Who's tried a bone saddle?

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Permalink Reply by Jud Hair on April 9, 2012 at 6:57pm

I don't actually own a Walden, but recently, the guitar tech at my shop made a bone saddle for my Seagull Artist Mosaic to replace the TUSQ saddle that came with the guitar. I don't know that I can honestly say there is a marked change in the tone, volume or sustain, but that wasn't why we did it.

This was in order to address some intonation issues that were the result of the loose fit of the TUSQ saddle in the bridge slot. It tended to tilt forward once the strings were  put under tension ... not a lot ... but enough to cause a small problems. 

My guy said that he always suggested using what he called a "press fit" saddle made to fit the bridge slot tight enough that you have to press it to get it to go into the slot and then it is tight enought that you could (if you wanted to) lift the entire gitar with the saddle and it wouldn't come out of the slot. 

When the strings are tuned to pitch, the saddle should sit at a perfect 90 degree angle from the bridge and any variance can cause intonation problems.  Having the new "press fit" bone saddle cured my intonation woes, but the Tech had to carve it especially for my guitar.  Not sure just ordering a bone saddle would accomplish the same results.

 

Permalink Reply by FloridaGull on April 10, 2012 at 8:23am

I've heared that Bob Colosi (sp?) sells good bone nuts and saddles...

Walden customer service may be able to direct you as well...

Permalink Reply by John Storey on April 10, 2012 at 11:46am

I put one in my Walden D710 and I think it made it made a good sounding guitar even better. I got the saddle from chrisalsopguitarguitarbits on eBay UK. He copied my original Walden saddle so that the fit was perfect but if you don't want to part with your original saddle he will make one to dimensions you give him. I also put a bone saddle into my Lag 212N classical guitar and the difference it made was amazing. Well worth doing.