Bridge Repair

[David Lloyd]

Hi all,
I have an older Washburn F that has an electronic pickup made in the bridge. I am not sure of the make. Whoever put it on there put the string slots very close together. Is there a way to fill the slots so that I could put new slots at a better spacing? It doesn't matter to me if the repair is visible. I did a search but couldn't find anything. If all is fails I will just lose the electronics and put a new bridge on it.
Thanks,
Dave

[Skip Kelley]

David, you can fill the slots with dust of whatever wood the saddle is made from and superglue. Then sand everything out nice and smooth. Make sure the string notches filled in solid and then refile them.

[David Lloyd]

Thanks,
Dave

[david blair]

If you have an adjustable bridge you can raise the height and the sand the top of the saddle. I wouldn't encourage adding any glue or filler mix for a few reasons.
The pickup element inside the saddle is glued into the bottom so you have some lee-way to sand on the top. Also consider where the A and D strings slots already are. Do they need to be moved? You may only want to move the E and G strings and if this is the case maybe a radiused saddle would suit you.
I use an emory board to this and gauged files for each string size. Make sure to leave nice 90º edges and to align the new slots with each string (sighting towards the nut).
regards