Correct saddle thickness for ukulele

[Quinny]

Hi there,

I have made a tenor uke recently and are about to embark on making a concert uke. I am needing to check on correct saddle thickness for a uke bone saddle. The tenor plans I had showed an angled compensated saddle. I ended up putting mine straight and it ended up being 4.3mm thick. I realise I probably got the dimension confused by the compensated saddle picture on the plans and am wondering if 4.3mm is too thick. I am more keen to know for my next build. I went to a music store and their uke saddles were 3mm, but probably not bone and mass produced.

Any advice on the following is appreciated:
- Does it matter if the bone saddle is 4.3 versus 3mm? Will it affect tone or volume?
- What is the optimal thickness?
- I am not as confident about putting in a compensated saddle on an angle? is it really necessary?

Thanks

Andrew

[jeffhigh]

I do all my saddles guitars and ukes at 3.2mm (1/8)
4.3 will do no harm except it may look different
There is no need IMHO for an angled saddle on a ukulele or any nylon string instrument.
It may give you flat intonation on the lower strings

[Allen]

No worries on making it wider, just make sure that you shape it so that there is only a single contact point for the string. I make mine wither 3.5 or 4.0 mm thick. Depends on the string choice (re-entrant or low G) to allow a bit of compensation.

[Quinny]

Thanks Jeff and Allen. Good to know a compensated saddle isn't needed - makes it much easier for me. And the thickness is ok on my tenor - all good.

Thanks guys

Andrew

[Nick]

I make mine 4mm, to allow for a bit of compensation (thanks to Allen's sage advice). My last uke gained praise from it's owner (who was no Uke slouch) for playing and intonating correctly right up the length of the fingerboard. Depends on how much accuracy you want or expect, most Uke owners expect a bit of intonation 'wander'. My acoustics are 5mm too to allow for fine adjusting the compensation, I do however vary from Allen in that I ramp the front edge up to the string's break point and then I put quite a radius on the back edge in both cases so the string rolls around before heading off for it's anchor point, as long as the breakpoint is still the highest point! This allows for the maximum contact on the saddle (and 'harvesting' of string vibration), a little tip I picked up from Ervin Somogyi somewhere.

[Quinny]

Thanks nick. A good tip for max contact of strings

Andrew