Raising action on Blues 28

[mrstrellisofnwales]

The action on my new (to me) Blues 28 is fantastic for finger style. As good as my flat tops. The relief is perfect and the intonation fine. It’s playable right up the neck even with Newtone 15s on it. 
Trouble is with my technique it’s a smidge too high for slide and that’s what I use it for. Maybe a millimetre on the saddle would do, which would give me half a mm at the 12th. I could spend years perfecting my touch to get it sounding right but my knackered old hands just don’t want to. So question: Are the Hosco saddle blanks which are the only ones I see advertised, any good? Are they a good fit for the biscuit slot? And what’s the tone like? If they’re not great are any there others around?  Thanks
Mrs T

[snakehips]

Hi there !

Do you have nut/saddle files - and of appropriate gauges for the strings you want to use ?

Nut files are really worth having if you mess around with set-ups on your guitars.

I recently bought a cool Kay Value Leader electric guitar, with 3 pickups.
Needed some work done to it, including a refret and new nut.
Although my local luthier did a great job, there was some zing'ing/buzzinggoin on, on some of the strings, when played open, but not when fretted.
I deduced the nut slots where too parallel to the strings, rather than tilted down, parallel to the headstock, to give a break angle off the fretboard side of the nut.
I was able to correct this problem myself with my own nut files, filling the slots at an angle. Zings gone now.

[mrstrellisofnwales]

I always use welding nozzle files for cutting nut slots. I did a series of experimental saddles for my Asian Dobro copy and the nozzle files worked well. And yes, I’m a cheapskate. 😉
Mrs T

[bonzo]

Hi mrs t. From my reading of your post it's not clear to me if you want to raise or lower the string height.

[Michael Messer]

Mrs T, are you wanting to raise the strings by a millimetre or two? If so, it is a really simple thing to do.

Shine On
Michael

[mrstrellisofnwales]

Sorry if the original post wasn’t clear. I’m congenitally thick. It should read “ it’s a smidge too LOW.” The saddle has a radius on it which takes the1st and2ndstring a bit lower than I would like. 345 and 6 are fine.  Everything else is fine.  If I got a new saddle I would have it level across strings 1 to 4 and keep the radius on 5 and 6 as it is which would give me an almost flat playing plane across the top of the strings in the majority of the fingerboard. It’s  just personal preference for my playing style. Sitting as low as it does makes it difficult to make a nice clean slide on 1& 2 without fret bumping. Yes I know I’ve got lousy technique but it’s not going to stop me playing main stage at Glastonbury☺️. Well not this year anyway. 
So that’s why I thought I’d need to shape a new saddle. Hope that’s cleared up my stupidity. 
Anyway folks, Hosco saddles- any good?
Mrs T

[Michael Messer]

That is what I thought you meant, but just wanted to be sure.

My suggestion and the easiest way to raise the bridge saddle is to glue a few veneers to the base of the saddle. That way it doesn't change any of the string spacing or the curve of the saddle.

Remove the coverplate, remove the biscuit from the cone, pull the saddle out of its slot, glue a veneer or two to the bottom of the saddle to give you the extra height you need, and then put it all back together. That is by far the easiest way to raise the strings. You could also loosen the truss rod a turn or two to bring the neck forward, which in turn raises the strings.

Let me know how you get on and if you get in trouble, you know where we are. Oh and don't worry too much as I have a drawer full of saddles and biscuits.

Shine On
Michael

[mrstrellisofnwales]

Fantastic as always. Thank you Michael. I was thinking about a fix like that but wondered about the effect on tone. Don’t want to mess with the relief right now but I’ll set to work on some slivers to raise the saddle. Thanks,
Mrs T

[mrstrellisofnwales]

Job done. Thank you folks. For the veneer as suggested by Michael it came down to a toss up between an ice lolly stick - grandson wondered why I was suddenly being so nice as to give him a quid but then specify exactly what sort of lolly he could buy. ( Zoom - non dairy, no chocolate) or one of the wider, thinner wooden plant pot labels, also used by medics as a tongue depressor but which I use as a glue spreader. I tried both. And the tongue depressor won. Everything is now reassembled and plays perfectly with no change to sound at all. Thanks to all.
Mrs T

[Michael Messer]

That's what lolly sticks are for! ...also, tea/coffee stirrers from motorway services, I have hundreds of them.

Shine On
Michael