Saddle design

[Steve N]

I recently purchased a Takamine EG128SC Classical guitar for my daughter. A decent guitar for the money - solid spruce top, finish is great, sound is good, and intonation is surprisingly close. Problem: I took it to my local Luthier for a bone nut and saddle and, after inspection, decided agianst a bone saddle due to the design. He felt for the time it would take him to make it wouldn't be worth for me to pay him that much for something on a $425 guitar. Check out the pic. Have you seen this? Do I have any options.
Thanks. Steve

[danove]

That Takamine seems to be equipped with an UST,
The bottom design of the saddle is done to minimize
cross-hearing from adjacent strings to the transducer.

You could leave it as is.
Takamine electronics usually are of high standard
and the saddle should work well with what yo've got.

[Mike Kolb]

Yep, I agree that the existing plastic saddle should work just fine as is. One of my recent jobs was the replacement/fabrication of a Takamine 12-string saddle with a similar set-up (although further complicated by having a "split saddle" arrangement... fortunately, the one I had to make was the short one).

Anyway, the picture doesn't quite show the whole story. Look along the lower half of the saddle... in addition to the large slots to relieve the crosstalk, the entire saddle is thinner at the bottom, with a relief cut on both sides that fits snugly into the metal u-shaped bracket in the bridge, over the transducer elements. Lots of labor-intensive hand-fitting here.

Steve's luthier is right... if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[Steve N]

Thanks for the replies.

[FRANK]

IT SEAMS LIKE THEY AND OTHERS JUST REINVENTED THE WHEEL THAT ONLY FITS A CERTAIN LUG PATTERN WHY DO THEY DO THIS CAUSE WHEN YOU NEED ANOTHER YOU HAVE TO BUY ONE FROM THEM AND ONLY IN PLASTIC NOT BONE I WOULD RATHER PLAY BONE OR MAMMOTH TUSK.IN SADDLES AND PICK/UPS FROM THE OLD THAT WERE FLAT I WAS NEVER CONCERNED WITH CROSS TALK JUST WITH THE SADDLE FITTING TO TIGHT ON OCCASION AND MY EASY FIX FOR THAT WAS TO BEVEL THE BOTTOM OF THE SADDLE TO VIBRATE. IT IS THE NEW PICK UP DESIGN MADE BY A DESIGNER NOT A LUTHIER WHICH IS THE PROBLEM THAT I SEE AND I WOULD LIKE SOME FEED BACK IF I AM WRONG

[FRANK]

STEVES LUTHIER I ALSO FOUND A LOT OF UNEVEN FRETS IN A FAIRLY NEW INSTRUMENT IS THIS A QUALITY CONTROL PROBLEM . I HAVE INSPECTED NEW AND OLD INSTRUMENTS AND A LOT OF NEW INSTRUMENTS ARE HAVING FRET PROBLEMS HIGH AND LOW. EVEN OF THIS PARTICULAR INSTRUMENT THAT IS BEING DISCUSSED HERE SO I TOLD STEVEO THAT I DO SEE THIS A LOT IN NEW INSTRUMENTS EVEN THE $3000 STRATS WHY ?AGAIN IS IT QUALITY CONTROL?

[Len Biglin]

Hi Steve , In my experience , these saddles come with the pickup as a unit , and they aint great. The saddle will often bend toward the neck and is usually loose in the pickup channel , if you try to lower the saddle you better work on the top edge , but then it melts on your belt sander . leave it alone or replace it with a F/man or M/tin and a proper saddle .

[Mike Kolb]

Len's correct... after completing the replacement saddle on the Takamine 12-string (it was cracked and the one I made for it was out of a tusq-like material), I started nosing-around and found the assembly was available from Kaman Music in SoCal. In this particular case, though, the "assembly" from them consisted of both saddles (bass and treble sides) with piezo elements, complete with cables and 1/8" jacks. All very nice, but expensive and way more than was needed. Much simpler to craft a new saddle, although (in retrospect) it would've been nice just to toss some $$ at Kaman and save the handwork.