Shaving saddle

thomasross20

Wow great articles - very much appreciated!!

bertie

under saddle p/ups can be the cause of great pain,  if the saddle is not filed/sanded perfectly flat 

thomasross20

Well guys, I got the Avalon back this morning and wow wow wow!!
The saddle has been lowered and it plays a dream, like absolute butter... That was my one previous quibble with it. But £20 to shave the saddle down has transformed this completely.....

bertie

thomasross20 said:

 like absolute butter..

BillDL

Despite you highly objectionable use of an offensive cliché ......  I can't even bring myself to repeat it ..... I am glad the setup has worked out well, and for such a minimal outlay. 

thomasross20

Haha I've not been around for a time, do we get the police lights for common phrases lol?   

Very happy with it 8)

thomasross20

After some further playing it's still a lot easier to play but, and I might be imagining it.. the volume might be a bit less than before. I think since the saddle was lowered, the break angle of the strings is less so it's transmitting less downward force onto the body. Some notes definitely rattle a bit more with my usual heavy playing but truss rod had been adjusted already. Action at 12th fret is 2mm and I've been reading that fingerstyle players take it even lower and use a bit of buzz to their advantage. Hard to have your cake and eat it with acoustics, isn't it!

rze99

I did my own in Lockdown One. It worked well but I did have loads of time and patience when I did it. Generally best to go to a pro

Mellish

@thomasross20 ; sorry, did you say you did the work yourself?

2mm at the 12th? I wouldn't want to go any lower. Mine is 2.48, and that gives me plenty of volume


 

ElectricXII

Mellish said:

@thomasross20 ; sorry, did you say you did the work yourself?

2mm at the 12th? I wouldn't want to go any lower. Mine is 2.48, and that gives me plenty of golume


 

I agree, 2mm seems very low for an acoustic if we're talking about the low E.

thomasross20

Tech did it. Used to think this thing would be disaster but it's just an inconvenience - it's a low cost thing to just get a new saddle again if needed. I was reading Tommy Emmanuel has his at 1.6mm. My Larry's are 2.2mm and the break angle is 40-45 degrees. Avalon break angle now more like 15-20 degrees. I took some pics but busy just now as my dishwasher just leaked all over my kitchen floor uugghhhh

guitarjack66

thomasross20 said:

Tech did it. Used to think this thing would be disaster but it's just an inconvenience - it's a low cost thing to just get a new saddle again if needed. I was reading Tommy Emmanuel has his at 1.6mm. My Larry's are 2.2mm and the break angle is 40-45 degrees. Avalon break angle now more like 15-20 degrees. I took some pics but busy just now as my dishwasher just leaked all over my kitchen floor uugghhhh

Could have been worse. I'm the dishwasher in my house!!

Mellish

Tommy Emmanuel may have 1.6mm but what string gauge?

 

thomasross20

Oh - gauge 12 ! I should try this... good point, thanks. 

I re-took the measurements and it's 2.25mm low E and 2mm high E - so seems pretty normal to me. 
Except the break angle is less now.

Story is Avalon said the action was ~2mm when they originally sent it to me. 
I never took measures at the time. I noticed a bit of buzz...
So the tech tweaked the truss rod. Buzz disappeared. 
But action seemed to have gotten bit worse, strings felt high. 
So tech shaved saddle down a bit. 
Now the break angle is a bit low and still have a bit of buzz. 
--> I now think I should have just left it as it was and not tweaked the rod or shaved the saddle!
--> Nothing that can't be fixed with a new saddle and tweaking the rod back, to get same action with higher break angle.

OK for completeness, here's my OM-O2 break angle


OM-O3:


Avalon: 

Mellish

The break angle the Avalon has doesn't look much. However, if the strings don't move along the saddle as you strum, that should be OK. 

What string gauge was it shipped with?

EDIT: if unhappy, find out what relief Avalon set it at. They should know, and you already know it was 2mm at the 12th. This should get you back to factory setup. 

 

thomasross20

Good call... 
TBH I don't know what that means, what relief it was set to. You're referring to truss rod but how do you measure this?
Maybe I'm being stupid..

I'm actually going go take this for a second look if another tech gets back to me, to get his opinion. Can't hurt - and for a £££ instrument I don't mind £50-100 to get it right. Maybe it is and I'm being picky.

Mellish

Sorry - yes, neck relief  

Mellish

If a 14 fret to body, capo on first fret, fret 6th string at 15th and with free hand measure gap between string and fret at 7th. The figure you get is the amount of relief in the neck  

thomasross20

Ah thank you!

cybernaut

I'm going to sand down the bridge on my acoustic today. I've been playing with high action long enough.