Official Luthiers Forum!

hi everyone back again for more advice from the experts, I'm building my first acoustic with instructions from a book, so far so good with only minor hiccups along the way.

the body is structurally sound and has had its French polish which I must say came up really well considering I have never done anything like that, so I am a few stages away now from stringing up and playing what I hope will be a sound instrument.

I'm at the stage now where I am about to fix my bridge and cut the compensated saddle slot etc, I have marked my scale length on the guitar obviously checking this measurement about 50 times to make sure its correct and it is, so now I have sculpted the bridge into its shape and the next thing to do is stick the bridge to the body, the book say to cut the saddle slot and bridge pin holes before gluing it to the body, is this a good idea? nearly every video I have watched has shown gluing the bridge in its location and then doing the cutting, which way is best?

the main question I need answering though is about trying to understand the diagram in my book when it comes to cutting the saddle slot with the desired compensation etc. I understand that the scale length and the desired compensation is from the nut to the breaking edge of the saddle, so you have your scale length line and then your compensation added is where your saddle slot is cut, my case its 2ml for the top e and 6ml for the low E back from the scale length line, am I right in thinking this?
the reason I ask is because the diagram I am following in the book has a mock up of a birds eye view of a bridge and the scale length line is situated back by some measurement (which the book hasn't specified) from the leading edge of the bridge, I presumed the leading edge went on the scale length line and then u added the compensation and cut your saddle slot or am I right in thinking the slot is situated further back because 2ml of wood from the leading edge of the bridge to the saddle slot isn't a lot and could easily chip out?

I have my scale length line drawn on my guitar body and I just want to know where the leading edge of the bridge goes, I already have a theory that I could just draw another line on the body say 2ml in front of the scale length line and once its stuck to the body on that line I would know that 2ml back from the leading edge is where my scale length line is and could measure my compensation from there, don't know if this is right??

lol I may sound mad as a hatter but I am blaming the book for being vague and confusing me haha, the way its worded has not been of any help either!
I would greatly appreciate any advice on how others set the bridge position and cut there saddle slots etc any bit of advice that may help.

oh and any advise of saddle width too, as the book ive got states a 3ml width but I don't have a 3ml cutting bit, the closest I got to that is 3.2 ml, is that ok?

cheers guys jason

Where the saddle sits on on the bridge is somewhat arbitrary. Yes, you want good break angle, and you want a fair amount of "meat" in front of the saddle so that it doesn't split. Other than that, it really doesn't matter. I would find your compensated line (which sounds like you have a good grasp of) and then locate the bridge so that has maybe 1/8" in front of the saddle (in the middle). That's kind of hard to explain. Let me try this: If you imagine your compensated line being your saddle, that will stay where it is regardless of where the bridge is located. ie, if that line were in space 1/4" above the bridge, you could move the bridge back and forth without affecting the saddle. Did that make sense?
The width of the slot isn't important. Some people use 1/8", some use 1/4" and some use somewhere in between. I've personally done all three in my career. You just have to make sure that the leading edge of the saddle falls on your compensated line (if you put the back edge of a 1/4" saddle on the line, you'll be WAY out of intonation). One advantage of using a wider saddle is that you have a little more control over the intonation. But one drawback is that it's a bit harder to get material.

thanks very much Pwoolson positive and clear answer, I will definitely heed your advice. I had an idea roughly, its a combination of staring at a book for hours rereading the same words and looking at pics and actually having your own mind picture the process of doing it, mix that with being a first time builder and not wanting to make critical mistakes kind of clouds your judgement a bit but your answer has cleared it up. greatly appreciated cheers.