Joined:
April 2003
Posts: 608
Location: Caribou, ME | I've got two identical Balladeers, both 70s. Same strings, same setup... and two totally different tones. One has what appears to be a Micarta saddle; I may have even made it, I don't know. It's a little on the soft side. It's got that beige color like a typical newer Martin nut/saddle would have, and it doesn't polish up well. The tone is thin and choked. Not pleasant on any day. The other one may have a bone saddle, maybe TUSQ. I didn't bother pulling it to do the 'sand & sniff' test. It has a nice full open bassy tone but the high e is dead as a door nail. Sounds like it has a piece of lint muting it. I thought it was the nut slot so defined it a little better. No change. I thought it might be the shallow headstock angle so I put a new string on it and left enough on there so I could wrap it lower on the post, thereby effectively increasing the string angle. no change. I changed the nut altogether. No change. Process of elimination makes me want to make a new saddle and see what that brings. The exisitng saddle is plenty high and has a great break angle behind it. The bottom of the saddle may not be flat either.... never checked. That wreaks havoc on UST response but I've never had an acoustic-only guitar have a problem. Always a first I guess.
I scored 20 "B grade" bone blanks last night for $15 shipped, so there will be several guitars getting new saddles over the next month. They're B grade due to being off color or may have chips; doubt either will bother me. |
Gonna bone-ify a couple Os