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Question About ADJ Saddles - PHOTO ADDED


zombywoof

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Something that I have wondered about.  Gibson obviously used two kinds of ADJ bridge saddles.  Both wood and ceramic saddles could either be grooved on the bottom or flat.  Was this simply  a matter of when the guitar was built or was there a reason for it.  OK, so it is official, I have no life.

Edited by zombywoof
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Can't answer that directly, but the adj bridge/saddle Gibson installed on my old 1950 J-45 in July, 1968 had the rosewood saddle that was flat on the bottom. I still have it in my parts box. It also had the slightly curved steel  "spring" plate underneath the saddle, which I removed somewhere along the line, probably when I modified the rosewood saddle with a bone insert around 1971.

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The ceramics I've owned have been flat on the bottom.

I believe the one rosewood saddle I have is also flat.  Will report back if I can find it & confirm.

 Therefore, I don't believe I've seen one with the saddle grooved on the bottom.  Every one I've had has also come with the flat steel plate under the saddle, which I typically remove for a better fit with the ceramic (never have had a ceramic crack under tension). 

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My 1961 B45-12 came with a grooved bottom wood saddle which I am wanting to go back to as I liked it better than the flat bottom bone saddle I am currently using.   I also just  picked up another original Gibson 12 string wood saddle which also has a flat bottom so can go with that one and just not use the metal shim or whatever that thing is.   

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All mine are flat - 3 ceramics and a couple of rosewoods. 
But I heard (and seen) the clay-ones came both matt and gloss. Had me curious about sound.  Never met a shiny one. 
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 

 

@Burst - remember we talked about springs in the spring. See Nick's post and receive a clue 🔎

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1 hour ago, E-minor7 said:

All mine are flat - 3 ceramics and a couple of rosewoods. 
But I heard (and seen) the clay-ones came both matt and gloss. Had me curious about sound.  Never met a shiny one. 
.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 

 

@Burst - remember we talked about springs in the spring. See Nick's post and receive a clue 🔎

 

✔️.

 

But the images, and Wizz demo live half way down pg. 2 of the older thread.

Edited by 62burst
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Now that's interesting. The underside of the saddle was grooved so that the spring plate indexed to it. I suspect that was an early iteration, and it was dropped because it added (minutely) to cost and complexity. I have never seen that before. 1961 was fairly early in the adj cycle.

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19 hours ago, bobouz said:

(never have had a ceramic crack under tension). 

 

I had a bone replacement saddle in my ADJ bridge break on the end.  Couldn’t figure out why the guitar’s sound became so weak until I decided to try a tusq saddle in there and found the bone one’s end cracked under the screw when I went to take it out to put the tusq one in.  With the uncracked tusq one put in, it made the volume and sound back to being strong.  Amazing how a cracked saddle in the ADJ bridge hurt the volume.

QM aka “ Jazzman” Jeff

 

Edited by QuestionMark
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On ‎9‎/‎9‎/‎2019 at 8:08 PM, zombywoof said:

Something that I have wondered about.  Gibson obviously used two kinds of ADJ bridge saddles.  Both wood and ceramic saddles could either be grooved on the bottom or flat.  Was this simply  a matter of when the guitar was built or was there a reason for it.  OK, so it is official, I have no life.

 

Ohhh, you have a life...it can be a "Life's work" trying to find rhyme or reason to anything Gibson does/did...

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That metal plate is more complex than the one I had, which was essentially just a flat piece of very thin spring steel shaped in plan view like ZW's. The one ZW has probably been formed in a hydraulic press and sheared to shape, since it has the "tongue" pressed into the middle.

It would be interesting if someone here has another early adj--say, 1960 or earlier--they could take apart and have a look at. It isn't that hard if you do it in conjunction with a string change, and it is of some historical interest.

(I do have a life, but I find this type of thing really interesting.)

Edited by j45nick
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