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ll Task History ll Danelectro Bridge History ll Evets / Danelectro Reissue Bridges ll Preferred Options and Work Tour ll SITE MAP ll

See a graphic examination of 12 string intonation plotting shown further below.
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A look at a fabricated, 6 string, fixed intonation saddle on a Danelectro 1457.
(My #1 personal guitar).
Hand cut fixed compensation brass saddle retrofit.

Original vintage Danelectro bridge plate.



Threaded socket in bottom of saddle receives screw from underside of bridge plate through original fore-aft adjustment slot in bridge plate.  Saddle adjusts fore and aft and also rotates horizontally around this screw for latteral horizontal angle adjustment.
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Midi pickup
has nothing to do with bridge assembly.
At first glance the intonation of the 3rd and 4th strings look quite offset from each other;  But a closer look at the horizontal rotation of the saddle and the angles referenced to the strings allows us to see the very slight offset from the saddle's effective centerline:
C
6 string intonation.  The image above is the 6-string fixed saddle cut from brass, with the intonation points ( red dots ) displaced fore and aft from the intonation mean datum ( marked Center "C" ).  Notice that strings 4, 5 & 6 are intoned almost the same as strings 1, 2 & 3 ...just set aft a tad bit farther.  It's the shift in cycle of 4ths / 5ths realtaionship between adjoining strings, upset in the note step relationship between strings 2 and 3, that offsets the intonation between 1,2,3 and 4, 5, 6;  While string 3 is offset a tad longer due to being set for a non-wound string on this guitar.  Were all the strings tuned in a cycle of 5ths and follow a linear string gauge chart-slope, then the intonation would be a straight slanted line.  The slanted offset from perpendicular to the strings accounts for stretched tuning and Equal Temperment; Otherwise the saddle would be more perpendicular to the strings, offset only for string gauge differences in each's exact scale length.
Option 1.
Non-destructive mounting of intoneable Danelectro reissue bridge.
This option was chosen as the best by far.
Option 2.
Fabricating new bridge plate to (1) match vintage Danelectro mounting scheme and, (2) receive Danelectro reissue / Gotoh tuneamatic parts and, (3) with string ball-end receiver holes for all 12 strings on back of bridge plate rather than the reissue bridge's 6 through the body.
Option 3.
Fabricating a fixed intoned bridge saddle to
fit original vintage Danelectro bridge plate.

Fixed saddles, placement and geometry:
PREFERRED OPTIONS PAGE
In order of preferences
A fixed intonation bridge saddle works well if it's made
accurately and the Player understands how to adjust it.
My main squeeze whose bridge is used in the
graphic examples above;  It has unsurpassed tone to the
bone due much to the brass fixed intoneable bridge saddle.

See a graphic examination of 12 string intonation plotting shown further below.
Non-destructively fitting an intoneable 12 string bridge onto a vintage Danelectro
Developing a professional solution for consumer-level retrofitting where none can be found among experts
PLEASE NOTE:  These webpages are under construction and their meanings incongruent until finished.
Webpages provided for owner of guitar and participating technicians
This image shows the same 6-string intonation points for each string that's shown in the above image.  The orange dots here show the approximate points where each of a 12-string guitar's dupler strings would intonate ...the first 3 duplers the same as each's Spanish string matching note and string gauge, while the last 3 duplers are an octave higher and smaller gauge than their partner Spanish strings, which put the duplers' intonation points back at about the same intonation points as the first 3 dupler strings.  A fixed saddle is cut for 12 strings by cutting the saddle ridge flat and the width of the dupler strings offset;  Then the proper steeper angle is cut for each string so each string rides on it's own correctly intoned ridge.  A fixed 12-string saddle is adjusted / set by averaging the intonation of each Spanish and dupler string pair, making them choral similar to the way a piano's multiple strings for each note is tuned.  Actually, the original Danelectro straight saddle 12 string bridge worked well, with a rather strong chorale when the saddle was set properly, ...but it is just requires advanced understanding and process to set those saddles, which the general public did not understand nor care to learn and deal with.
Vintage Danelectro bridge plate.

Custom cut fixed intonation saddle.
Fore-aft slot that a clamping screw from underneath rides in to allow fore / aft and horizontal angular adjustment of fixed saddle.
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ll Task History ll Danelectro Bridge History ll Evets / Danelectro Reissue Bridges ll Preferred Options and Work Tour ll SITE MAP ll
Other options were dismissed as being far inferior to the option used.
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