The Acoustic Guitar Forum

Go Back   The Acoustic Guitar Forum > General Acoustic Guitar and Amplification Discussion > General Acoustic Guitar Discussion

Reply
 
Thread Tools
  #1  
Old 07-09-2012, 11:14 AM
xuoham xuoham is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: May 2012
Location: OKinawa Japan
Posts: 381
Default Saddle Fit Compromise

"A properly fitted saddle is tight enough to pick up an unstrung guitar, with a pair of pliers"
Quote:
Originally Posted by JLS View Post
A properly fitted saddle is tight enough to pick up an unstrung guitar, with a pair of pliers. USTs, or, "quacksticks", necessitate a looser saddle fit.
After reading this in the Amplified section:

That's interesting, just what i was looking for:

today i tried to shape a new, slightly thicker saddle for my Yamaha A3R because i was hoping that a tighter one would let the UST catch more of the sound of percussion on the body.
On this regard it's a big success ! It even catches my (muffled) voice !
And as for the pure acoustic tone, it has more low mids and punch, definitely noticeable. The solid top really comes alive, i never felt it vibrate so much.
I thought, "well done buddy", nice slow sanding and careful approach.

But alas, as i always do when i change something, i recorded acoustically and electrically the most scientifically i could, and the immediate thing to be noticed when comparing the "before" and "after" audio files of the A3R's preamp is the volume drop. Well, actually i have to double check to be sure (batteries, something wrong with my souncard).

So i was wondering:could it be that all the string vibration gets sucked by the tight sides of the saddle, resulting in a great acoustic tone and a poor UST electric one ?
Is that what you mean JLS ? Anyway, glad i found what you had to say because it really fits my experience today.

Now i wonder what to do between those two choices:

- go back to my older saddle and use the K&K Hotspot + K&K Dual Channel Pro Preamp to mix the Yamaha's otherwise awesome sounding with the Hotspot piezo, far from the strings, just to catch more (ocasionnal) percussion on the body. And keep this extremely well fitted saddle i managed to shape today for special acoustic only occasions (well, ... it actually sounds like a bit of a pain to swap saddles, especially tight ones).

- sand the saddle's thickness again, very slowly and checking the sound each time until i find the perfect compromise between contact to the UST and contact to the saddle slot.

Thanks for any opinion or advice

This is a half pure acoustic, half amplified acoustic problem so this is a double post with this thread i bumped in the Amplified section.
Please Mr Moderator delete if this is abusive

Last edited by xuoham; 07-09-2012 at 11:47 AM. Reason: Title too repelent!
Reply With Quote
Reply

  The Acoustic Guitar Forum > General Acoustic Guitar and Amplification Discussion > General Acoustic Guitar Discussion

Thread Tools





All times are GMT -6. The time now is 02:45 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.
Copyright ©2000 - 2022, The Acoustic Guitar Forum
vB Ad Management by =RedTyger=