Bone saddle in bridge and nut for solid body

[fab.regnaut]

I bought this guitar for the purpose to make it a 7 strings with a wide neck ( cause huge hands ) .
So I will have to replace the bridge and the nut .
So I was wondering how good would be to make a traditional wood and bone bridge and nut ?
Because the metal pieces on which the string goes in the bridge allow fine tuning , but once you have settle ,
you don't touch it anymore , and I can't see how the metal thing could produce good vibrations .
Let's face it : the string rests on a saddle , which rests on two tiny screws on a metal plate screwed on the body ,
how could it bring acoustic benefit ?

If the string crosses the body by the back the bridge has the only intonation and height adjustment role ,
so a bridge made of wood and bone could replace it easily .

What ya think ?

 

[EDX]

Re: Bone saddle in bridge and nut for solid body

how could it be good, due to the metal alloy, a solid stainless steel or even a titanium bridge produces a higher transduction of the acoustic vibrations since the material is so stiff that it would just transmit the vibratory energy instead of dampening it

for the nut i really prefer graphtech tusq xl and black tusq over bone, mainly for being a self lubricated material and it's constant density, if you ever worked with bone you might know that it doesn't has a consistent density, no bone ever has constant density because it is a natural construct and the purpose it serves won't allow bone to be all constant (around mid of it's length bone is more flexible so it's les prone to break, at the joints bone is denser to provide a solid pivoting point), so working tusq is a bit easier since you won't find hard or soft spots.

tone of tusq vs tone of bone...... well that's matter of taste, tonewise none is better than the other just different

now for what you want to do a single string bridge would be hella easier as all you have to do is unscrew the current bridge and then just screw as many of these things as you want on the spacing you want

https://www.allparts.com/BB-3518-010-Single-String-Bridge_p_654.html

https://store.hipshotproducts.com/cart.php?m=product_detail&p=398

 

[fab.regnaut]

Re: Bone saddle in bridge and nut for solid body

Thanks for this input , those saddle could do the job .
But still I am wondering how those metal things between strings and body wood could bring good vibrations !
Perhaps because it does not vibrate much so it keeps a longer sustain ?
In an other hand wood and bone could vibrate along with the body much easier ?

 

[EDX]

Re: Bone saddle in bridge and nut for solid body

well, metal vibrates just like wood and bone, but due to wood and bone being softer they dampen some vibrations, metal being stiffer dampens less vibrations and transmits them better to the body wood.

does this mean metal is a better material for nuts and saddles? well as a global answer nope, would wood be? global answer nope too, on this case there's no global yes or no to wood and metal it depends on application

you plan on using steel strings what is better wood or metal bridge? definitely metal, not many species of wood would handle the friction, constant pressure and erosion, that's the reason wooden guitar nuts are very uncommon, the woods that can handle those conditions are very hard to work, ironwood for example.

can you use bone saddles for steel strings? yup, bone is stiff enough, bone is very tough stuff, whatever pressure strings put over bone, bone can handle more than twice, now working the bone to the right shape is a total PITA, sanding, cutting, beveling, sanding, polishing..... no easy work, specially if you pretend to make an adjustable bone saddle lots of work, but is doable, now for a project guitar..... i doubt you really want to spend several hours working bone instead of ripping on the fretboard do you? still you can get something quite close, it won't sound exactly like bone but will put you playing faster, graphtech tusq saddles, you just swap the steel saddles on the single string bridges for tusq saddles and done, not exact bone tone but something ballpark

metal vs wood vs bone for guitar nuts? all the materials have been used for steel string nuts, the softest metal used for nuts is brass, steel is a classic since the floyd rose, titanium is the new contender, being a metal with a crystalline structure it transmits more vibratory energy than anything else and with how tough it is you might need to replace a titanium nut like every 150 or so years with really heavy playing and abuse of the guitar

wood...... anything harder than ebony will work, ebony itself would work, but if i had to take a wood to make a guitar nut out of, it would be ironwood or lignum vitae (guayacan, the hardest kind of ironwood)

bone.... well it has been like 100 years since the invention of electric guitar and even with some space age synthetic materials, like techron polymer, carbon fiber, graphite and so on bone is still used, that must really say something about it's tonal characteristics despite being structurally "inferior" to it's alternatives

("inferior" not because it's bad but because the other materials are at least several times tougher, self lubricated and can withstand several hours of constant friction without minimal wear)






TL;DR at the end is matter of preference and how much work you want to put on a guitar modding proyect

 

[fab.regnaut]

Re: Bone saddle in bridge and nut for solid body

Thanks !
I have done wood bridge , and bone saddles and nuts for acoustic guitars so it is not a problem .
The guitar is coming this week , i'll listen to it and decide , it should have a long sustain hopefully with its mahogany 3 pieces neck through , scale 26,5" .
The wings are of swamp ash .