I was reading on the Ed Roman website about his opinions about replacing the 6 saddle bridge with a 12 saddle bridge on the 12 string RICs. I am mostly concerned about a 360-12.

Any opinions in here about the necessity/benefits of such an upgrade?

Is the intonation THAT much of a problem on the 6 saddle bridges?

Is the Ed Roman 12 saddle bridge really any different from a RIC 12 saddle bridge?

If you want to use the 360-12 as a six stringer, do the unused saddles in a 12 saddle rattle or cause any problems?

Thanks for any imput you may have.

A 12 saddle will likely improve intonation but then again it's all in the ears. The six saddle bridge provides a fine tone on a 12 string and I've never really seen the need to upgrade. I guess it's all in what you want or prefer and everyone varies on how they hear things.

There is a significant intonation "issue" on the octave courses due to the vast difference in guages between the strings (and especially one wound - one unwound on the G course). The two unison courses should be the same if you have strings of any quality whatsoever.

Personally I find it to be an integral part of the 12-string "sound" and wouldn't change it for the world.

If being dead-on in-tune is a primary concern for you, then, yes, by all means, the 12-saddle bridge is a must-have for you... but if Harrison and McGuinn didn't find it to be a big enough deal to bother with....

I agree....the 6 saddles seem to work perfectly for me & I certainly don't see the need for a 12 saddle bridge, even in recording situations. I had a CW with a 12 saddle bridge & didn't really notice any difference.

I had a 12 saddle bridge put on my 360/12 and I am very gald that I did. The inability to set intonation for both strings in each set of 2 really bothered me.

It did.....& a good point. I still don't find it necessery for my use though. The 6 saddles cope just fine. I can understand people swapping though.

On my 360/12 I've always noticed that the strings do quite well at staying in tune when the they are new. But it seems the G strings just can't hold it together once they've been played on. I can not get the Gs to stay with each other, tuning-wise, past the third fret. I'm planning on buying the 12 saddle brigde...I've been out of tune for the past 15 years.

Mike

I do admit to having intonation trouble on the 325/12 above the 7th or 8th fret, but this was probably also compounded by the length of the neck and having to use a slightly heavier gauge string. Wasn't too much of a prob as most of the stuff I was doing on that guitar was below the 7th fret anyway. My 660/12 which has the 12 saddle bridge has perfect intonation right up the neck thus allowing me to play about above the 7th. Swings and roundabouts I guess. I had a 330/12 and a 620/12 and don't recall intonation probs with them and both of those guitars had the standard 6 saddle bridge. Sounds stupid but with 12's it's more about the ears perception of tuning. A story I recall is when I gave my 325/12 to a tech for a setup in the hope of curing the intonation above the 7th. On collecting this guitar I commented that it still didn't sound right above the 7th. He went on to explain the science of human ear perception and followed through this by tuning the guitar perfectly via a strobe tuner.....STILL didn't sound right to me!!! Though he had proved to me it was perfectly in tune.He's quite an educated guy with an educational degree in acoustics and a qualified luthier to boot, so who was I to argue!!

Mike,

You said "I've been out of tune for the past 15 years."

Toooooooo funny.