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May 2015
Posts: 186
Location: Glendora, CA | Recently at a local pawn shop I came across a Honey of a 12 string - CC-045-HB... Honey Burst to be exact with a hard case for a cool $290 - they wanted $350 but a haggling insued mostly due to the godawefull thing someone did to the saddle. I mean I am no luthier but pretty sure I have never seen the saddle slotted like it was a nut. 
Anyone know where I can get a replacement saddle for this girl? I tried searching the forums for 12 string saddle replacement but came up short.
As suggested when I posted this in the welcome forum - I ordered the one available on Ebay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/MusicianAtHeart-Bone-NUT-and-Bridge-SADDLE-SET-for-Ovation-Acoustic-Guitar-/111656915505?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19ff455231  but when it arrived it was shorter and considerably different (see photos) 
I have not yet had time to call "Mini-Mother" Ovation Repair shop but will try this week to get a chance during eastcoast business hours.
She actually still sounds good even with crappy old strings - looking forward to what she sounds like for real.
In my original post on Welcome Forum stonebobbo pointed out this was strug with all 12 strings doubled up not with alternating octives like a normal 12 string requiring both nut and saddle to be replaced, he suggested I might want to restring it this original way the previous owner set it up and see what it sounded like - since I have not yet gotten the correct bridge & saddle I decided to clean up the grooves in the saddle and tryer out that way. Ordered two sets of Elixir Nanowebs and will be setting her up with those until I can get the replacement parts.
BTW any suggestions for 12 string sets - or should I just go with the stock D'Addario EXP38?
So unbeliveably happy to have found this site!!
Thanks so much to all for all the information here.
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November 2002
Posts: 3648
Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | Somebody did that to a thinline pickup?! A hangin' offense, to be sure. String 'em up! :-) |
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September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | First-off... Just cuz someone sez that they have a Saddle or Nut for an Ovation don't make it so.
Plus... That Saddle and Nut could be bought on eBay from China for $5...
Then you say a bunch of marketing spoo and add $10.
They just add the name "Ovation" or "Takamine" or "Martin" so that it will appear in your search for a specific brand.
You could get a Artec PP-607 flat piezo pickup to go under one of those generic saddles.
Graphtech actually makes a TUSQ saddle that could work.
Or you could contact the Mini-Mother Repair shop and get a correct part.
And, Yes... I have received a guitar with a saddle cut like a nut. 
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Joined:
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Posts: 3648
Location: Pacific Northwest Inland Empire | OK, complete disclosure. I did do some slots on a resonator saddle, but that's proper. Otherwise....... |
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August 2002
Posts: 8307
Location: Tennessee | I'm a big fan of Pyramid strings on my 6759 CL12. A bit more $$, but well worth it IMO. I get my strings online from juststrings.com. Otherwise, D'Adds or Adamas sets are plenty good.
Have fun playing with the double courses. Buy two sets of strings, then you can string it with the low strings doubled, and you can also string it Nashville style for a hoot. I actually recorded one of my tunes with a 12-string strung in a Nashville sorta way and I got some very cool and unique sounds from the guitar. |
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Posts: 14842
Location: NJ | Have you sighted down the neck & top of that guitar?
A lot of times (especially on 12-strings) when some yutz cuts grooves into a saddle like that, it's a last-ditch-effort to lower the action on a guitar whose top is caving, and needs a neck-reset(bowl bend). A new saddle will increase the break-angle and improve the sound, but it MAY be a trade-off of much higher action and intonation/tuning issues . . . just something to consider.
