Unbleached Bone Saddles

I like lowering the action on guitars I purchase. These narrower saddles work great with my Gibson's. Cut the length, radius the top and the height is perfect for me.

Hoping to get a fuller tone with more sustain, I bought a pre-shaped bone saddle for my '58 Gibson Country Western Dreadnought. The old saddle was plastic and looked like it had been through a lot. I'd researched online for instructions on how to cut and shape the saddle to my guitar. After about an hour, I had the saddle just how I wanted it. Sounds fantastic! Great product, StewMac!!

After replacing the plastic saddle on my Gibson Country Western, I decided to do the same to my Gibson Songbird Deluxe. The existing saddle was a plastic Fishman saddle, part of the under-the-saddle pickup system. I discovered when I removed the saddle from the bridge, it had five small holes drilled through it. The saddle also was being cut by the strings and I wanted to have a harder and more resonant saddle for more sustain. Plenty of videos and articles to research online gave me the best information for trimming and sanding the saddle to the right size and shape. The new unbleached bone saddle from StewMac was exactly what I was looking for, because the guitar sounds even better than ever, unplugged or through my acoustic amp. Another very satisfied customer!

I bought a saddle to replace one that was too low. It was slightly different from the exact one I needed, but no problem. With a little careful fitting and sanding, it fit perfectly. The sound was clean and a vast improvement over the plastic saddle I replaced.

This saddle did exactly what I was hoping it would do. Since placing my initial order, I've ordered more. My primary guitar, a Morgan Monroe M-10, while not terribly expensive, sounds great and is a joy to play. However, the action was set fairly low, and when the temperature and humidity started to drop this past fall, I started getting some nasty fret buzz. I looked into shimming the saddle that came with the guitar, but when I removed it, I realized that it already had two shims in place. I actually did shim it further, and while this did help (along with some tweaking of the trussrode) the shimmed saddle wasn't seated into the slot far enough and was leaning forward from the string pressure.
I'm no luthier, and I've never attempted anything similar before, but I really wanted to raise the saddle properly, with bone, and get rid of the plastic saddle and shims. I order the blank, and with some sandpaper and files I copied the general shape of the original plastic saddle. It took some time, probably more than an hour, but again I hadn't attempted this before. The blank was initially too thick for the slot, but after some tweaking, I finally had a saddle that fit properly, alleviated the fret buzz while keeping the action still relatively low, and perhaps my ears are deceiving me, but I think it sounds better too. I recommend anyone, with similar problems, not hesitate to give this a try for themselves. It wasn't particularly difficult, even for a first-timer, and I'm delighted to have taken care of the problem without having to pay someone else or having to go without my instrument while it was in the shop. I'm happy with this product, for sure.

These saddles are fabulous. As others have said, they are a vast improvement over plastic. The unbleached saddles look great polished up; the bleached ones look too 'white' for my taste.

I see some folks commenting on the sizing. Seriously? This is a natural product that is meant to be shaped by hand for a custom fit. You're complaing about having to take a 64th of an inch off? Are you kidding?

This was an amazing purchase for restoring my 40 yr old guitar. I had to do some filing and it was ready for install. When coupled with the unbleached bone nut (also from Stewart-MacDonald) the sound is HUGE. Because of the unbleached bone the sustain, volume, and bite sounds like a Martin. The Citation guitar my Dad gave me when I was 10 Is a guitar I will play to the grave and pass on to my son. The look is amazing as well. A great deal.

High quality bone with a uniform structure and density. Takes a polish really well and looks great.

Just finished processing the unbleached bone saddle for my Martin HD-35 that was built from a Kit (Not me). I was a bit surprised to receive the long saddle instead of the short drop in, but after reviewing the catalog I saw that it was the only one available. Anyway, I just cut it to length, and sanded it down to fit the action on the fingerboard. I had previously installed a bleached compensated bone saddle and was not quite satisfied, so, I bought the unbleached straight saddle. There was all the difference in the world between the two. The volume and sustain went up probably 20%, I am totally satisfied with the results.

I also bought the slotted unbleached bone nut to match, but I haven't installed it as yet. I can't imagine the sound could get much better, but I still have a sing in the "E" open 1st string when picked at a certain spot that the new nut might remedy.

Thanks so much for the great quality of your parts and accessories.

John

1st time ordering a saddle. I like the product, strong, and easy to work with.