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1976 gibson dove saddle replacement??


iwalktheline

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Posted

hey guys, I needed some advice about an idea I was having concerning my dove. compared to my other guitars the saddle is really, really low and I was wondering if I had a new bone saddle installed would it make any significant change in sound (louder) to the guitar. also, I wanted to get it higher, since compared to my martin d35 and hummingbird there is almost no saddle on the dove. any ideas or advice would be great. thanks in advance....

Posted

Hi.. I think if the saddle is really low.. It could be a bad Neck angle.... It may be time for a neck set... that would be pricey.. the angle of the neck tilting up wards will take away the tone. reason.. you have no angle on the saddle.. the strings are probably straight or nearly straight from the pins to the saddle then to the nut.. there you have no preasure to the top.. . see if thats the issue by looking from the headstock down to the bridge,, you got to remember about these 70s acoustic too.. these are double X braced. .

 

Im not sure why the Norlin era did this.. But it was a dumb idea.. also comparing it to a d35 ,,,the d35 is just a boomier Guitar.. built somewhat different...

 

I would be inclined to take it to a Well quallified Luthier and get his or her accessment..

Posted

hi there johnny, there are a couple of things you can check that may lend to what slim was saying.

 

First off - how's the action? If it's low you might have some room to move with a new saddle, if it's high, or getting to be high it's very likely that you wouldn't do any good by raising it even higher with a bigger saddle. If the action is ok then you probably don't have much room to raise it without foo-barring the intonation and the action both at the same time.

 

One way you can roughly tell if the neck angle is ok would be to lay a long straight-edge level along the fretboard (on the frets, not on the strings) and see where it is when it hits the bridge. I think a roughly correct neck-angle will have the straight-edge resting exactly on the top of the bridge (in front of the saddle). If the straight-edge comes in low (eg: doesn't even hit the bridge) then that can be an indication that your neck angle is shallow and may need an adjustment.

 

either way, like slim says, if you take it into a luthier they can really look at the guitar and your playing style and let you know what your options are...

Posted

Hi.. I think if the saddle is really low.. It could be a bad Neck angle.... It may be time for a neck set... that would be pricey.. the angle of the neck tilting up wards will take away the tone. reason.. you have no angle on the saddle.. the strings are probably straight or nearly straight from the pins to the saddle then to the nut.. there you have no preasure to the top.. . see if thats the issue by looking from the headstock down to the bridge,, you got to remember about these 70s acoustic too.. these are double X braced. .

 

Im not sure why the Norlin era did this.. But it was a dumb idea.. also comparing it to a d35 ,,,the d35 is just a boomier Guitar.. built somewhat different...

 

I would be inclined to take it to a Well quallified Luthier and get his or her accessment..

 

Like Slim says......

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