Shimming the saddle

Lapyang

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It seems like the standard way to raise the height of the saddle (if the action is too low) is by shimming it with strip of paper card. I also read that players are particular about the material of the saddle (bone vs plastic). So wouldn't using paper to shim the height defeat the purpose of a good bone saddle? Will it affect the sound quality? After all, does it really matter what material is the saddle?
I am currently using my old cut up health insurance card to shim the height, it is thicker and fells more plastic like. Is it better than plain old business card?
 
Anyways making a new saddle is rewarding. Keep the old too low one as a reference.
I would not say it is such a brief job with sandpaper only at available, first to make it thin enough to fit and then taking care of sanding the bottom :)
 
Saddles are cheap and readily available so my advice would be to buy a new one. If you’re in a ‘fix’ for some reason and want a temporary solution then I believe that an old plastic credit type card can be cut into a strip (to suit the bridge slot) and shim the old saddle up. Paper and cardboard act as insulators, not a good thing to go under a saddle unless all you want to do is correct the height.
 
I had to raise a bone saddle on my first custom as it was buzzing like crazy with 2mm action. I glued a thin shim of ebony wood to the bottom and sanded to taste. I could not tell a difference in tone or response but took care of the buzz with action closer to 2.5.
 
I've heard of people being satisfied shimming the saddle with card stock. I too thought the contact between saddle and soundboard was rather too vital for this kind of solution. So, I asked my luthiers about this. In order to raise the saddle, they either fabricate a new one or, as Jim says, glue a hardwood shim to the under-side. They seem to think these are comparable solutions.
I suppose, if I wanted to raise the saddle height on a 50 dollar uke, I'd use some kind of card stock, but would follow a more professional path with a high quality instrument.
 
I do my own setups to get it just right.
Been doing it for a while now.

It's a far more elegant solution to do a new saddle.
They're cheap to buy on ebay or some music stores.
I quite like synthetic saddles like Tusq or Nubone.
I don't know if I'm sold on them improving tone per se, but they sand down a lot quicker and easily than bone.

Bone is tougher and wears less with wound strings.
But if you don't use any wound strings, bone doesn't really provide any practical advantage in my opinion
 
As almost everybody above said, don't use card stock! That will deaden the sound for sure. Use a strip of a plastic credit card or similar material, a hard plastic would be best. If you have a plastic saddle, probably won't make a lot of difference. I had a luthier make me a compensated bone saddle for my C1K one time, $35, very professional job.
 
Step one: Shim the saddle with something to see if it solves your particular problem.

Step two: Install, or have installed, a new saddle of proper height.
 
Step one: Shim the saddle with something to see if it solves your particular problem.

Step two: Install, or have installed, a new saddle of proper height.

I was about to make this same comment. If you like where the action is, but have some buzzing, my first step would often be to try a shim just to see if it fixes things. If it does, you now have a starting point for the height of a new saddle.
 
I've shimmed with card, with hard wood and put whole new saddles in. If there is a difference with card it must be SO slight that I didn't notice it. Certainly not as much difference as an ageing set of strings would have. I think it may be one of those things that you could drive yourself mad 'trying' to notice, but ultimately is so slight - why lose sleep?
 
Thanks for all the responses. This will be a nice little weekend project for me to try to shape a new saddle, and if I got that right, I have one more skill in my bag, otherwise, I probably would be happy with a strip of credit card shim.
 
I've shimmed with card, with hard wood and put whole new saddles in. If there is a difference with card it must be SO slight that I didn't notice it. Certainly not as much difference as an ageing set of strings would have. I think it may be one of those things that you could drive yourself mad 'trying' to notice, but ultimately is so slight - why lose sleep?

I love Barry's response here, because I have felt that much of what guitarists say about tone woods and bone nuts and such is just way overblown. Not saying that there aren't ever any differences, but I sure can't hear most of them. I recently replaced the nut on my Gibson CS-356 with a (gasp!) synthetic Black Tusq XL nut that was self lubricating, and I like the result. But a couple of friends say that only bone will do. Oh well......
 
I love Barry's response here, because I have felt that much of what guitarists say about tone woods and bone nuts and such is just way overblown. Not saying that there aren't ever any differences, but I sure can't hear most of them. I recently replaced the nut on my Gibson CS-356 with a (gasp!) synthetic Black Tusq XL nut that was self lubricating, and I like the result. But a couple of friends say that only bone will do. Oh well......

Absolutely right! Once the strings are up to tension, any "insulation" in the card shim will have been compressed out. Personally, I use strips of food packaging material ie. yoghurt pot etc. It comes in varying thicknesses and is readily and cheaply available and as easily cut with a pair of scissors ;)
 
This does bring up the question of a piezo, under saddle, pickup and any impact to tone when played acoustically.

Has anyone heard a change in tone, non-amplified, after a piezo was installed?

John
 
Using a piezo under saddle pickup to shim a low saddle is an elegant solution.
 
Using a piezo under saddle pickup to shim a low saddle is an elegant solution.

..though perhaps not as elegant as my solution: making shims from my stock of vintage bits of piano key ivory ;)
 
Needs to be tone wood. Not plastic, not paper. I use thin veneer strips. Then when I get a round tuit, I make a new saddle out of bone, Tusq, or Corian.
 
A few years ago I changed out the original Tusq saddle on my Taylor 812 (concert sized) guitar. Having had this instrument since 1994 I knew well how it sounded. I was astounded at the difference a bone saddle made- it was crazy! More bass response, added clarity, and sort an intangible presence. I'm a big believer in bone as a saddle material.
 
Hmmm, would a bone or piano key ivory shim help the sound of a tusk saddle?
 
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