Official Luthiers Forum!

What a great bunch of folks here! I have h vaccaro acoustic guitar (I understand it was henry vaccaro's company after Kramer). Anyway it's in really good shape except the saddle is gone. I think it had (or has) a pickup in the bridge. The saddle was one where it screwed into the bridge and you could raise or lower the action. Question is should I replace the whole bridge or try to find the one like was in it. I really don't think it's worth a lot of money but would probably make a nice playing guitar. Thanks again.

Why not make a drop-in saddle to fit the existing slot? It's a common practice, considered an upgrade and improvement, on adjustable bridge Gibsons.

It is a wide slot, would I use a filler in it?

You can but don't have to. Plugging the saddle slot with the same wood used for the bridge and then cutting a new slot is an excellent approach. However, sometimes on vintage guitars a smart way to go is simply to make a saddle that fits the slot in order to retain the originality. You can do either. Just making the saddle to fit the existing slot will save you a lot of work.

for the wide slot do I just need a wider saddle? Stewmac got?

Ronnie: Not sure how wide your slot is but LMI has bone that average about.220 wide in blank form. They are good folk to deal with and if you need wider I'm almost sure they would check.
Tom

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A person who has never made a mistake has never made anything!!!

You can get sterilized bone from your local pet stores from which you can make thick blanks. Alternatively, gluing a couple of stewmac or lmi blanks together works great too. Or you can sandwich bone between pieces of wood which match your bridge and then fit them to the slot (paying attention to putting the saddle at the appropriate angle.) I've done all of these and they all work well.

It measure's 1/4 inch, I think I'll look at the pet shop for bone....i'm anxious to see how the guitar sounds.