Compensation for thomastic a string

[mandocaster]

Has anyone had a saddle made for the Thomastic set? What is the relative position of the A string to the E string? About the same? A little forward?

[mandocaster]

Well, I have plunged ahead. I shaped a hunk of bone into a saddle. I made the A compensation match the E compensation. Hopefully, it will be close. All this sawing on bone makes me feel like I'm at the dentist's office.

[mandroid]

If you got a decent tuner , it will tell you which way the offset needs to go.

[mandocaster]

I have a lovely peterson tuner.

I have heard of folks moving a wire back and forth on top of a saddle blank (with strings up to pitch), making marks to set the intonation, and cutting accordingly.

This process seems hard, so I tried to basically match the stock saddle, except for the different A string. I gave a tiny bit less compensation to the G string, as well.

Unfortunately, everyone at my house has gone to bed, so I can't verify the accuracy of ny guesses. They have to be a big improvement over the stock saddle with the wound A string (I hope).

[foldedpath]

Which TI set? The Starks ("hard") are probably closest to what bluegrass players are used to, and even that's closer to a medium gauge, I think.

I didn't have to get a new bridge for the Starks on my mando. They intonate fine as-is, but your mileage may vary. Remember that action height can affect intonation -- lower action being easier for setting good intonation (all other things being equal), since you're not stretching the string as much.

[mandocaster]

Which TI set? The Starks ("hard") are probably closest to what bluegrass players are used to, and even that's closer to a medium gauge, I think.

I didn't have to get a new bridge for the Starks on my mando. They intonate fine as-is, but your mileage may vary. Remember that action height can affect intonation -- #lower action being easier for setting good intonation (all other things being equal), since you're not stretching the string as much.
They are starks. You certainly have a point about the action height affecting the compensation. I try to have my action high enough to dig in and get some volume - but not too high. Obviously very subjective.

However, there is no way that a saddle cut for a plain .015 will be right on for a wound .015. The question is how much it bugs the player. I know there is no such thing as perfect intonation, but I tend to get fussy. Too fussy, probably.

[Phil Goodson]

In the same vein, does anyone have a good source for an ebony saddle blank. I have a Randy Wood bridge and would like to fashion a saddle for it for the same compensation reasons discussed above.
I can't get a response from Randy by email. Is there another alternative source for an ebony blank?

[mandocaster]

Well, here it is. I had trouble getting it to show very well. Setting the compendation of the E and A the same is very close to correct. The bone saddle sounds nice.