Acoustic Saddle Shim - What Material?

guitarfishbay · July 2019

As per title, what should I shim my acoustic saddle with, any tips/do's & don'ts etc.

It's a custom made saddle with an overhang to intonate for lower tunings, so isn't as cheaply replaced as a regular saddle so I'd prefer to just shim it if that'll sound ok.

Thanks

Andy79 · July 2019

I have shimmed saddles before with slivers of bone, ebony and rosewood depending on bridge material and have not noticed and change in tone, there may well have been a change but I couldn’t detect it.

earwighoney · July 2019

Andy79 said:

I have shimmed saddles before with slivers of bone, ebony and rosewood depending on bridge material and have not noticed and change in tone, there may well have been a change but I couldn’t detect it.

Where do you get slivers of those following materials from?

Andy79 · July 2019

This guy is famous in shim land
http://www.guitarsaddles.com/SaddleShim.asp

Otherwise just get some veneer off cuts from eBay, use a blade and a steel ruler to trim them

earwighoney · July 2019

Andy79 said:

This guy is famous in shim land
http://www.guitarsaddles.com/SaddleShim.asp

Otherwise just get some veneer off cuts from eBay, use a blade and a steel ruler to trim them

Ah the Elephant Ivory guy!

I think I'll give him a miss...

Thanks for the info though.

Lewy · July 2019

earwighoney said:

Andy79 said:

This guy is famous in shim land
http://www.guitarsaddles.com/SaddleShim.asp

Otherwise just get some veneer off cuts from eBay, use a blade and a steel ruler to trim them

Ah the Elephant Ivory guy!

I think I'll give him a miss...

Thanks for the info though.

Wow....I've had a couple of bone saddles from him in the past but he didn't used to sell ivory (apart from fossilized walrus...) otherwise I'd never have bought from him. Certainly won't again.

On the OP - I've used rosewood to good effect (I actually had a little block very kindly sent to me by @octatonic after asking a similar question on here....I used all of it otherwise I'd pay it forward to you). This may not be the best way to do it but my approach was to get the shim roughly the right size and then glue it to the bottom of the saddle, and then do the final trimming and sanding with it on there.

Andy79 · July 2019

I didn’t know he was selling ivory.....
i have some ebony you can have if you want.

ToneControl · July 2019

guitarfishbay said:

As per title, what should I shim my acoustic saddle with, any tips/do's & don'ts etc.

It's a custom made saddle with an overhang to intonate for lower tunings, so isn't as cheaply replaced as a regular saddle so I'd prefer to just shim it if that'll sound ok.

Thanks

ask the guitar maker first

guitarfishbay · July 2019

Thanks guys

peter.scott01 · July 2020

guitarfishbay said:

As per title, what should I shim my acoustic saddle with, any tips/do's & don'ts etc.

It's a custom made saddle with an overhang to intonate for lower tunings, so isn't as cheaply replaced as a regular saddle so I'd prefer to just shim it if that'll sound ok.

Thanks

I have had same problem with my Martin guitar you can take help of Michael Stone he is guitar expert and deals with high quality bone saddle, I think he is top rated bone saddle guy in Amazon.. You can contact him at Macnichol.com

artiebear · July 2020

Lowden used to shim all their guitars with rosewood ( same thickness as an under saddle pick ) to make installation of electrics easy without adjusting the saddle. Always worked well and sounded great.

TheBigDipper · July 2020

artiebear said:

Lowden used to shim all their guitars with rosewood ( same thickness as an under saddle pick ) to make installation of electrics easy without adjusting the saddle. Always worked well and sounded great.

One of my acoustics had too much taken off the saddle by a luthier in the process of setting it up, and now has a rosewood shim just dropped (not glued) in the saddle slot. I can't hear any difference. I just need to remember it's there if I take the saddle out...

ICBM · July 2020

I hope @camf doesn't mind me cutting and pasting the reply I just posted to his question as part of this...

It probably doesn't make a lot of difference, to be honest! As long as the material is hard enough that it won't actually absorb vibration - and it would need to be as soft as some sort of rubber for that really - then I can't see any reason it should affect the tone. Piezo undersaddle strips don't seem to.

I do think the hardness of the material makes a difference when it's the actual saddle itself, because the strings are pressing directly onto it and that will affect the energy that's passed from the strings down into the bridge, or reflected back into the string vibration - but at the bottom of the saddle, the whole lot is just moving up and down together.

I've used wood, bone, card, plastic and even metal - in fact, I've seen cut-off pieces of wound strings used - and never heard any difference.

camf · July 2020

Yep, I just put a slice of an old plastic bank card on top of an LR Baggs Anthem Element, stuck the saddle on top and, to me at least, it sounds just like it did before. And it turned out to be exactly the right height too.

guitarfishbay · July 2020

I didn’t end up making it myself in the end, not actually sure what’s in there! I ended up getting a pickup installed in the instrument and it got shimmed at the same time

pjf · July 2020

Pretty sure my Brook came with some rosewood shims. I used one in my Epi jumbo acoustic, worked great!

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Acoustic Saddle Shim - What Material?

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