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June 2002
Posts: 6202
Location: Phoenix AZ | I'm planning to put an undersaddle Fishman pickup in one of my acoustic guitars. Which is the preferred method a) route out the saddle cavity or, b) shave down the bottom of the saddle itself. Does it matter? Shaving the saddle sounds a lot easier to recover from if I screw it up. Dave |
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August 2005
Posts: 616
Location: cincinnati, ohio | I found it's easier to shave the bottom of the saddle. Screw up a saddle and you can always get a new blank. Screw up routing the slot, you got problems. I'm not that steady anyway!
If you like the action of your guitar the way it is before the pickup is installed, measure the thickness of the pickup (it'll maybe be 1/32" at the most).Use a fine point marker to draw a line across the saddle marking off that thickness. We're talking a very small measurement so it might be a little tedious to mark it off. Then take a rattail file, lay it flat, and run the bottom of the saddle over it until you've sanded off enough material to compensate for the thickness of the pickup. This doesn't take as long as you might think, so check it periodically so you don't sand off too much.
If you want to lower the action, you'll obviously need to sand off more. You're probably going to want to shoot for an action of 3/32" at the 12th fret-- the gap between the bottom of the sixth string and the top of the 12th fret should measure 3/32". I've got all my guitars set up like that. They play like butter, and there's no buzz problem. The formula for shaving off the bottom of the saddle is to follow a 2:1 ratio--that is, for every 1/32" you want to lower the action, you'll need to sand off 1/64" (2/32") of saddle material. The other thing you can do, if your action's close to that, is just sand a little bit at a time until you get it where you want it. You don't want to go too much lower than 3/32" though, or you might have some buzzing problems. If you sand too much off, you can put a shim under the saddle. Ovation used to have shim and saddle sets; I don't know if they still make them. I still have a couple left from the old days.
Hope this helps!
Rick |
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December 2004
Posts: 4394
Location: East Tennessee | Amplifying the new Martin?
Have you ever tried one of these?
http://www.lrbaggs.com/html/products/systems_ibeam.shtml
The Fishman should give you a nice sound.
Happy Sanding. :D |
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December 2003
Posts: 1071
Location: Carle Place, NY | You sand down the saddle by clamping a piece of fine sandpaper to a hard and perfectly flat surface. Before you start sanding, mark a pencil line on the saddle where it meets the top of the bridge so you have a reference point. Then slowly sand the botton of the saddle making sure that you use even pressure and it is held flat and level on the sandpaper. Check the progress often.
One thing you should consider is which side to put the lead wire. For the Martin Thinline, they say it goes on the bass side. That probably is good for Martin guitars which tend to have more bass; however on a Taylor I ran the wire on the treble side. I'm not sure if it's true, but I was told that the free end of the pick-up is a bit more responsive than the end with the wire. So, if you want a bit more bass response, drill the hole on the treble side and visa versa. |
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February 2005
Posts: 11840
Location: closely held secret | Originally posted by rick endres:
The formula for shaving off the bottom of the saddle is to follow a 2:1 ratio--that is, for every 1/32" you want to lower the action, you'll need to sand off 1/64" (2/32") of saddle material. Rick, 2/32 is 1/16. Did you mean to say "for every 1/32" you want to lower the action, you'll need to sand off 1/16" (2/32") of saddle material"? |
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Posts: 616
Location: cincinnati, ohio | DUH! Yeah-- that's why I teach English! |
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Joined:
August 2005
Posts: 616
Location: cincinnati, ohio | DUH! Yeah-- that's why I teach English! |
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Joined:
August 2005
Posts: 616
Location: cincinnati, ohio | I apparently have a spastic computer. Anyway, to clarify, you need to sand off a thickness of TWICE as much as you want to lower the action. |
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Joined:
June 2002
Posts: 6202
Location: Phoenix AZ | Originally posted by Gospel Guitar Guy:
Amplifying the new Martin?
No, actually I'm going to amplify an ovation. I've got an old one that even though it's acoustic only, it has a 1/4 jack hole in the bowl. I suspect at one point someone had a pickup in it. Anyway, I fell into a Fishman thinline very cheaply (traded an OFC CD for it), so I figured what the heck I might as well do something with it. Now, I may get REALLY lucky and find out that since this guitar most likely had a pu in a previous life, when I remove the saddle there may be 2 shims in there + a hole already for the lead wire. But I'm usually not that lucky. Thanks for all the good inputs on sanding. I've got some saddle blanks just in case. Dave |
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November 2004
Posts: 1330
Location: ms | Does this mean we get royalties off the fishman? Shave the saddle. I have a table mounted sander i use now, but in the past, I would just start out with heavy paper, and finish off with something finer. Just don't take too much; you can always take more off. |
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February 2003
Posts: 398
Location: Gig Harbor, Washington | Dave, I very recently performed brain surgery on a #1158 Custom Legend 12: Kim sent me a thinline saddle pickup from the bone-yard, I had a vintage, double-stack pre-amp on the shelf, and I now have an AWEsome #1658...
Drilling the holes for the knob & jack were pretty straight forward (modeled my locations from other A/E's lying around) and had to use great caution when & where boring through the bridge slot with a 1/8" dremel bit...
All in all - it was a piece of cake, and if I could pull it off on 60mg of post-op Percoset, I'm sure you'll do just fine! My very best wishes to you on this project (though as an O' snob - I'd keep to O' stock parts IMHO!).
Peace, Love & Roundbacks~ |
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February 2006
Posts: 140
| hey there gospel guitar guy, do those baggs i-beam pickups work well? are you using the passive one or the active? |
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Joined:
February 2002
Posts: 5750
Location: Scotland | The I-Beams sound great, but in my experience their feedback threshold is so low you may as well use a microphone. |
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Undersaddle pickup installation question
