Happy New Year, good people (even you baddies!)!!
May all of you have the best year yet!
My New Year resolution: not to miss my date with the Lucknow Guitar Garage, ever again!!
But without ado, let’s talk about saddles and their slots. But first…
The saddle, slot, are talked about the least. Let’s talk!
…for those among us still uninitiated in guitar anatomy, the white, round things are called bridgepins, the other white long piece is called the saddle, while the wood they both sit in, is called the bridge.
With that out of the way, let’s get into more technical stuff (without meaning to scare you!).
The three things in bold (above), along with the strings, basically, constitute the quartet responsible for producing sound. But as that adage goes, there’s many a slip between the cup and the lip!
Distances, depths, breadths…many possibilities for a slip.
Have you seen/heard of bridges getting cracked?
This can happen for more than one reason. The incorrect size of bridgepins, saddles vis-a-vis their respective slots, is one major reason which can cause havoc.
Picture this:
a) a thick saddle in a thin bridge slot
b) a thin saddle in a broad bridge slot
c) an optimum-sized saddle in an optimum-sized bridge slot, but which is not deep enough…
…MANY A SLIP BETWEEN THE CUP AND THE LIP!
With this pictorial representation, try and grasp the second scenario…
The thinner saddle in a broader slot tilts the saddle, exerting extra force – thanks to the tension of the strings – on the area of the bridge nearest to the soundhole.
However, if the bridge slot is shallow, this extra force of the saddle is absorbed without damage. But, if the saddle slot in the
bridge is deep, the front edge of the saddle is where a fault line is created. Not immediately, but it is along this fault line that the bridge cracks. Just like this:
However, if the saddle sits tall and upright in its slot, there’s nothing to fear. In fact, if the saddle position on your guitar looks like this, you can feel good about it.
