Bridge Saddle Without Notches?

[Mickguard]

Hello all,

I'm in the advance planning stages of my next guitar --inspired by the Danelectro Convertible.

The real Convertible supposedly uses just a piece of fret wire as the saddle --and I get the impression that the wire doesn't have notches for the strings either.

So are notches for saddles necessary in this type of saddle (i.e., a single bar instead of individual saddles)?

[thedoctor]

Saddle slots are not used on a lot of guitars, specialy 'coustics, if the string retainer spacing is decent. For that matter, a lot of necks are made with "zero frets" which is a fret where the nut would be. This assumes good string retainer spacing or a "pre-nut" if you will. I think the guitars with solid wire saddles/zero-nuts show an ease-of-tuning that you can't find except on the latest self-lube nut/saddle materials. That is IMHO

Remember, intonation will still have to be set by angling the bridge and it will be a bit of a compromise in that you can't set each string idividualy. Close enough for government work.

Edited March 6, 2005 by thedoctor