An odd saddle

Hi all,

I picked up a guitar for my wife, who is a very intermittent guitar player, a couple of years back for not much money from Cash Converters. It's a Westfield acoustic and for a v. budget guitar it has a great tone. The action is a little high, so I'm going to take a bit off the saddle to lower that as it seems to be there that the problem is. The thing is, the saddle is like no other I have seen, it has a strange step in it at the B string.

Could anyone advise as to what the reason for this ledge is, and whether it is important. I have no idea, but assume, that this is a plastic saddle and am thinking of replacing it for a bone one, but if it requires this ledge I'll have to stick with the original plan and just sand off some of this.

Thanks for your help, picture should be attached below (with apologies for not dusting the guitar before taking the picture)

It's a compensated saddle and my Ovation Celebrity has one almost just like it.

Here's a picture of one from Elderly:

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b311/b06tmm/CC24-NAT_bridge.jpg

It's a compensated saddle

Yup! They're very common. My Epiphone has one. You can get them from Stewart MacDonald:

http://www.stewmac.com/product_images/1lg/3559/Tusq_Saddles_Detail.jpg

What they said, Compensated. The reason for this, is to help with intonation. The saddles on most of my acoustics are compensated all the way across, to allow for the best possible intonation.


If you are going to shave some off, do it from the bottom side of the saddle. Just keep it nice, flat, and level, so it sits totally flat in the slot when you're done.


Jake

As Jakedog says, you should take material off the bottom of the saddle. The saddle - with the strings off - should just pull out of its slot in the bridge although sometimes a little help with a pair of pliers (with a rag wrapped around the jaws to protect the saddle) is needed. Then just tape some fine sandpaper to a flat block of wood and rub the base of the sadlle against it.

A tusq or bone saddle will give you an improvement in tone, but on a budget guitar it may not be worth the trouble. Oh, and many - if not most - high quality acoustic guitars do not come with a compensated saddle, so I wouldn't say that one is absolutely required.

Yes, compensated it is....

When sanding the bottom of a saddle, I find it much easier to tape a flat piece of sandpaper to a table and run the saddle accross it to reach the desired height. making sure that you hold the saddle so it remains perpendicular to the flat surface.

Thanks to you all. I've never encountered one before on the numerous acoustics I've had or played!

Hopefully if I spend enough time on here I'll get to a position where I can answer questions, rather than just post them.

Your help is much appreciated, thanks.

My Martin guitar has one.

My Martin guitar has one.

And neither of mine (J-18 and HD-28) do!

I think it's something like Tele bridges. For many people, approximate intonation is just fine. Some folks just have to have at least compensated saddles, or even six-saddle bridges.

Here's (http://www.lutherie.net/saddle_angle.html) a good article on acoustic guitar intonation.

I bought a small body Silvertone acoustic at a flea market. The bolted on bridge had the bass strings shorter than the treble. So I got rid of most of the bridge just keeping the saddle part which I cut in half. I made myself a tail piece out of an old cookie tray. Each half a saddle is held down by three strings. I set the intonation of the Bass E, D, G and High E strings. It's set up like compensated telecaster saddles and sounds great.........