wear resistant saddle?

[A Joe]

The customer plays a jumbo guitar with heavy strings (0.013..) and a heavy , aggressive right hand.
Every some months the strings cut grooves into the bridge saddle causing premature string breakage.What kind of saddle material do you recommend in this case?

[Jay Lowe]

Unbleached bone is probably the hardest material I’ve used, and it’s also my favorite. I’m not sure that it’s completely impervious to string grooves though. Sometimes we have to get used to a bit of maintenance every now and then.

Jay

[danove]

If not too wide type of slot, you could benefit from a brass saddle.
A little more attack is required, but nearly not detectable -
- at least not with an agressive right hand.
It also adds a bit more sustain and a nice "brassy" tone.

[Doug T]

Or you could use camel bone. That's hard stuff. A jeweller I knew (who's now producing shows in Vegas!) used something he called polymerized bone for decorating money clips and such. I don't know what it was, but it never broke. Maybe it is bone that has been injected with epoxy?

[Alys and Simcha]

Bone - selected to have no visible pores or soft bits on the string-resting side.
Ivory, if you have legitimate old supply, eg recycled bits from antique artifacts of no historical value.
Possibly Mammoth tusk, though I haven't tried this.
Doug's suggestion of Camel bone is interesting. Is there any regular supply of this material? Good for mandolin nuts ?

...And taking a more holistic approach....many folks who come to me with repeated string breakage at the bridge ....are actually playing hard because they can't hear themselves properly on-stage. Sometimes the answer to string breakage is a better monitor system! As just one example, for cafe and small club gigs, one of the smaller AER amps can be used as a combined DI box and monitor system... Guitar - into amp - then out from amp into PA. Make it a simple wooden or metal stand to tilt it back at 45 degrees.

[Doug T]

Camel bone I've seen in knife making supply sites. I acquired a piece to see for myself, and it is really much harder. I have yet to use it on a guitar, but man it does feel a lot harder (and harder to work). I have a little Roland Keyboard monitor that I set up for people to hear what the pickup I use in the acoustics sounds like. And that is a really fantastic little thing. I got the pair (it's stereo) for under 90 bucks.

[Doug T]

I installed a nut of MOP once and it is hard as heck. It brightened up the sound of the open strings and I'd assume a saddle would do much the same for the guitar as a whole.

[FRANK]

BRASS

[A Joe]

Thank you all for your good advice !
Now what I did in the end to not alter the instrument much was flattening the old saddle crosswise, slotting it lenghtwise with a dremel saw and glueing in a piece of hard fretwire. Most of those turn-of-the-century parlor guitars here in Germany had just fretwire pressed into the bridgewood for a saddle and -though lacking height adjustment-still do well with their first piece.