Edited by cliff 2015-07-07 4:46 AM
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March 2008
Posts: 2683
Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | If the action is good and it doesn't buzz with the messed up saddle, measure the height of it (to the bottom of the grooves), then contact the Mothership and request a saddle for that particular guitar in that particular height. Problem solved. |
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March 2005
Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | Are there shims in the bridge? Cliff's idea about why someone tried to lower the action by cutting the slots may be right, but someone who was dumb enough to cut the slots might not have known to just take out a shim. |
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May 2011
Posts: 758
Location: Muenster/Germany | I make all nuts and saddles for my guitars by hand, it´s not that difficult. All you need is a file and sandpaper. first cut the length of the saddle, then use sandpaper on a straight surface to adjust the thickness. Little patience the first time! After that you may put an (old) high e and a low E string on the guitar to test roughly the action, if too high, adjust the height of the saddle again with sandpaper as before (if more than 1mm use a file first). Continue until you have an action of ca.2 mm for th low and ca.1,8mm for the high string. Then put all the strings on an the action will be little higher because of the bend of the neck. You may have to adjust the height of the saddle several times until the guitar has finally set, that can take a couple of days.The last work is to make very fine! nicks in the saddle where the strings shall be so that you can make the strings have the desired distances from each other. What I want to point out with this, you will NEVER be able to buy a nut or saddle as replacement that exactly matches your guitar, with the time you may learn how to improve your guitars by yourself. Sometimes I spend a full sunday afternoon to change the action of a guitar about 2/10 mm.....Otherwise simply give the guitar to a luthier, he will do exactly what I said but I find that working on my instruments has become part of my guitar player´s life. Recently I made a very precise high-gloss brass nut for my Adamas 12string, so that the clear strings have the same sound as the strings on the frets, but that´s already an advanced stage:-) |
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Posts: 758
Location: Muenster/Germany | ...ah, strings..for 12string guitars I recommend THOMASTIK -plectrum- AC211.These strings let your 12string live longer, the tension is only from 15.4 to 22.6 lbs/string. And if you don´t have a short-scale guitar try to detune it one halfstep. These strings sound very balanced with nice basses, but they are not coated so you must carefully clean them after playing (fastfret or the like) |
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Posts: 758
Location: Muenster/Germany | I just took a closer look at the pictures, if this is a metal/plastic compound saddle with an integrated pickup forget what I said first, it´s possible to make by hand, but it´s not the best for learning. These are vacuum-casted parts and should be still available. But if you have no shims to remove under the saddle and the action is still too high you must always remove material from the whole area of the saddle (Sandpaper) , never make deep cuts like on the old one, this will kill the sound. -Sigh-if I only could show you all that myself.
And cliff´s comment is absolutely right, too, have this checked.
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May 2015
Posts: 186
Location: Glendora, CA | @cliff - I did as thorough a peering as my untrained eye could at the pawnshop and the Honey seemed remarkably flat toped, and the bridge did not seem to be pitched forward, she actually looks virtually unplayed which is why the saddle slots seem so strange. @Mark you were correct the shims were still in place. @Canterbury will put on the new strings and follow your prescription for the Mothership Thanks again to all !!! 
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March 2005
Posts: 12759
Location: Boise, Idaho | I think the white plastic thingy stays in, but the brown shim you could take out. If the prior owner had just done that, which is explained in any Ovation manual or in many places online, the action might have been fine. It's hard to imagine someone would start sawing slots in the saddle without doing a basic search for what to do to lower the action. On the other hand, I took the saddle out of my daughter's guitar and then let the white plastic thing and shims fall out without looking to make sure I got things put back in the same order. A search for "white plastic thingy" might lead you to a thread where I asked for help getting it back together. |
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Posts: 2683
Location: Hot Springs, S.D. | The white plastic thingy is a shim too. Different thicknesses come in different colors. |
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September 2006
Posts: 10777
Location: Keepin' It Weird in Portland, OR | Some of the white plastic thingies are inclined, ramp-like.
Sometimes the inclined ones are kinda milky white translucent.
So you might wanna hang on to them for future use.
But they are just shims.
Brown ones, Green ones, some that say Subway or VISA on them.
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Posts: 2332
Location: Pueblo West, CO | CanterburyStrings - 2015-07-09 4:21 PM
The white plastic thingy is a shim too. Different thicknesses come in different colors.
The white plastic thingy is probably just styrene plastic, which is the same thing credit cards are made from.
The brown thingy is phenolic, which, in the old days before fiberglass, was used for circuit board construction.
Styrene, like phenolic comes in different thickness.
Because phenolic is a composite, i.e.: cloth & resin, it can only be made so thin. That's where styrene comes in. Styrene sheet is available in thicknesses ranging from .005" up to .060" and up.
Styrene is slightly softer than phenolic, but it still is hard enough for a shim. |
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Posts: 758
Location: Muenster/Germany | 331602429366
ebay
That should be the right thing |
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To resaddle or...not?
