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I was about to make a couple of classical bridges and pulled out some bridge blanks that have been stored for years in my shop, 2 Brazilian and 1 East Indian. Years ago I had a teacher that slanted his saddle slot even for classicals. These are really nice blanks, but already have the saddle slot cut at an angle, about 4.5mm fom the front edge on the bass, and 3.5mm from the front edge on the treble. From what I have read here, everyone building classicals keeps their saddle slot parallel to the nut and compensates the saddle itself, plus about 2mm setback (250 scale length) when placing the bridge. So are they usable, or am I better off getting some new blanks? The slots are 3/32.

Next question, if I have to order blanks, can I use them right away or do they have to sit in my shop? I really have to finish these 2 guitars as soon as possible for a couple of reasons. Thanks, Wendy

i dont see any reason why not to use them.
on my 2 builds i set my bridge back 1mm for the 1st string and 2mm for the 6th.
on a 650mm scale means the distance form nut to saddle is 651 mm for the 1st string and 652mm for the 6th string.
your bridges have that 1mm difference already on the saddle slots so its even better because they are going to be square to the axis.

then you can do some final compensation on the saddle by filing a "bevel" on each string position as needed

What Bruno said. And I find 2mm is a bit too much with carbon string so popular these days.

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Build log

Thanks Bruno and Alexandru, that's great, since that means I can go ahead and make bridges this weekend and they won't be wasted. Can you clarify how I should place them on the guitar. Do you measure from the nut to the front edge of the slot, or from the nut to the middle of the slot? Wendy

To the edge! 651 and 652. Try not to lose much meat off the base of the saddle block, you are already at the lower limit imo (although you will see a mere 3-3mm (even less?) or so front on many old Spanish guitars, I can't understand why they were risking it so much. Only time I made a bridge like this it snapped while simply sanding the slot) My default is 4.5/5 treble to 6mm bass.

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Hi everyone - Alexandru, do you really do 651 - 652 with a 1 mm slant? I'm looking at the one I just strung up this week (with no slant and set at 652) and thinking that if I changed that I'd rather do 652-653. The high E and B seem pretty much where they should be, while the low E is a little off.

Jim

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Jim Kirby
kirby@udel.edu

Yes 651/652 to the leading edge. Sounds good enough to me (but I'm not the intonation maniac type) and my users are happy so far. The thing is that if someone comes asking for more, the saddle can be easily filed. But if they switch to carbon, at 652 it will be quite sharp and you really have no fix for it. And most players I know prefer carbon these days since they are obviously louder.
As for the bass, I think I tried once 653 and it turned flat. But you know how it is, different strings, different action and fingers have an effect...

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Build log

I also use 651 and 652 mm, if that helps.

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