

I have the low 6th string further back than many I suspect as I have this string usually tuned down to D or C. Here's a pic of the saddles with such a set up:

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Dave White
De Faoite Stringed Instruments
". . . the one thing a machine just can't do is give you character and personalities and sometimes that comes with flaws, but it always comes with humanity" Monty Don talking about hand weaving, "Mastercrafts", Weaving, BBC March 2010

3mm as per Laskin article in FWW years ago.

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Tony Karol
www.karol-guitars.com
"let my passion .. fulfill yours"

thanks

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Andy Z.
http://www.lazydogguitars.com