After the bridge is installed on the instrument I put on the strings one at a time and use a 1/16" drill bit as a moveable temporary saddle. I can roll it back and forth and check the intonation with my Peterson strobe tuner until it's spot on for that string at the needed pitch. I then mark that spot on the top of the bridge with a pencil, take off that string and put on it's octave partner and repeat the tuning process by moving the drill bit saddle for the octave. After I have those two spots established I have the most forward and most rearward saddle placement needed so I draw a line to connect them and that's where I cut the slot for the saddle. I cut it by drilling the two ends of the slot to the depth and the diameter I need and use a Dremel and a slotting fence to cut the slot. On the triple courses you only need to check two strings to get the correct saddle position since two of the three are the same diameter and pitch. I then make a saddle, file peaks to stop each string where needed then string it up and check it again with my strobe and carefully file the saddle peaks fore and aft as needed to get the intonation correct. Make sense?
I am making one right now and can take a few photos if it's not clear how to do it.
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After the bridge is installed on the instrument I put on the strings one at a time and use a 1/16" drill bit as a moveable temporary saddle. I can roll it back and forth and check the intonation with my Peterson strobe tuner until it's spot on for that string at the needed pitch. I then mark that spot on the top of the bridge with a pencil, take off that string and put on it's octave partner and repeat the tuning process by moving the drill bit saddle for the octave. After I have those two spots established I have the most forward and most rearward saddle placement needed so I draw a line to connect them and that's where I cut the slot for the saddle. I cut it by drilling the two ends of the slot to the depth and the diameter I need and use a Dremel and a slotting fence to cut the slot. On the triple courses you only need to check two strings to get the correct saddle position since two of the three are the same diameter and pitch. I then make a saddle, file peaks to stop each string where needed then string it up and check it again with my strobe and carefully file the saddle peaks fore and aft as needed to get the intonation correct. Make sense?
I am making one right now and can take a few photos if it's not clear how to do it.
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