Official Luthiers Forum!

Dear all,

Firstly I am a complete novice at this and I really appreciate any help you experienced people might be able to give me.
I have recently bought a 'nearly finished' guitar from a luthier and I am trying to complete it by using 'Cumpiano and Natelson' guitarmaking book.
I am at the point of needing to find the position for the bridge. In the book the reference for the length is from the nut to the centre of the saddle slot.
Their saddle slot is 3/32 inches wide. Mine is much wider at about 4.85 mm.
My question is with such a wide saddle do I still use the centre of the slot for the determining length?

The guitar is parlour size if that makes any difference here..

Many thanks for any help

Nick.

Well, I'm not so sure it matter exactly where the saddle slot is located.

What is actually important is where the actual contact point is at the top of the saddle, which can be shaped anywhere from the front to the back of the saddle slot. So, as long as your string length falls in your saddle slot (and at 4.85mm, that should be easy) you're fine.

Stewmac has a great calculator to tell you the actual speaking length of the string including compensation to get you started. You may need to adjust afterwards, but it's a great place to start.

First you need to check your scale length, it may not be the same as in the book.
In most cases this will be twice the distance from the face of the nut to the centre of the 12th fret X2
Then you can use the stewmac calculator.

Here is the StewMac calculator if you were having trouble finding it.

http://www.stewmac.com/FretCalculator

Input the scale length, number of frets and type of guitar and it will tell you where all the frets go. Thats fine, but what you really want is down at the bottom - they give you an approximate location of the break points for the high and low E strings. Most of the time I end up with the high E at SL + 1/16, the low E at SL + 2 or 3/16.

When you do your setup you can file/sand your saddle so it has the usual shape the we think of on a steel string - high E pushed to the front, B pushed to the back, G to the front and the others gradually angling to the low E at the back.

There re tricks to dial in the intonation but is rarely a big deal - unlike electric players we don't normally play up the neck or do the big bends. However one advantage of your wider saddle will be more bone to work with if you want to try to get the intonation spot on.

Edit to add - is there any possibility of getting the luthier who built it help you with the bridge? That is one of the slightly tricky operations and requires some deep clamps and special cauls.

Just use the center measurement. Then you have the luxury of having a wide saddle to dial in the intonation fore and aft real good if necessary. Don't forget that the proper location of that center is the scale length plus about 2.5mm.

We use the Stewart MacDonald Saddlematic, thus eliminating most of the errors associated with use of a direct measurement to place the saddle. Provided the compensation pins are properly set, there are no direct measurements, and no related measuring tool or human error to accumulate.

_________________
A constellation only takes shape when one maps the whole.
- Beth Brower

I don't bother measuring. The Saddlematic method is much better, especially if you don't know the EXACT scale length you have. I don't have a Saddlematic so I just use a straight edge to do the same thing
Take a straight edge and lay it on the fretboard from the front of the nut to the 12th fret. Mark it at the center of the 12th fret. Then add in your compensation and make a second mark. Spin the straight edge around and place the second mark on the center of the 12th fret. Then free end is where the saddle will be. I usually go to the front of the saddle but you can make it the middle or where you prefer.

Hi Nick I am in Nailsea just south of Bristol. If you fancy a trip down the M5 I would be happy to help you out and go through the procedure with you.

Cheers, Bob

Thanks very much for all of your responses.
That all makes sense. I feel pretty confident to position the it now.

Bob - would your kind offer extend to helping me to glue it on? My next problem (as foreseen by Freeman!) was a lack of clamps and a fear of bodging the most important gluing job I've ever done!

Bob - would your kind offer extend to helping me to glue it on? My next problem (as foreseen by Freeman!) was a lack of clamps and a fear of bodging the most important gluing job I've ever done![/quote]


Yes if you like. PM me details of when you are available and we can see if we can sort something out.

Cheers, Bob

Yes if you like. PM me details of when you are available and we can see if we can sort something out.

Cheers, Bob[/quote]

I continue to be impressed by the people on this forum.