quote:

ORIGINAL: Anders Eliasson

My opinion
The better the saddle is fitted, the better it transmit the vibration of the strings to the bridge. So tight and well fitted is the way to go. But experience from the real world has told me that it is highly overrated. But the cerebral guys keep writing long essays about the importance of tight saddles (and underwear). Personally I prefer tight saddles and loose underwear. Slightly bipolar, yes I know and I´m working on it, but in the other direction.

The nut has little impact in the sound production of the guitar. A nutcase can have a serious impact on sound production. And often in a possitive way.

If anyone wants a description of the sound impact of a not so well fitted saddle, I must know if we are talking 0,001mm or 0.002mm ? ( That las one was poor ironic humour )

quote:

I ain't no luthier but I am familiar with different instruments.

From observing and playing with many kinds of bridges, I would assume that the saddle on spanish guitars should be tight as "in place" and maybe not tight as in "hard to get out". If it is loose, the saddle might get angled inside the slot.. which would reduce proper contact.

What I mean is that many instruments don't even have a saddle slot, the saddle is just held by the downward force applied by the strings... which means that they can't be tight because there's nothing to "be tight to".


Double basses/cellos/violins, mandolins, jazz guitars, etc... they all have this kind of free saddle held by downward force and they all work fine. I would suspect that since the tie block is very near the saddle on a spanish guitar, the increasing amount of break angle will make the saddle force the wall of the slot towards the headstock.. and if the fit isn't tight, the saddle will be crooked.


All this to say that if the break angle is shallow, you probably can get away with a less than tight fit while maintaining contact at the bottom, just like the instruments that don't have a saddle slot.

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Its VERY important that the bridge of an arch top instrument fits tightly with the soundboard.
And your ideas about breakangle etc are totally blurry.

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I'm all for replacing both if they're plastic.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Anders Eliasson

My opinion
The better the saddle is fitted, the better it transmit the vibration of the strings to the bridge. So tight and well fitted is the way to go. But experience from the real world has told me that it is highly overrated. But the cerebral guys keep writing long essays about the importance of tight saddles (and underwear). Personally I prefer tight saddles and loose underwear. Slightly bipolar, yes I know and I´m working on it, but in the other direction.

The nut has little impact in the sound production of the guitar. A nutcase can have a serious impact on sound production. And often in a possitive way.

If anyone wants a description of the sound impact of a not so well fitted saddle, I must know if we are talking 0,001mm or 0.002mm ? ( That las one was poor ironic humour )

quote:

Makes sense to me... But I tried it once on a friend's Spanish factory made-guitar that looks just like a nice guitar but has little sound. Unfortunately, it didn't make a noticeable difference; it still had no sound. So...be prepared to be disappointed.