Official Luthiers Forum!

Yes, the tilted saddle is self correcting assuming the slot is in the right place to start with. But you need to calculate the small difference of where the top of the saddle will be in relation to where the slot should be to put it there. To locate the slot you need to calculate compensation at the top of the bridge rather than the top of the saddle.

Makes sense. As the strings get higher then when you fret them they will pull slightly sharper. A rearward leaning saddle will increase the string length as it is raised thus making the strings slightly more flat and therefore self-compensating, to some degree. The exact angle that works will be dependent on the string characteristics but I think that is getting way into the weeds. I don't think tilting the saddle hurts, however, I think it is most important to make sure the bottom and sides of the slot are flat and properly fitted. Personally, I don't tilt the saddle and the customers I have who are hyper-picky about intonation don't have any complaints. YMMV.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

To further muddy the waters should we also add in the supposed ideal bridge rotation (2 degrees?) and make it 9 degrees? At some point you put away the pencil and paper and just try to make it sound good.

I have lately been setting intonation with a Stew-Mac Intonator which takes all real life conditions (like bridge rotation) into effect.

Self-correcting intonation wasn't the goal for me initially. I happened across Fishman's Advanced Undersaddle pickup guide instructions (something like that) and went from there.
https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer ... lation.pdf

A friend saw me install a UST into a Tiltback saddle and was surprised at how "uneventful" is was.

I later found out it was Rick that inventented it.

Threw this together this afternoon, works great. Had some scraps of starboard,HDPE, leftover from a job. Router fits tight, yet slides easy.

Thanks for the ideas.

B

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My memory is so good, sometimes I remember things that never happened.

Nice looking jig Brian. It looks like it will work well.

Rereading Hesh's post about tilted saddles the light bulb came on and I understand now what he means about their drawbacks. For instruments that don't have seasonal fluctuations in the action tilted saddles may have some small benefit, but for those whose action changes (rising and falling top) with the seasons the tilted saddle may throw off the compensation more than an upright one. D'oh!