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I didn't think that the Stauffer had 0 and 1mm addend length to the scale. I think the measurement is longer. That might be why it is a little sharp?



I don't remember the slot being loose. I see people on line, dropping saddles in like nothing. I'm sure it wasn't like that; it always freaks me out when I see that. I don't even remember how I did the slot. I'm guessing a Dremel with a fence. It is just soft maple. Is something harder better? Was the slot maybe too short? I didn't go all the way through. I guess I'll have to fix it somehow.

The strings have maybe 90 pounds. The set is about 95, but the scale is only 620.

Yippee. I'm not fond of making repairs. Along the way is one thing. After is another.

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Why be normal?

Ken some things I keep in mind with my saddles slots.

I want a snug fit but not tight. The saddle should fill all gaps in the slot. I like to see 2/3rds of the saddle in the bridge and only around 1/3rd of the saddle proud of the bridge.

If there is a UST (under saddles transducer) the saddle needs to have a refined fit where it can go up and down with only finger pressure and no tool required to remove it. Leaning is not good, shortens the scale lengths and messes up the intonation often in a big way. A leaning saddle can break the front of the bridge out too and split the bridge.

We have a saddle mill and likely one of the nicest ones ever made that we produced and sold for a while. Our's permits us to repair saddle slots by precision cutting the slot larger than it is, making a plug of matching material, filling the slot with the plug so it's very nearly invisible and then recutting a properly sized and located slot based on scale length.

In the 70's Martin located the saddles on many 18 - 35's in the wrong place. Many people who only play cowboy chords never noticed. But the masters of the rest of the neck had problems with intonation. The mill permitted us to repair many, many of these without a trace and without ever having to remove or replace the bridge.

Lastly generally Dremel's are not tight enough, too much runout for saddle slot work. People can make them work but what results in terms of accuracy is not professional quality work generally. Again the standard for professional quality saddles and slots is zero gaps anywhere. Instead a quality laminate trimmer is really a must for saddle slot work and even better when augmented by bits and perhaps a chuck from Precise Bits. We were able to get the run-out of our saddle mill to less than 0.0005" resulting in some very precise work.

For everyone else we tested all laminate trimmers out there after our beloved Porter Cable 310 (we still have a couple new ones...) was discontinued. The DeWalt was the most precise out of the box based on our tests. The Bosch Colt which our friend Link on the West Coast tested was the worst with over 0.005" of runout on the best of several of them that he tested. YMMV