I'm plannig on ordering a 12 saddle bridge from the Boutique for my 360/12. Will the saddles come pre-slotted for the strings or will I need to do that myself?

Thanks in advance,

Mike D.

We don't pre-notch bridges as this part is capable of being used on a wide variety of instruments which have different spacing.

It would also defeat the purpose of offering the part, given it's a customization and you should have a clean slate to work from, so to speak, to carry out your preferred string arrangement.

Thank you for the information Mr. Hall!

Mike Duncan

Mike Duncan, I had a 12 saddle bridge installed on my RIC 360/12 and I am very happy with the results. I had it done by Mark Arnquist in Seattle. I don't know if you had the problem that I had, but he set up the guitar so that I could play it. I have average sized figers, but the string spacing was so close at the nut that I it was only with extreme effort that I could fret notes at the first through thrid frets on all stringe without touching adjacent strings. That made for buzzing and deadening of strings. In addition, the action at the nut was set fairly high at the factory. The combination of closing spacing and hight action was dissapointing. I had to pay $250 for getting the 12 saddle installed and a professional set-up. It was worth it. The action at the bridge is now set at the bare minimun. That means that the strings clear the first fret by the same amount that the string clear the second fret when playing the note on the first fret, ie, almost nothing. Mark installed a new nut with adding a total of .11 inches to the string spacing by moving the high and low E strings out a bit and spreading the other strings out accordingly. That made all the difference. Now it plays like a dream, with low action and no buzzing.

Mark did many other things, which I can list for you if you are interested. The bridge that you have now likely is not on center with the neck, so the strings are off center 1/16 of an inch or more. The same likely is true for the pickups. One of the things that I really liked was setting the tops of the strings at the bridge so that the tops for an arc the same arc as the bridge, ie with no up for the primary stinge and then down to the octave strings. That is done by precise filing of the grooves in the new bridge. You would need a michrometer to do it properly yourself. That makes both strumming and picking smoother. I could not be happier, and I recommend Mark to you.

If you want to do the job yourself, I can direct you to a set of instructions that someome put on line. They are quite detailed, and I would recommend that you have a luthier do it. Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

Mike Duncan, I had a 12 saddle bridge installed on my RIC 360/12 and I am very happy with the results. I had it done by a luthier in Seattle. I don't know if you had the problem that I had, but he set up the guitar so that I could play it. I have average sized figers, but the string spacing was so close at the nut that I it was only with extreme effort that I could fret notes at the first through thrid frets on all stringe without touching adjacent trings. That made for buzzing and deadening of strings. In
addition, the action at the nut was set fairly high at the factory. The combination of closing spacing and hight action was dissapointing. I had to pay $250 for getting the 12 saddle installed and a professional set-up. It was worth it. The action at the bridge is now set at the bare minimun. That means that the strings clear the first fret by the same amount that the string clear the second fret when playing the note on the first fret, ie, almost nothing. The luthier installed a new nut with adding a total of .11 inches to the string spacing by moving the high and low E strings out a bit and spreading the other strings out accordingly. That made all the difference. Now it plays like a dream, with low action and no buzzing. The luthier did many other things, which I can list for you if you are interested. The bridge that you have now likely is not on center with the neck, so the strings are off center 1/16 of an inch or more. The same likely is true for the pickups. One of the things that I really liked was setting the tops of the strings at the bridge so that the tops form an arc the same arc as the bridge, ie with no up for the primary stinge and then down to the octave strings. That is done by precise filing of the grooves in the new bridge. You would need a michrometer and a set of special files to do it properly yourself. That makes both strumming and picking smoother.

If you want to do the job yourself, I can direct you to a set of instructions that someome put on line. They are quite detailed, and I would recommend that you have a luthier do it. Good luck, and let us know how it
goes.

Hi Freeman,

I'd be most grateful if you could put up the link for customising. I have a 12 saddle which came with the guitar and would give the instructions to a local luthier round here to do