Bone pins & saddle vs TUSQ pins & saddle on a maple parlor guitar?

[Myopic Squirrel]

Would greatly appreciate hearing from any parlor owners - especially maple owners - how the above choice affects the tone. Thank you in advance!

[jseth]

If you like the way the guitar sounds, keep it as it is. Over the years, I have read many posts about folks wanting to "upgrade" their guitars to bone rather than Tusq...

And then being dismayed that they sound worse with the "real thing" in them!

Taylor guitars, in particular, seem to sound better with the saddle they are built to have...

If you're wondering about tonal characteristics, bone seems to have a softer, more diffused tone than Tusq, which seems a bit brighter and more penetrating. I don't think the wood variety makes all that much difference with regard to either bone or Tusq for a saddle...

[gmel555]

My own experience with saddles on ~a dozen guitars is that swapping them out can make a significant tonal difference. However, whether a given saddle material will improve or detract can only be determined by trying them. I've experienced very similar guitars made of the same tone woods, body size, etc. where one will very much "prefer" bone while another will sound better with TUSQ. It's a relatively inexpensive experiment and the original saddle can be put back in if the replacement is unsatisfactory. (I haven't found much if any difference changing pins of similar weight/density, though others report they have.)

[abn556]

I just swapped out the plastic bridge pins on a J-45 for bone. I notice no tonal difference. I did it because I liked the look of the bigger 4mm abalone inlays on the bone pins from Bob Colosi. I have a bone saddle as well that came in with the pins for this guitar. I might fit it today and see if there is a big difference between it and the Tusq saddle that came in.

[Rockysdad]

Larrivée is giving a discount on bone saddles, nuts, & pins right now.

Check it out.