After fitting my J45 standard with a bone saddle from Bob Colosi I was like ”meh”. - It brought some modest clarity and definition I had not experienced with tusq but nothing really ground breaking. To be honest I was kinda surprised because I’ve had good experiences swapping to bone on other guitars. Then I put on some new JP 200Ls and ebony pins…
I am pretty sure the old dull strings ”camouflaged” some of the tonal improvements from Bobs beautifully crafted saddle, because now my J45 sounds like nothing I’ve ever heard from it before! I’m not even exaggerating, the volume is WAY higher, the string separations is vastly improved and it really has that brilliant vintage j45 “spikyness” to it. Fingerpicked it still gets real mellow and sweet, but when digging in with a pick this thing is a BEAST. I am completely stunned.
Now, I know what some of you are gonna say and you are of course right; NEW STRINGS make a huge difference. Also, the change from bone pins to ebony may have affected the tone. However, I have experimented a lot with these kinds of variables and I have never experienced advancement this significant before. I’m guessing Bob’s saddle was the missing piece of the puzzle?
I am in awe.
Chris