Members legiticus Posted December 13, 2003 Members Share Posted December 13, 2003 What is the point of a compensated B-string? Intonation? I'm looking to put a tusq saddle in my guitar and was wondering if I should get one that has the compensated B-string. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members -CM- Posted December 14, 2003 Members Share Posted December 14, 2003 A good explanation of compensation (and many other things) can be found at FRETS.COM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members legiticus Posted December 14, 2003 Author Members Share Posted December 14, 2003 Thanks. Why only the B on a guitar though? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members -CM- Posted December 15, 2003 Members Share Posted December 15, 2003 Well, it's not just the B string that gets compensated. The whole saddle is slanted with respect to the frets, adjusting the effective scale length to compensate for the stretching that occurs when the string is fretted. Looking at my Martin compensated saddles, I see that each strings breaks over the saddle at different points. The B string requires a little bit more compentation. I found this site about Petros guitars that explains it (and a few other things) pretty well.http://www.petrosguitars.com/features.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members woody b Posted December 15, 2003 Members Share Posted December 15, 2003 The b string needs it "special" compensation because it is only 2 steps(4frets) above the string below it and not 2 1/2 steps(5 frets) like the other strings. This makes perfect sense in my head but I'm not smart enough to explain it any better. Hope this makes sense to you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members legiticus Posted December 16, 2003 Author Members Share Posted December 16, 2003 perfect, thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members greystoke 2 Posted December 16, 2003 Members Share Posted December 16, 2003 Totally agree people 'bout "B" string issues. Just finished posting on this forum to a person with intonation probs. on his guild. The science behind compensated saddles escapes me also; but I will say this : "It's not a bad reason" - [could'nt hurt] to, not only setting your mind at ease vis-a-vis intonation; but substituting a better saddle material-[ivory,bone etc.] than the 'plastics' that are becoming prevelant on even 'high end' inst.s nowadays. Agreed? , Greystoke Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members legiticus Posted December 17, 2003 Author Members Share Posted December 17, 2003 true..true. That's actually why I asked because I'm replacing my plastic saddle with Tusq and was trying to figure out if I should get one that is compensated. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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