Under Saddle Pickup Removal

[redi]

Interesting thread. I have some guitars that just came with UST and I don't typically need them, some with nice bone saddles too. I will have to experiment with pulling them out and replacing some saddles. I did not think there was a wide consensus that acoustically it made much of a difference as there appears to be.

[abn556]

Originally Posted by redi

Interesting thread. I have some guitars that just came with UST and I don't typically need them, some with nice bone saddles too. I will have to experiment with pulling them out and replacing some saddles. I did not think there was a wide consensus that acoustically it made much of a difference as there appears to be.

I think you’ll find they are easy to remove and you can either replace the saddle or shim it with a sliver of rosewood. You can also replace the jack with one of these:

https://www.larrivee.com/shop/end-pin-chrome

They also have them in gold if you prefer. I used two on Gibsons recently.

[BoneDigger]

I just had the Sonitone pickup removed from my IBG Hummingbird. Instead of shimming, I asked them to make a new bone saddle for me. Did it make the guitar sound better? I'm not sure. Maybe a little. It wasn't a huge difference, but I'm glad I did it.

[jimmy bookout]

Originally Posted by BoneDigger

I just had the Sonitone pickup removed from my IBG Hummingbird. Instead of shimming, I asked them to make a new bone saddle for me. Did it make the guitar sound better? I'm not sure. Maybe a little. It wasn't a huge difference, but I'm glad I did it.

And there you go.
There's a good deal of confirmation bias regarding UST's and their removal/impact on acoustic tone. Many will swear that a UST kills acoustic tone. Many others (like me) find UST's have little to no effect on acoustic tone.
FWIW, many years ago I experimented with this on 2 guitars (both had Baggs Elements in them and they're easy to remove).
I recorded the guitars acoustically (with fresh strings) and the Element in place. I then removed the Element, shimmed the saddle (Bob Colosi Ebony shims), put on fresh strings, and recorded acoustically.
I could not tell any difference (blind), nor could my long time playing partner, when listening (blind) to the recordings. Guitars sounded the same.

PS. We all hear differently. I am not suggesting that my experiment is the end all/be all. As always...YMMV