intonation: acoustic vs. electric

[JimK]

Hardly a life-stopping question, but, I was wondering... how come there are no adjustable saddles on my acoustic like there are on my electric? I mean adjustable in the distance from the nut to the saddle, not in height.

 

Every acoustic I've ever seen has the piece of plastic (or bone, etc) on a predetermined angle in the bridge. Is there never a need to adjust the intonation of an acoustic?

 

See, I told you it wasn't a very important question. Just one of those things that nags me everytime I pick up my acoustic.

[Christopher]

There is a need to adjust the intonation on an acoustic. Most acoustics have a compensated B string, and many classical guitars have a compensated G. Jazz boxes often have bridges that have compensation for each string.

 

If you mean "why aren't there easily adjustable metal compensating bridges on acoustic guitars?" the answer probably is that they sound bad.

[jazzcaster]

JimK,

 

In simplistic terms , with an acoustic guitar, the "soundboard" or top is primarily responsible for the sound characteristics (tone) of the guitar. With an electric guitar, the "pick-ups" predominantly accomplish this (remember, were talking in general, simplistic terms here! The sound design formula is far more complex than this!). This, by the way, is why you have a never ending search and opinion/upgrade of pups on an electric guitar. Seeking the perfect "tone". Slapping a heavy, metal, adjustable bridge on the soundboard of an acoustic guitar would.....well.....defeat the purpose of the soundboard and destroy tone. Although much more difficult on an acoustic than an electric, intonation can be adjusted by inserting a wider saddle blank, and filing staggered peaks under each string. Some manufacturers (Takamine, for one)actually use two offset saddles mounted in the bridge on their higher end models. I suppose you could sum up by saying that no matter how easily a method used to adjust intonation is, if there's no "tone" (or bad tone) to begin with, than what's the point of adjusting its accuracy up the neck? (remember, adjusting intonation accomplishes true ringing/accurate notes all the way up the fretboard, it does't "improve" tone.

[Boggs]

Has anybody ever tried making a compensated saddle for a 12-string? Boggs

[freddynl]

Originally posted by Boggs:

Has anybody ever tried making a compensated saddle for a 12-string? Boggs

They did way back in the sixties on a brand called EKO (still have one hanging on the wall)

Unfortunately these guitars were made of cheap (ply?)wood..

[baronedo]

This is a great question followed by some great responses.

 

On my Ovation, the saddle is a solid piece of some type of synthetic matterial which is tilted in such a way to produce optimum intonation across the differing strings. Curiously, I have checked the 12th fret harmonic vs. fretted note intonation on this guitar and it is very close on all the strings (not perfect but darn close).

 

For all the tonal reasons presented, you would not want to stick on adjustable metal saddle assembly on an acoustic but I bet there is need for some innovator to come up with an adjustable saddle for an acoustic that will retain tone - possibly some synthetic material with properties similar to bone??

 

If the intonation is close, I don't think it is as critical on an acoustic as you generally don't play the upper frets as much on an acoustic vs. an electric.

[DC]

I use a Carvin compensated saddle on my electric/acoustic. The B and G strings are set forward. It was really cheap and works great.

[Boggs]

I contacted Earvana and they said that the inventor would make one of their compensating nuts but he just needs the string spacing and string guage and standard scale length. I have heard good things about these nuts... Anybody here have experience with them? Boggs