Dobro split saddle question
foldedpath
I'm going to replace the saddle that came with my old Dobro with a taller
one, to raise the action on the upper frets.
The saddie seems to be made of a medium red-colored wood with black
flecks... looks a lot like mahogany, but maybe it's something else. It's
also split in two sections with a gap in the middle between the 3rd and 4th
strings.
Is there some reason for that gap?
Is this a stock old (1937) Dobro saddle, or something a later owner
installed?
If I make a replacement saddle from the stewmac maple saddle blank, will
this drastically alter the tone? I know that might be hard to answer
without knowing what the current saddle is made of. I just wondered how
sensitive spider bridge reso's were to different saddle materials.
One last question... if I raise the action with a taller saddle, should I
keep the break angle the same by adding some extra padding under the
tailpiece (like I've done with Nationals), or is it better to maintain a
sharper break angle with a spider cone?
--
Mike Barrs
Lee Hiers, AA4GA
<mba...@NOSPAM.nightviewer.com> wrote:
>Is there some reason for that gap?
Yes...it's so you can adjust the tension screw.
>Is this a stock old (1937) Dobro saddle, or something a later owner
>installed?
I dunno. Standard for years has been maple. A lot of folks upgrade
to maple with an ebony cap - they're usually brighter sounding, with
more volume.
>If I make a replacement saddle from the stewmac maple saddle blank, will
>this drastically alter the tone? I know that might be hard to answer
>without knowing what the current saddle is made of. I just wondered how
>sensitive spider bridge reso's were to different saddle materials.
A lot of folks have done a lot of experimenting with saddle
material...it can change the tone of the instrument for sure. Other
fairly common saddle woods are birch (mellower than maple) and cherry
(I think it's louder than maple, maybe brighter - I've never tried
it). My guitar has a synthetic material Tim Scheerhorn uses called
"Ebonex" - it's a phenolic material.
Most of the custom makers use the ebony-capped saddles, and I think
Gibson has gone to it for some of their newer instruments.
>One last question... if I raise the action with a taller saddle, should I
>keep the break angle the same by adding some extra padding under the
>tailpiece (like I've done with Nationals), or is it better to maintain a
>sharper break angle with a spider cone?
I've never added anything to reduce the angle, and a lot of folks try
to increase the angle, so I'd just put in the taller saddles and get
to pickin'!
HTH,
Lee
--
Lee Hiers, AA4GA
Cornelia, GA
Tony Done
The popular modern option for materials seems to be ebony capped maple. I've
been thinking of trying black Graph Tech sometime in the tricone. My prewar
Dobro had a very "old" woody sound, so I made a saddle out of some very hard
plastic (almost glasslike) to brighten it up a bit. The saddle in my wood
body Epi is made of laminex (formica), again to brighten the tone a bit. On
the other hand, I put a saddle made from a piece of wood venetian blind in
my old style O to sweeten the sound. So, IMO, choice of saddle material
depends on what sound you have now compared with what you would like it to
be.
An interesting experiment is tap testing saddle blanks. If the blanks are
about the same size, you can hear the difference in tone by dropping them on
a glass or tile bench surface. The differences in tone are quite striking,
but I'm not sure how they relate to their effect in the guitar. Commonsense
suggests that bright sounding saddles should yield a brighter sounding
guitar, but I am not sure that is true. Graph Tech sounds fairly metallic
compared with bone (another material you could try), but bone seems to give
a brighter sound in a flattop.
Tony D
"foldedpath" <mba...@NOSPAM.nightviewer.com> wrote in message
news:Xns945AA0DFEAD8Dmb...@216.168.3.44...
foldedpath
news:3QlGb.64340$aT.1...@news-server.bigpond.net.au:
> Like Lee said about split saddles and angles.
