Acoustic cutaway for chord melody?

[ah.clem]

I had my guy replace the existing compensated saddle with a harder compensated saddle that he then tweaked for my chosen strings. The intonation is excellent. It's actually better than my acoustic archtop with a compensated bone saddle. I'm considering going to a tune-o-matic on the archtop if I can get over the look of it.

I guess maybe having a really good tech do the work might be a key component to getting good intonation on any guitar. They are expensive but you hear your investment every day. I compensate by drinking cheap wine...

[pingu]

ta for that ....... on flat-tops do techs move the whole bridge around
to get the intonation right ?

BTW I heard a good dodge for the archtop intonation TOM vs Wood
saddle dilemma

put the TOM bridge on
intonate with your choice of strings
trace the saddles onto a bit of paper
make / have made a new rosewood saddle based on the tracing
voila

[ah.clem]

I haven't seen the entire bridge moved; I think that would be indicative of a pretty serious intonation problem, but maybe it happens. I picked up a new saddle already compensated for the Seagull and then gave it and the strings I usually use on that instrument to the tech. He then did the fitting and the final sanding on the saddle to get the intonation set correctly. It looks and sounds great. OTOH, I have a friend with a guitar that was more than twice the cost of the Seagull do a new saddle on his instrument and it is out; but it was a tech he didn't know and the tech says it's not a big deal. Well, actually, it is. So, lesson learned.

Thanks for the tip on the TOM; the problem is, the bridge still floats so intonation is a problem once the bridge takes a hit. I actually saw a nice hack in a Stew-Mac Tips e-mail; after doing pretty much what you suggested, a transducer was being installed under the bridge, so the tech made a small hole for the wiring through the bridge and the top of the guitar, then he added a very small dowel to keep the bridge from moving. Once the saddle was installed everything was jake. Intonation spot-on and no more bridge movement. And no wires hanging off the bridge. I could probably live with that. My old ears aren't going to notice the change in sound produced by the modification.

But that's just me. Might be sacrilegious to someone else.

[pingu]

No probs with the dowl thing from me
I've never needed do fix an archtops bridge ........
depends on the downward string pressure I'd guess
ie break angle and guage of strings