Saddle Material ???

[DennisMiller]

The Epiphone section of the Gibson website doesn't really offer much in the way of specs on the acoustics.

 

I am curious what the saddle on my 2 Epiphones is made of. Considering they are a Hummingbird Ltd. Artist and an EJ200 jumbo, I would suspect ordinary plastic, as opposed to Tusq, (fancy plastic). I have some Tusq saddles and some bone blanks here. I was thinking of cutting new saddles for them to see what happened.

 

So, any idea what Epiphone uses?

[wiggy]

Unless it's a Masterbuilt I'd say plastic is a pretty certain bet.

[DennisMiller]

I just put a Tusq saddle in the Hummingbird Ltd Artist with no apparent difference in tone. Fancy plastic for plain old plastic... No big deal yet.

[Tuiblue]

Have you swapped out the nut yet? Tusq in lieu of plastic. You may hear a more significant difference then.

 

On my Aims, I have a Rosewood saddle with an Ebony Bridge insert.

Sounds much better than the plastic or bone bridge inserts I tried.

 

Go figure...wood instead of hard plastic or bone.

 

[DennisMiller]

I probably won't replace the nut since once a note is fretted, the nut doesn't play a role in the tone.

 

I love to try different materials in the saddle and pins, but I'm not sure where I could get a piece of ebony. Does someplace like Stewart McDonald have that sort of thing?

[Tuiblue]

All by hand.

 

Lots of various sandpaper grits.

 

http://www.rockler.com/retail/display_region.cfm?state=FL

 

Don't know how far away these are from you, but this is where I get blanks of Ebony, Rosewood, and B. Rosewood.

 

Usually 2 or 3 bucks a piece.

[bill67]

Wouldn't a plastic saddle over the years get harder and sound better,Or if there was a way to harden it.

[DennisMiller]

Davie, Florida is about an hour north of me by car. I'm in SW Miami, pretty near the edge of the Everglades. The other place in Naples, Florida is across the state on the west coast, but it's still only 1 day by mail.

 

Thanks for the locations. I'm going to call them later today.

 

Out of curiosity, what kind of effect on the tone of a guitar does ebony have? I would imagine being softer than bone, it might mellow the sound some. Is that true?

[Tuiblue]

This is a 40+ year old git, made in Japan, a copy of a Martin D-35.

 

So to be fair, this is not an ordinary acoustic.

 

 

 

Purchased for 80 bucks, with a cracked neck, slightly separated fretboard, a pos saddle insert, bad tuners, and in need of some very serious tender loving care.

 

I'm not a Luthier, but got some great advice on this forum with ideas on how to fix it.

 

This is how it sounds now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiAhkCqjOow