I've been plagued with a problem with my 12 string guitar
for many years that even a very experienced luthier couldn't help me with. Because of the
inherent design of most acoustic 12 string guitars, there is only one piece of bone for
the saddle so on the bass string, 11th (lowest 'E'), the intonation is very poor, usually
sharp. The repair was to bevel the saddle back to help but it didn't work very well. The
only way to properly correct this was a very costly one which would probably void the
lifetime warranty of the guitar. Replacing the bridge and saddle was not an option for me
so I had to correct the problem without cutting or drilling anything.
What I did was lay a short cylindrical object behind the saddle (something hard like bone
or metal) to increase the effective length of the string. The diameter of this object has
to be large enough so the string will not touch the saddle anymore. After this, I adjusted
the intonation almost perfectly by gradually filing away at one side of the cylinder and
retrying it until the height just cleared the top of the saddle.
| Gman ( o )==# | Click HERE for my Twelve String Guitar Tuner! |