Bleached White Bone Saddles

Replacing a saddle means the old one doesn't work anymore. You have to adjust dimensions to fit the instrument, so that's no biggie. The important part is quality and service. Everything I've purchased from StewMac has always been good, and when I've had to order special items, StewMac always delivered. You guys are the best!

I have two 2-year olds in the house. Hence the reason I sold the Taylor.

Now I have an el-cheapo acoustic and it's painfully inadequate. Or I should say "was".

I replaced the saddle and the pins with much MUCH higher quality ones from StewMac. Threw on new strings and holy cow... it's so much more responsive. I wish I could compare it with my long-lost Taylor.

For the newbies - it's worth noting I've never carved, shaped, repaired, ANYTHING-ed a guitar. I've never even done fine woodworking or carving. I just took the old saddle out, traced it, used the Dremel to approximate the shape, then some 100 grit to get the final profile.

I am certain that a trained luthier would look and think my saddle sophomoric. But the intonation is still there, no buzzing, action is passable... works for me! I didn't get fancy with the top. I just rounded it, no offsets or anything.

Okay... long-winded. Oh yeah, bone dust stinks and the stink will linger so change your shirt afterwards or find a less dusty approach.

Quality from StewMac!

I agree with an earlier reviewer, the Martin 3/32" (.094") blanks, while nominally correct, are often a bit too thin for Martin slots, which can trend closer to .100" for some reason (they may widen slightly over time from bridge shrinkage.) The Gibson blanks are thicker (a bit too much!) than the nominal 1/8", I'd like to find the Martin blanks at .100" and dress them back down a few thou as required.

I have noticed, particularly with the #6031 blanks, the thickness is usually quite a bit greater than the already generous 9/64" (.140"), often .150". I know the last thing you want is an undersize blank, but the normal Gibson saddle is "1/8" or .125 - .130, so having to shave off .020" is a lot. I'd prefer the blanks to be limited to .135" max, and add an "extra thick" blank of say .150" for those oddball wide slots.

These blanks are always consistent, and the pricing is great.

I bought these to replace the "mystery" plastic saddles on a Gibson J-45 and a Hummingbird I own. These are pretty nice quality bone blanks that should save a bit of fabrication time.

The one issue I have with them concerns the rounded top surface. This is fine for a non-compensated saddle, but all modern Gibson acoustics use saddles with a compensated "B" string. To duplicate this, I will need to grind the top of the saddle square to begin the compensation notches, and there may not be enough height to the saddle after doing this. Also, the top radius measures 10" rather than the more common 12", so be aware of this.

I use a lot of these blanks for a variety of wood and carbon fiber guitars and other instruments.

They are always well packed to prevent chipping along the edges. The bone grain is super consistent. I've done a lot of independent research (blind tests) on bone vs. Tusq and bone definitely gets a bad wrap. It is warmer, with better clarity, frequency and response then Tusq, hands down.

There exists some bad bone blanks with dead spots, but they are not made from these blanks. These blanks are excellent, averaging about 99/100 for me so far. I had one break (along the grain) with a very thin slot, but made another and it worked perfect. If you want the best, this is what your looking for.

A few years back I bought a Martin OO kit and it sat around the house as I struggled with my lack of experience (knowledge, skill, ability and understanding) with the requisite tools. My playing partner - who has built fiddles, mandolins and harps eventually dragged me along to a class. Wiht the help of the teacher (84 years old and a fount of wisdom)I have at last built the guitar.

Theris more to do but the sound is ENORMOUS and already a lot of fun. There is no doubt the kit was way beyond my capacity to build at home but the end result is well worth the wait. What's next I ain't sure but something has started and after fify years as a player (many of them scraping/scratching a living at it) I begin to understand just what guitars actually are - thanks a bunch!

With this saddle already having to right radius on them makes them quick and easy. All you have to do is cut it to length and shave it to the proper height and you're done. I used it on an under bridge pick up system and it sounds great, even tone and volume on all strings. Dad's old guitar, he would have loved it.