bone saddle for electric guitar

ubertar · Post by **ubertar** » Sat Aug 15, 2015 11:50 am

Got tired of breaking high E strings, so made this bone saddle this morning:

Hopefully that does the trick! I've been going through high Es like crazy.

Drone · Post by **Drone** » Sat Aug 15, 2015 1:11 pm

Maybe get a graphtec one if that fails, or start tuning down to A

Snarl 12/8 · Post by **Snarl 12/8** » Sat Aug 15, 2015 2:02 pm

Whose bone?

ubertar · Post by **ubertar** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:00 am

I have Graphtec in another guitar, and they're good, but I've got plenty of (cow) bone and thought this would be more fun. There doesn't seem to be any commercial version out there... you'd think people would want to try out different materials for bridges for their tonal properties. Not that I hear much difference... maybe a bit brighter with more clarity, but it's subtle.

Drone · Post by **Drone** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:32 am

Maybe because all the guitar companies except Martin are owned by one all powerful vegan?

If you are interested in weird product in you guitars, we have a local luthier does elkhorn and stuff in his for knobs and inlays etc.

http://zuniguitars.com/tuners.html

vvv · Post by **vvv** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 11:06 am

I like how the nut is said to work, "transforming the residence [sic] and tone of the strings."

floid · Post by **floid** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 12:34 pm

Deer antler and walnut have worked well for me.
That's some fine work. Care to share any tricks to your process?

ubertar · Post by **ubertar** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 12:43 pm

Thanks. Nothing special... just a dremel with an emory wheel and a drill, starting with a blank meant for an acoustic saddle or a nut. Traced the saddle I was replacing on the bone with pencil and cut it out, drilled the hole, then screwed the screw in and out with a ratchet screwdriver to tap the threads. Took about a half an hour... if I were to do it again, it'd go a bit quicker.

floid · Post by **floid** » Sun Aug 16, 2015 1:31 pm

. My brother makes knives, and uses oil when buffing the handles to their final polish. It puts a really fine sheen on them, almost mirror like. I'd think this might help slick up the string notch.

ashcat_lt · Post by **ashcat_lt** » Wed Aug 19, 2015 5:43 pm

I imagine the strings were breaking at that end of the guitar, eh?

The one thing I'd worry about here is that if I'm not mistaken, the string ground is usually connected to the saddle posts (as opposed to the stopbar posts). In this particular case, there's connectivity via the stopbar>other strings>saddle so that when you're only touching the high E you should still get some benefit, but if all six saddles were bone...

ubertar · Post by **ubertar** » Thu Aug 20, 2015 6:51 am

Ah, good point. I'll keep that in mind if I decide to go for all six.
But... broke another high E yesterday.

Yes, they're always breaking right at that point.

Drone · Post by **Drone** » Thu Aug 20, 2015 11:30 am

Maybe time for a lighter gauge E? If you do a lot of bending maybe it's just too tight?

ubertar · Post by **ubertar** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 5:07 am

I do lots of bending but haven't had this problem in many years. When it happened before, on another guitar, I got graphtec saddles and that ended it. I use .10s, always have. Switched to another guitar for daily playing and so far, no breaks.

Drone · Post by **Drone** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 10:11 am

Same scale length?

ubertar · Post by **ubertar** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 12:41 pm

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bone saddle for electric guitar

bone saddle for electric guitar

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