My approach to compensation has evolved over the years as I’ve focused on stability, predictability, and the ability to fine‑tune intonation for each individual player. Today, I compensate both the nut and the saddle, but the geometry I use is different from what many builders still rely on.
A Perpendicular Saddle, Not an Angled One
I no longer angle the saddle across the bridge. Instead, I install the saddle perpendicular to the guitar’s centerline. This creates a clean, intentional geometry and keeps the compensation tied directly to the break points rather than the saddle’s orientation. It also makes the entire system more predictable when I’m dialing in intonation with a strobe tuner.
An added benefit of the perpendicular saddle is that a guitar can be converted from right‑handed to left‑handed without replacing the entire bridge — only the saddle (and nut) need to be swapped or re‑shaped. This keeps the bridge itself universal and avoids the asymmetry that an angled saddle locks you into.
A 7‑Degree Backward Tilt
Even though the saddle is square to the centerline, I still tilt it back 7 degrees toward the pins. That backward lean:
- increases downward pressure for better energy transfer
- prevents the saddle from tilting forward (a sign of a poor fit)
- stabilizes the break point during setup
This small geometric choice makes the saddle behave more like a structural element and less like a loose insert.
Why I Use a .200″ Saddle
I make my saddles .200″ wide. That extra width gives me plenty of room to adjust each string’s break point by shaping the top of the saddle forward or backward. It’s a subtle but powerful way to refine intonation without compromising the saddle’s strength or running out of material.
A wider saddle also allows me to create distinct break points for strings that need more or less setback — especially the B string, which often wants to sit farther back than the 3rd string due to its larger core diameter.
Compensation Within a Tempered System
Even with perfect fret placement, the guitar lives inside a tempered scale — a deliberate compromise that allows us to play in all keys, but not with mathematically perfect intervals. Because of this, every fretted note will shift slightly unless the vibrating length of the string is adjusted.
To reduce that shift, I compensate both the nut and the saddle. In practice, I’m adding and subtracting string length at both ends of the scale so the fretted notes fall closer to center. By shortening the string slightly at the nut and lengthening it slightly at the saddle, I can minimize how far each fretted note drifts as the player moves up the fingerboard.
The goal isn’t to escape the tempered system — that’s impossible — but to reduce the cumulative error so the guitar plays more evenly in tune across all positions. Some builders worry that compensating both ends might make a guitar sound “different” next to a standard instrument, but this approach doesn’t change the tuning system at all. It simply reduces how far each note deviates within the same tempered framework.
Intonation is always a balancing act. Action, string gauge, scale length, and tuning all interact. There’s no single perfect solution for every scenario — but compensating both ends gives me the most control within the system we all share.