Hi all,

I have a EG510SC Tak which came with a plastic saddle, after a while i decided to shave the saddle to lower down the action to a point where the pickup no longer work (maybe it's due to the low saddle) and i decided to get a new saddle made of bone.

I just realised that the bone saddle is a bit shorter than the slot and still the pickup won't work. I saw earlier that there's something on the edge of an installed saddle to fill the gap on the slot (the leftover) on another guitar.

My question is, did i do anything wrong installing the saddle or should i stick with the plastic one and where can i get a replacement saddle that fits perfectly with the slot?

Thanks guys.

Welcome. I can't think of a reason why shaving or sanding down the saddle would affect the pickup. If it got too low, it would affect the break angle of the strings and affect the tonal qualities unplugged, but that shouldn't matter to the pickup. I hate to ask the obvious, but you're sure there's a fresh battery in the pre-amp?

As far as bone saddles go, you could get one from Bob Colosi. You'd just need to provide really good measurements, he'd make it slightly over-sized for you to sand down to fit. Lots of folks here have gotten saddles, nuts and bridge pins from him - he does good work.

Hopefully someone else can shed light on the issue.

The pickup and saddle on that model are an intergrated unit. You cant remove the saddle and shave down the bottom. Any shaving needs to come off the top of the saddle.

Well, there's one way shaving the saddle would affect the pickup...

I see, i really regret my decision to shave it down way too low.

Besides the custom made saddle, is there any other way i can get the appropriate (if possible the original) plastic saddle as what i had from Takamine or any other distributor?

Thanks again

Alrite, i found the answer why the saddle doesn't fit well into the bridge slot, it's because the pickup on my EG510SC is not the palathetic pickup but a standard transducer (film based) pickup which explains why i see screw mounting on Tak guitars using the saddle i bought. Silly me for not knowing and buying it without asking further.

Still confused how to get a proper replacement of my old shaved to death saddle

I have an EG530SC. Bought it cheap to use as my slide guirar. I changed the saddle from the OEM plalstic to an LB6 series L R Baggs.

http://accessories.musiciansfriend.com/ ... sku=307151

I had to shape the top of the saddle using the old saddle as a pattern. After that drop it in the slot and plug it in.

Blues

Contact our service dept. They can sort you out

Interesting thread -- I'm just about to have the saddle lowered on my TAN77 (palathetic pickup).

Is there anything I should look out for? Looking at the manafacturer instructions for the L.R.Baggs Element, it looks like they want a slight title in the saddle (towards the neck). Does Takamine recommend the same thing, or should the saddle be 90 degrees square on the bottom?

[see page 3 of this document for the L.R. Baggs explanation of why they want a slight angle for the bottom of the saddle]

I've trimmed (shaved) saddles on a number of palathetics. No issues, just make the bottom nice and flat.

Takamine Pro guitars with the Palathetic pickup can have the saddle shaved from the bottom. As Tacky suggests, keep it flat and straight.

G Series guitars have a different and unique pickup. It does pose a bit of a problem if you need to lower beyond the shims, but it is a very good pickup design that greatly decreases balance issues that normal under saddle transducers are plagued with.

If you need to lower a G Series pickup beyond the shims, you can shave about 1/32" off the top with no problems. If you shave more than that off the top you will also need to round the top off a bit so the bearing surface is not flat.

Mike, thanks for the information.

Is this posted on the Takamine website? Given the large number of G series that you probably sell, there may be lots and lots of folks out there that want to lower their action. The first thing they will do is to shave the bottom of the saddle. Maybe a warning label on each guitar and a discussion page on the Takamine website might be helpful.

So, is it still possible to change the saddle with a bone saddle?
Can the old pickup be integrated/used with the new bone saddle?

revive,

As Mike said the G series is a different cat in that the plastic saddle is permanently attached to a metal base with attached wire and plug. I chose the LR Baggs replacement because it fit the existing slot in the bridge, it is construced of a material that simulates bone and is easily shaped with jewlers files, it is plug and play, and the price was reasonable. The guitar sounds much better and I think for my purposes the investment was worth it as my plastic saddle was worn out. I would generally say that the time and expense to upgrade a G series Tak in relation to the benefits gained is subjective unless of course you have to repair a damaged component. Instead of trying to upgrade a G series a guy should look to the pro-series for an upgrade.

My .02

Blues

That's just wonderful. I wish I had known this before I bought an EG531SC-DR a few weeks ago. I had every intention of putting a bone saddle in.

So, if my plastic saddle wears out, I have NO choice but to replace the entire pickup system? Am I understanding this correctly?

Why would they do something like this? That just seems wrong to me.