Saddle angle

i have a set of plans from Waverly Ukes a concert size. The saddle on the plans is off- set 3/32". Why?

What did Waverly say when you contacted them?

Barry Sholder said:

The saddle on the plans is off- set 3/32".

Click to expand...

Hi

What do you mean by this? The saddle is moved (from where?) perpendicular to the strings, parallel to the strings, or slanted with respect to the strings? And which way??

What comes to mind is that the saddle is moved further away from the neck (towards the end block) with no slant angle. That's called compensation. A simplistic idea is that the 12-th fret should coincide the midpoint of a string in order to produce an octave note exactly double the frequency of an open string. However, in real life, when you hold a string at 12-th fret, you're (a) stretching a string a bit and (b) you're pressing and adding extra tension to a string. If you want the intonation to be spot on (the 12-th fret note is exactly double the freq. of an open string), the saddle has to be moved back slightly (ie, the string length from 12-th fret to saddle is a bit longer). The compensation of 3/32" sounds just about right.

The amount of compensation actually is a lot more complicated than what I wrote above, FYI.

Cheers
Chief

String length is always longer than scale length - it is called 'compensation'. PM me for my pdf data sheet...

That answers my question completely Thanks.

Some ukes compensate JUST the actual saddle, which can be difficult to route in the bridge. Dave G has simplified this by angling the entire bridge.