Saddle & Nut material

morvenkoh

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Does different material of saddle & nut e.g ebony, bone affect the sound on ukulele?
 
The material used for the saddle has a bigger effect on the sound than the nut. Chuck Moore generally uses Jacarta for the nut, but bone for his saddles.
 
I always use bone for both. It's the first mod I make to my acoustic instruments.

To be honest I don't hear a huge difference over a hard plastic. For me, bone parts are just a preference I've had for many years... based upon no strong empirical evidence of significant sonic improvement.

Bone looks and feels nicer, IMHO.
 
I'm with Rick and Anthony. Bone is the "gold standard" of nuts and saddles with some more exotic like Moore's Jakarta, and some more mundane, like Corian or Tusq (which is plastic, I think). My Brukos have a one piece hardwood nut and saddle...imagine that...just one carved bridge of wood, with nothing more added!

It's hard, though, to say if it affects sound because there are so many other factors in any instrument affecting sound simultaneously.
 
Thanks guys! My Kala Solid Acacia Tenor KA-ASAC-T came with Ebony saddle and nut by default but I was wondering if I should change them to bone saddle and nut, well at least the saddle as I am using extra hard tension D'addario strings on it...
 
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I always use bone for both. It's the first mod I make to my acoustic instruments.

I wonder how that's done the easiest way. Where can I get those bone parts, for example for my Kanile'a Tenor?
 
I wonder how that's done the easiest way. Where can I get those bone parts, for example for my Kanile'a Tenor?

I just buy pieces of bone and make my own parts. You can save a bit of work by buying blanks from a luthier suppliers, or from eBay. Working with bone from a butchers can be more time consuming finding nice dense pieces that aren't too porous. Some bone can get a bit gummy and clog up slotting files. I find that the brighter a bone blank rings when you drop it onto a stone slab, the more likely it is to file easily and cleanly. That may be my imagination, but I always do that test and it usually seems to work out as I expect from the sound.

Could be just more snake oil, but I have convinced myself!
 
Thanks for your answer buddhuu. I'll talk with my butcher this weekend. ;)
 
Depends how your uke sounds now and how you want it to sound......got to admit it is asthetically pleasing too...
 
TUSQ is very easy to work with, sounds good and looks ugly.
 
i use buffalo bone that I source from a local Bison rancher. A third generation bone carver that i met on Maui a couple of years ago told me that buffalo is 35% harder than cow bone and thus his favorite material. I have been using it on my ukes ever since. I think it makes a difference.
 
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