Thanks... shows 'ya how much I know about Dobros. :)
> The popular modern option for materials seems to be ebony capped
> maple. I've been thinking of trying black Graph Tech sometime in the
> tricone. My prewar Dobro had a very "old" woody sound, so I made a
> saddle out of some very hard plastic (almost glasslike) to brighten it
> up a bit. The saddle in my wood body Epi is made of laminex (formica),
> again to brighten the tone a bit. On the other hand, I put a saddle
> made from a piece of wood venetian blind in my old style O to sweeten
> the sound. So, IMO, choice of saddle material depends on what sound
> you have now compared with what you would like it to be.
I'm pretty happy with how the old Dobro sounds now, but I wouldn't mind it
being a little brighter. So I guess I'll try the ebony-cap maple saddle
first. I've been fooling around with different strings too, so that's part
of the brightness equation. I've heard you mention stainless steel
roundwounds, and I think I'll try those next, as a change from nickelwound.
Thanks again for the advice, and Happy Holidays to all the resoheads here!
--
Mike Barrs
Lee Hiers, AA4GA
<mba...@NOSPAM.nightviewer.com> wrote:
>I'm pretty happy with how the old Dobro sounds now, but I wouldn't mind it
>being a little brighter. So I guess I'll try the ebony-cap maple saddle
>first. I've been fooling around with different strings too, so that's part
>of the brightness equation. I've heard you mention stainless steel
>roundwounds, and I think I'll try those next, as a change from nickelwound.
Give phosphor bronze strings a try....on my old Dobro, I never liked
nickel strings at all - much too dull sounding. And I tried a set of
SS once...don't remember how they sounded, but I do remember that I
decided not to try 'em again!
>Happy Holidays to all the resoheads here!
Hey, that's "coneheads" to you, mister! And right back atcha!
foldedpath
news:o2enuvc8pp8i2g6do...@4ax.com:
> On Wed, 24 Dec 2003 21:45:20 -0000, foldedpath
> <mba...@NOSPAM.nightviewer.com> wrote:
>
>>I'm pretty happy with how the old Dobro sounds now, but I wouldn't
>>mind it being a little brighter. So I guess I'll try the ebony-cap
>>maple saddle first. I've been fooling around with different strings
>>too, so that's part of the brightness equation. I've heard you mention
>>stainless steel roundwounds, and I think I'll try those next, as a
>>change from nickelwound.
>
> Give phosphor bronze strings a try....on my old Dobro, I never liked
> nickel strings at all - much too dull sounding. And I tried a set of
> SS once...don't remember how they sounded, but I do remember that I
> decided not to try 'em again!
I don't always get good results with PB's where the only pickup I'm using
is magnetic, but it's been a LONG time since I've tried it. Strings are
cheap, I'll give it a shot once I get the pickup installed. Thanks for the
suggestion!
>>Happy Holidays to all the resoheads here!
>
> Hey, that's "coneheads" to you, mister! And right back atcha!
France... that's right, we come from France!!
--
Mike Barrs
Tony Done
better with mag pickups than nickel, not for their acoustic qualities,
although they did not sound a lot different to phos bronze on my tricone.
They also seem very long lasting. The worst type of electric strings I've
tried are the nickel plated steel windings, I forget which brand. YMMV,
naturally.
One of the options I've been thinking about is putting a good quality
electric mag pickup in my reso (from flattop) conversion and using 13/56 s/s
strings.
Tony D
"Lee Hiers, AA4GA" <l...@dixieliner.com> wrote in message
news:o2enuvc8pp8i2g6do...@4ax.com...
Lee Hiers, AA4GA
<mba...@NOSPAM.nightviewer.com> wrote:
>I don't always get good results with PB's where the only pickup I'm using
>is magnetic,
Dang, I forgot you were talking about using a pickup - my bad...I
don't use a pickup, just a mic....nevermind!
>> Hey, that's "coneheads" to you, mister! And right back atcha!
>
>France... that's right, we come from France!!
Exactly!
CU,
James Manning
When I got it home I found out that it had a short nut. I talked to a guitar
maker at a bluegras festival and he will send me a metal cap to raise it. I
will find out then how that works. I don' really think the material will
mean diddly.
??
--
Jim Manning
Palm City, Florida