to less pressure on the saddle

[bluesman1306]

Hello,

I´m a proud owner of a Santa Cruz om cutaway. It´s the best guitar i could imagine for me except one little problem with the pressure on the saddle. The Guitar already had a professional neck reset which lowers the string high a little bit, but as a professional musician with not the strongest hands I really need a low string high to play 4 to 5h a night.

 

I lowered the saddle to my final setup. The Guitar plays and still sounds perfect to me, but the saddle pressure isn´t enough anymore. So is it possible for example to lower the bridge itself a little bit with a file or sandpaper without altering the tone too much?

I´m looking forward to your answers.

 

[indexless]

Welcome Bluesman!   I’m not a luthier but it looks like your saddle is very low, I’d have it looked at for sure.

[Chrisakadigdog]

Welcome blues man.  Looking at the photo of your bridge shows the saddle is at its lowest point..   I’m not a luthier but do a fair amount of set up work on guitar’s.    I’m curious as to how long ago the neck was reset ?     Their are some less desired alternatives to getting more break angle over the saddle but it involves shaving/sanding of the bridge, which is not the APPROPRIATE or wisest resolve to your issue.    Lighter gage strings might make it easier to play for your 4-5hrs .  It looks like the neck is ready for a proper neck reset by the Mothership/SCGC or one that they recommend if there’s one in your area.  All the best for you and your SCGC guitar.

[Chrisakadigdog]

Give Carolyn or Richard a call 831-424-0999. Or better yet message them   Service & Maintenance: service@santacruzguitar.com

[tadol]

Based on just that one pic, if your action isn’t right down and practically resting on the frets, I’d suggest you need to get a neck reset. I would not recommend shaving the bridge except as a absolute last resort, with heavy emphasis on absolutely and last –

I have a few SC guitars that have that little saddle sticking up from the bridge – a 12 string in particular – but they play very nicely, the action height is good and they’ve been extremely stable for years, so I haven’t made any effort to look into getting necks reset – maybe one of these days I’ll see if someone wants to take on 3 or 4 at once, but it’s not a priority.  But you aren’t getting enough down pressure there, and I think a greater break angle is needed, so I would get it carefully evaluated by someone with good experience with this – obviously, the SCGC mothership would be ideal, but if getting the guitar there and back is too difficult, a call to them might get you a recommendation of someone closer to you who they’d recommend to look at it. I hope you have a decent backup guitar ready to keep going with –

Let us know what you find out!  Good Luck –

[Matt Hayden]

Mine’s set about as low as yours (30 years old and original neck set), maybe just a bit higher, and I get plenty out of it, very warm and clear.

What’s it doing that’s wrong?  If it plays well and the action suits, you should be fine.

Don’t get wrapped around the axle about string pressure etc unless you’re actually having problems like too high action and not enough saddle to adjust……

• This reply was modified 3 years, 1 month ago by Matt Hayden.

[Author]

Posts