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Masaru Kohno Model 20: New Bone Saddle
Related Topics: | Masaru Kohno Side Cracks |
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1. Measuring for the New
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2. Choosing a Suitable Bone
Blank. After taking multiple readings from the bridge with my calipers I headed to the "bone yard" to find an appropriate replacement. |
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| 3. Measuring the Bone Blank.
Just a few thousandths of an inch thicker than the bridge was designed for is all I need. |
4. Thickness Sanding the Blank.
Hand sanding the bone blank to rough thickness was a quick and accurate task with 220 grit sandpaper on our shop's dead flat granite slab. |
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| 5. Checking the Blank with a
Straightedge. The material from the bottom of the blank is usually taken away toward the end of the process while fine tuning the action, however, I'm always much more comfortable having all surfaces square and flat before con- touring the top of the blank. |
6. Rough Sanding to Length.
A quick trip to the disc sander brought the bone blank down to rough length. I also ground in the appropriate ange into the ends of the blank. |
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| 7. Marking the Ends for Final
Shaping. I sanded the sides of the saddle up through 600 grit. At this point the saddle had a nice tight fit. I then layed out the finished ends of the saddle by scoring the bone with a knife. |
8. Final Shaping of the Ends.
Back to the granite slab and the 220 grit sandpaper for final shaping of the saddles ends. |
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| 9. Shaping the Top of the
Blank begins with matching the contour of the fretboard's radius. In this case, nearly flat. Rounding over the ends follows. |
10. I Crowned the Top of the
Saddle, leaving the high point at the center of the blank. This is a reasonable compromise between the saddle's strength, maintaining accept- able string tension and the saddle's tonal characteristics. |
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| 11. Final Shaping of the
Saddle's Crown. After shaping the top of a saddle blank with a file, I sand the bone with sandpaper starting at 220 grit to remove the file marks. I'll then sand the saddle up to 600 grit in preparation for polishing. |
12. Polishing the Saddle begins
with steel wool (#0000) and proceeds through fine sanding pads ending at 12,000 grit. This is a finer polish than the back of our edged tools recieve from the shop's Japanese water stones. The portion of the saddle's sides that protrude from the bridge are polished as well. |
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13. Layout for Adjusting the
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14. Layout for Adjusting the
Action Continued. Marking just how much I want to remove from the bottom of the saddle with the pencil lead will prevent me from accidentally removing too much stock on the quick and course cutting belt sander. |
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15. Adjusting the Action. After
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16. All Done. With a new, properly
fitted bone saddle this guitar is ready for the concert hall! (don't worry, I'll cut off the excess string behind the bridge later) |
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