bone saddle

anyone can tell me the difference between this two bone saddle..(ignore the nut)



any advantage or preference in using either of the two.

Are we looking at bleached vs. unbleached?

The issue is not color, it's porosity, and that can happen whether or not it's bleached (supposedly done in gasoline...glad I don't work there in China where it mostly all comes from...). Quality, not color is the issue, and you can't tell that from a photo on-line. I get mine from SAGA, and I don't have to reject much. Stewart MacDonald or Luthiers Mercantile are great sources. Don't necessarily buy based on the lowest price; your shipping will be as much as the bone. Get good stuff from a reputable supplier. Then, of course, you have to shape and fit it.

Rick Turner said:

Are we looking at bleached vs. unbleached?

The issue is not color, it's porosity, and that can happen whether or not it's bleached (supposedly done in gasoline...glad I don't work there in China where it mostly all comes from...). Quality, not color is the issue, and you can't tell that from a photo on-line. I get mine from SAGA, and I don't have to reject much. Stewart MacDonald or Luthiers Mercantile are great sources. Don't necessarily buy based on the lowest price; your shipping will be as much as the bone. Get good stuff from a reputable supplier. Then, of course, you have to shape and fit it.

Click to expand...

no, its not the color....the first pic is different shape compared to the 2nd pics which is just plain shape..

The first one is a compensated saddle, supposedly for improve intonation by making different length accordingly for each string. Am I correct?

Hammond said:

The first one is a compensated saddle, supposedly for improve intonation by making different length accordingly for each string. Am I correct?

Click to expand...

Spot on.............

All saddles should be compensated, whether it comes that way or not.

The first saddle, the compensated on is "theoretically" the way to go yet the problem is that not every instrument needs to be compensated exactly the same way. I buy plain saddles by preference and then compensate each string as required. I actually get annoyed with pre compensated saddles because the compensation is invariably WRONG for the particular instrument in hand and THEN I need a plain saddle to put the correct compensation into.

EDIT: Actually, back a step. Not all ukulele's use exactly the same size saddles. There is no common standard that all use. First up is thickness. Some are about 2mm thick, some are about 3 mm thick. The last thing you want to be doing is re-thicknessing a saddle. There is also length and height to take into account.
Anthony

Here's the thing: When you take an instrument to a luthier for a new saddle, more than likely, said luthier will make one from a bone blank that is oversized in length, height, and thickness. That's just Lutherie 101 and it's just what we do. Because the geometry of each instrument varies from the next one, and players' needs vary, and intonation varies with action height and string type, gauge, etc., the idea of a pre-intonated saddle is slightly absurd. Intonated for what string brand and gauge? High G or Low G?

Sorry, but these are really not interchangeable parts. Same with string nuts. You start with a blank and custom fit and finish it.

So buying nuts or saddles on-line and expecting them to work well is at best a crap shoot, and is really not advisable. Either learn how to make these parts...and getting it right only gets easy after a hundred or more...or take the instrument to a luthier.

There are some cases where you can get saddles for guitars that are in the ball park...Bob Colosi does this...but those are saddles for CNC built guitars where the saddle slots are totally consistent. And even then, the saddles need to be custom fitted for string height.

This is not like changing tires on a car; it's real lutherie.