eldegas.com

That's exactly why I got rid of the adjustable bridge and the plastic saddle on my edj200.How can the strings effciently transfer vibrations to the soundboard through a piece of plastic that sits in a pot metal slot of a plywood guitar ! Stupidest design gibson ever came up with.

So does this mean it'll be pointless inserting a bone saddle into the metal slot (pictured above) when I do find one?

Honestly , it probably won't make that much of a difference.If it were me I'd still do it anyway and the nut for sure too.I also replace the plastic bridge pins with ebony ones on all my guitars.Every little bit will help to some degree.

Some luthiers do a conversion by either replacing the entire bridge or filling the slot with rosewood and routing a new channel for a new bone saddle.

charles wrote:Some luthiers do a conversion by either replacing the entire bridge or filling the slot with rosewood and routing a new channel for a new bone saddle.

That's what I did. Hopefully today I will post some pics if I can figure out how

el dougo wrote:

charles wrote:Some luthiers do a conversion by either replacing the entire bridge or filling the slot with rosewood and routing a new channel for a new bone saddle.

That's what I did. Hopefully today I will post some pics if I can figure out how

See the sticky thread for some instructions - start a free Photobucket account, upload your photos, then paste in the IMG tag info into a thread message.

Whoa !! It worked. You can just see where the old saddle slot was

I commented in your other thread how beautiful this guitar is.
I think this modification was a good call if only from a cosmetic point of view. It really adds to the look of the guitar.
Has it made a substantial difference in the tone or volume?
And, if you don't mind sharing, approximately how much did it cost to make the change?

It made quite a difference in the tone and sustain.But let's be real,It's an all plywood guitar.It sounds really good for a laminate top but alot gets lost in that huge body.A large body with a plywood top doesn't really project as well as a solid top. I originally bought this to use as a campfire guitar so I would stop taking my yamaki camping but I never did take it . I just can't get past the solid vs laminate top thing. Don't get me wrong the ED sounds good,just nothing like a solid top does plus it was too pretty to take out in the bush. Whoops didn't answer your question.The mods didn't cost me anything other than what I paid for the nut and saddle blank. My friend is the guitar tech for Paul Rodgers(sorry to name drop)so we did the routering over a few beers one night.

el dougo wrote:...It's an all plywood guitar...

Really? I'm shocked.
My MIJ "Dove" has a solid spruce top; the only difference from the real thing is that the back and sides are mahogany rather than maple.

...it was too pretty to take out in the bush.

Good call there!

My friend is the guitar tech...

el dougo wrote:Honestly , it probably won't make that much of a difference.If it were me I'd still do it anyway and the nut for sure too.I also replace the plastic bridge pins with ebony ones on all my guitars.Every little bit will help to some degree.

Sounds good; I'll try to track these parts down..any idea of cost for ebony/bone pins, nut and saddle?

A cursory glance around guitarpartsresource.com gave me these numbers:
bone nut ~$5
bone saddle ~$4-$12
bridge pins ~$12-$20

Finally tracked down a "graph tech Tusq" nut and saddle; anyone have experience with this brand? Hope it does what it claims to do for tone/volume...

Think I'll go without replacing the bridge pins..seems a bit pricey for what I think will be little results.

I'm a big fan of the Tusq products from Graphtech

It's a good alternative to bone for vegetarian tree hugger types like me

Yep, good stuff.

charles wrote:...for vegetarian tree hugger types like me

Shhh! Don't let the cattlemen hear ya pardner.

I heard bone chips easily when sanding...so hopefully this material will hold up..