Material under bridge saddle- Hummingbird??

[tinman1]

Looking for advice please.

 

Changing my hummingbird strings today and the saddle fell out as it sometimes does but along with it came a thin strip of fabric, brown in colour, which has been sitting under the saddle.

 

Is this a stock feature or has it been added by the last guitar tech that set it up?

[jedzep]

I'm guessing that it was added as a means of suppressing a tone someone felt was too bright or harsh. I've seen a lot of odd materials under saddle.but intuition tells me the saddle should always be in direct contact with the soundboard.

[bobouz]

I've used very thin strips of birch laminate to make shims, with virtually no change in tone. These are generally available at craft or hobby stores. Birch is quite similar to maple, and can work well in a number of internal repair applications. In fact, some early Gibson instruments that were speced with maple bodies, were actually made from birch.

 

Shim or no shim, getting the saddle to fit snugly in the slot is a key factor. Not super tight, just snug.

[tinman1]

So this piece of material doesn’t come stock with a Gibson Acoustic, it was added later?

 

I would have thought there should be hard contact between saddle and slot, rather than fabric.

[Mafy31]

edit (mistaken)

[tinman1]

Mine is certainly not rosewood, it is some sort of fabric and not glued to the saddle but loose in the slot.

[Rich]

Could it be a pickup element? The LR Baggs element has kind of a fabric look to it.

 

https://images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--jHYYoedM--/a_exif,c_limit,e_unsharp_mask:80,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_south,h_620,q_90,w_620/v1485634234/bf3y2ay4lblhjmgvxaaf.jpg

[bobouz]

Could it be a pickup element? The LR Baggs element has kind of a fabric look to it.

The OP indicates that the fabric fell out along with the saddle.

 

A strip-type pickup would be attached to it's related wiring, unless the wires had been clipped.

[E-minor7]

Could it be a pickup element? The LR Baggs element has kind of a fabric look to it.

 

https://images.rever...blhjmgvxaaf.jpg

Hope tinman has considered this.

I tend to bet on jedzeps theory that the former owner found it too brittle, fx for a certain recording, and therefor tried to dampen the Bird down.

 

Long theme short, the piece of cloth (and other foreign-bodies) is a no-go as a main-rule. Which of course can be broken in special situations.

Straight hard-wooden shims are fine, but different experimental materials should be only used in case you want to alter sound.

I still keep medium sandpaper under my Dove-saddle. That's because it is so smooooth.

Also withhold trebs on my squares (and others) with a line of under-saddle-duct-tape beneath the 3 thin strings. Oooohh. . .

Various luthiers have scorned me for that, but I just smile.

What do they know about my sound'n'taste - how the guitars react to my nails. Nil.

 

[BC Mike 118]

I suspect a non-professional tried to get rid of a buzz by raising the strings a bit but didn't use the correct material. Maybe found it easier to cut a bit of material raher that use a wood shim.

[tinman1]

Could it be a pickup element? The LR Baggs element has kind of a fabric look to it.

 

https://images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--jHYYoedM--/a_exif,c_limit,e_unsharp_mask:80,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_south,h_620,q_90,w_620/v1485634234/bf3y2ay4lblhjmgvxaaf.jpg

 

I was just thinking about this before you posted. I think this might be it. When I think about it maybe the strip didn’t fall all the way out which would imply it was attached on one end. The pickup still works too. Having just restrung with expensive strings I don’t want to mess about with it and risk string kinks so I’ll look properly at time of next restring.

 

I’ve owned from new and it’s only ever been handled by pro guitar techs so I doubt it’s botched job but I guess that’s also possible.

 

It does seem an odd thing to have blocking contact between saddle and bridge. If it is the pickup element, it makes me wonder what effect it’s having on acoustic sound.

 

Thanks guys.

[jvi]

as the saddle "fell right out" could the cloth have been on the side of the saddle to add width ?

[groovadelic]

It might be a shim to balance out the strings for the pickup. If the saddle slot or saddle is not completely flat, certain strings will come through louder than others.

[StrayGray]

Old thread but...

My Hummingbird has a fabric-looking thing under the saddle. Since the saddle has never been worked on, I have to assume that the thing was put in at the factory. My best guess is that it has something to do with the pickup. I decided not to monkey with it. Next trip to the shop, maybe I'll ask the luthier what it is.