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Is there an ideal saddle slot depth? Or, is there an ideal amount of material from the bottom of the slot to the top of the soundboard. And, will this ratio affect the K&K pickup I'll be installing?

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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars

I like the slot to be half the depth of the bridge. That’s without a pickup.

Steve

For me, 6mm for standard, 6.5 mm if I know it gets a UST. Won't make any difference to you k and k.

Always made them about 2/3 the depth of the bridge for a closed slot. For a 3/8" bridge, I'd make the slot 1/4".

.220 of wood under the bass side, .170 under the treble side.

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Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from poor judgement.

I'm the same as Haans, 3/8 bridge with a 1/4 inch slot. Since I shoot for about 1/8 saddle sticking out that seems to be strong enough to resist the rotational forces. K&K pickup goes on the bridge plate, the saddle slot doesn't affect it. If I knew I was putting a UST in that guitar I would make the slot 0.050 deeper to allow for it.

me too.

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

'bout 6mm.

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

Half bridge depth.

Thanks to all for your expert advice.

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Brad Hall
Mystic Dawg Guitars

6mm not what I recommend that is about .240 thou so if you have a .350 bridge you only have .090 under the slot.
1/2 to 2/3 saddle height is about right.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

Sorry. but even with your own figures that makes it 0.11" or 2.8 mm under the slot.
This is where approximate conversions, and mental arithmetic can let us down, and it's why this OAP here (me, myself, I) has taken to using a calculator for almost all calculations for some years now.
I make that (6mm= 0.236" slot in a 0.350 high bridge) 0.114" or 2.9 mm.
My bridges are at least 9mm high (0.354"), at least initially, and maybe I should have put it the other way round.
So, I aim for about 3mm under the bottom of the slot.

This thread reminded me of the Ov*+#ion I had last year in for a partial refret and hence a set-up.
Soundboard was showing for half the saddle slot's length..............

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The name catgut is confusing. There are two explanations for the mix up.

Catgut is an abbreviation of the word cattle gut. Gut strings are made from sheep or goat intestines, in the past even from horse, mule or donkey intestines.

Otherwise it could be from the word kitgut or kitstring. Kit meant fiddle, not kitten.

1/2 to 2/3 saddle height is plenty
sorry we have to respectfully disagree .
I have seen bridges fail were the slots were cut too deep . Doing this and repair for a living I get to see many more failures in design.
If you are shooting for a 1/2 in string height .150 saddle .200 is as much as I would take out. In this case you can make the bridge lower
allowing for less weight.

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John Hall
blues creek guitars
Authorized CF Martin Repair
Co President of ASIA
You Don't know what you don't know until you know it

I have to admit that I always used AFB instead of ebony. AFB is quite a bit more fiberous than ebony, which is a lot more brittle. I could probably get away with a deeper slot. I also made sure I had 3/16" on the treble side to the front of the bridge, and quite a bit of wood on each side of the slot. I'm sure that 2/3 of the bridge height left a good 3/32" (at least) to the bottom of the bridge.

Note that some here are talking depth of slot while others are talking saddle height.

I also re-routed the slot after I had jacked up the interior of the box to simulate the arch with the strings on so that the slot was flat under tension. This is done with a jack, and the box clamped to the radius dish with hard padding between the finish and the dish. After that, I set the final saddle height.

The other problem is the bridge type. Pyramid bridges are notoriously slotted too close to the leading edge, and especially with the likes of ebony prone to issues. 1/2 to 2/3rds is good. The question is actually not well put by subject. It's not a question of depth but a question of amount of saddle exposed, backset from the front of the bridge, and whether the slot is angled or not.

Andy

We shoot for 0.150" saddle height after the guitar settles in, with a 0.350" bridge thickness. We usually slot to expected saddle height plus 0.030", so 0.180" is our target value for a drop-in saddle. I am not sure where some of these 'rules' come from, but they seem to work for resets/bridge replacements and new instruments.

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For the times they are a changin'

- Bob Dylan