Saddle Routing

Here are some pics of one of my favorite jobs... routing saddle slots. This is one of my favorite jobs because this is probably my favorite jig to use. I like to rout saddle slots on the guitar, with the bridge already located and glued. In most circumstances this enables us to actually intonate the proper location for the saddle... a unique privilege for an acoustic guitar. Electric guitars have movable saddles, which makes adjusting the intonation easy. Acoustic guitars have a fixed saddle placement.

So, this series shows two guitars having their saddle slots routed. The first one is a classical, which I was just widening the slot for the purpose of making it clean and true... the original slot was ugly... so I was just making it right. The second guitar is an old Harmony. I was showing Nate (my repair assistant) how to set up the jig and make the rout.

Setting up the jig.














Routing the slot.

Done. (But not a very good pic.)



















Nate's turn. Checking the alignment of the jig.














Routing and watching.














Done. Hard to see the slot in this pic. We routed this as a "through saddle slot," like what you see on older vintage guitars (or vintage-style guitars.)













-- Ryan Elewaut