More Tak Saddle Questions...

Psean

My Takamine G series has a saddle like this:

I'd like to lower the bridge action a bit and was wondering:
1. What are the notches on the underside for?
2. Can I just sand down the bottom as one would with a smooth saddle or do I need to use a different approach?

The saddle and nut on theis guitar aren't great and will be upgraded at some point but I'd like to try adjusting the action on this one first as I've never done it before.

Nitebob

My Cort acoustic had those notches, I sanded it down and it sounded pretty much the same to me, did my first acoustic gig like that. Now it's got a Bone saddle made by Andries Vorster, so I'm not sure how it looks below now...but sounds better now due to bone density..

Psean

Nitebob wrote My Cort acoustic had those notches, I sanded it down and it sounded pretty much the same to me, did my first acoustic gig like that. Now it's got a Bone saddle made by Andries Vorster, so I'm not sure how it looks below now...but sounds better now due to bone density..

Cool, thanks. I was hoping I could do that.
Bone density? With the plastic crap that comes on these things mine probably sounds like it has osteoporosis ? Bone or Tusq is probably what I'll look at eventually. The nut really is a crap one.

Nitebob

In all honesty, when I heard all the talk about bone...I thought...sure :-\, then why don't they make em that way. Andries charged me R550 for Bone nut, saddle, bridge pins, a set-up and a set of Elixirs....and the difference is phenominal, would suggest it to anybody and everybody

Psean

Sounds good. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll keep him in mind when the time to upgrade comes. Where is he based?

Nitebob

Psean wrote Sounds good. Thanks for the recommendation, I'll keep him in mind when the time to upgrade comes. Where is he based?

Pretoria unfortunately...Atterbury value mart...inside Musica Instruments...www.thefretshop.co.za

Psean

Ah, okay. Thanks

Psean

I've sanded it down a bit and it seems to be working fine ? The high action and 12s were really giving my clumsy hands something to work against. The plus side to this was that having a guitar that was difficult to play highlighted the flaws in my technique and gave me something specific to work at and motivation to practice better than I had been lately ? It's much more playable now though, and I'm really enjoying it.

Nitebob

Good ? Made my Cort much easier to play as well, back then (before the bone goodies) I was playing in a wierd tuning (open Em) with electric 9's on ???...I'm much better now....