Workshop: New Compensated National Saddle



This '06 National has found a new home but before shipping I asked the owner about his playing-style and while he said he's a comfortable slide player with "low action," I like to give slide players more options on the setup-side since all of them are different and I regularly set Nat'ls for standard "low" action when they come. Aside from quickly resetting the neck, I made two new compensated maple saddles for him that simply "slip" into the old maple saddle slot.

This is what my comp'd saddles look like when I make them up for Nat'ls these days: the saddle itself is angled (by rotating the biscuit) to get rough compensation, and then the B and low E strings are notched for better intonation as well. The top is cut at a slight radius to match the needed profile for the board. The second saddle I sent with this was made the same way but was just slightly taller to jack action up another 1/32" overall.

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