Welcome to the forum. As far as "why they would do something like this" it's a matter of economics. The palathetic pickup is a higher-grade, and more expensive, product. It's no different than solid top, back and side woods vs. laminates, or better tuning machines and pre-amps. The G series are designed and built to be affordable and appeal to people who are willing to sacrifice higher quality materials for less capital outlay. All quality guitar makers offer less expensive "entry level" lines. Essentially, you get what you pay for. That's not to say the G series are "bad" guitars at all, just that you have to realize they're less expensive for a (or several) reason(s). If you're happy with the sound and playability of the guitar with what you payed for it, then that's all that matters, isn't it?

I would have to disagree with you here. Manufacturers may produce a guitar with a plastic saddle that can later be upgraded to bone. However, in this case, that isn't possible. This is a design choice (possibly to get a better string balance with less manufacturing effort) that limits the purchaser in a way that they weren't expecting. Now, I can understand cost savings in various areas (finish, bindings, "bling", tuners, etc.), but this is a bit of a different animal.

Now, I can't argue that an integrated saddle is a bad choice. Indeed, it may have some advantages. However, as a manufacturer, Takamine should want their customers to go into a purchase with their eyes wide open. Takamine should convey to the purchaser that the G series guitars have this rather unexpected "feature".

Again, I'm not knocking Takamine or integrated saddles. However, this is so out of the ordinary and so far from what a customer would expect, that it should be mentioned *before* the purchase.

In reality you CAN replace the saddle with bone. It would need to be custom cut and probably cost a small fortune. And I believe Graph Tec has Tusq saddles that work on the CP100 pickup as well.

We feel the advantages of this pickup design for "plugged in" performance is the major focus. And with the copper channel loaded with piezos onder it, bone would probably not facilitate a huge improvement over the plastic saddle.

Hi Mike, i just want to let you and everyone knows that KMC Music have been a great help, i received the saddles and they fit perfectly on my Tak.

Thanks very much for the help and wish you all the best.

I love a happy ending. Thanks for letting us know.

BluesBelly,
I looked up this LR Baggs pickup - it shows the pickup itself with a single wire. Where does the wire attach, how does it attach into the existing Tak TP4T pre-amp? I have a EG128C classical that I would like to change out the pick-up in order to install a bone saddle.
Thanks, Steve

Steve,

The LB6 series LR Baggs That I bought for my G series Tak plugged into the pre-amp where the factory saddle had been attached. Unplug old, plug in new. If you get this saddle from Musiciansfriend.com they have a nonconditional 30 day return policy (no marketing push intended) so you can remove the old saddle and see how the new one fits and as long as you don't modify it you can return it should you not be pleased with the fit. Mine fit well and works swell. The reason I hooked up with the Baggs product is because the price was very reasonable.

Good Luck,

Blues

Thanks Blues,
I'm going to give it a try.

I'm even more confused now. I thought this wasn't going to be possible?

I finally decided to do some snooping around with my guitar (a G-series EG531SC-DR) a few nights ago. I discovered that the saddle wasn't attached to anything, and came off rather easily.

What am I missing here? Is it possible the DR model is different? I'm really confused here.

So I've had my EG523SC since this summer and yesterday, in an attempt to lower the action, I removed the saddle and filed down the back side. When the tuner wouldn't work, I started frantically looking online and found this forum.

Now that the damage is done, what can I do about it? I can't believe that it's irreparable. If I get my hands on a replacement saddle (or rather saddles, because it's 2 pieces), and file down the top this time, would that do the trick? I really don't think I damaged anything else and the thought of completely replacing the electronics makes my flesh crawl.

Thanks for any help.

Hi, I am new to this site and to Takamine guitars. I have an EG334BC that I bought a few months ago. It sounded great but the lower strings were not nearly as loud. especially the low E and A. The Plastic saddle seamed to be bending forward a bit as well and I decided to put a bone saddle in there. When I unstrung it the saddle came right out and appeared to be just a regular saddle. I shaped the new saddle and put it in. It really sounds great with this but the low E is about half volume. Other than that it really has a good sound.

The guy I bought it from said he was told to clean the pickup with brasso or some cleaner to get all the strings working. So I would imagine the saddle was separated from the pickup a while back. Do I need a new assembly of saddle and pickup? Do they come attached like that? Like I said It does sound really good plugged in. If I could live with a little less response on the E I would be good to go. Or can I just buy a new pickup and put it under the saddle I have made?