A customer brought in the Gibson Gospel with intonation problems.  Strobing revealed that the intonation was off but I wasn’t prepared for how far the saddle was misplaced.  Using the “intonator” I located the correct positions for each string.  It was nearly 1/4″ off on the bass side!  Not entirely believing this, I double checked it with the “saddlematic”(and against several other Gibson acoustics.)  My plan is to fill the slot and rout a new slot in the correct location.

Using a piece of matching ebony I made a replica of the saddle to fill the original saddle slot and glued it in place with hot hide glue.

The bridge slopes upward toward the bridge pins and moving the saddle back will raise the action significantly.  In order to keep the action close to the original action I sanded the bridge until the location for the new slot is the same height as the old area. This made the bridge flatter than original but the lower pin location will also help create a better break angle over the saddle.  After leveling the bridge I reinstalled the “intonator” and marked the correct location for the new saddle. I then routed the new saddle slot with a Foredom router attatched to a homemade slot cutting jig.

I ramped the strings to give a better break angle over the saddle,cleaned up the bridge, and did a setup. The improvement in intonation was dramatic.