Unofficial Taylor Guitar Forum - UTGF
Lessons, Recordings, How Tos, Repair, Accessories => Lessons, Recordings, How Tos, Repair, Accessories => Topic started by: g.man on January 02, 2017, 10:25:41 PM
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I need to lower this a little. I don't want to mess with the neck tilt, will try the easy way first. I don't want to modify the stock saddle.
I see Compensated Saddles on Taylor's site, but none specifying they are for the GS Mini-e
Has anyone removed their saddle on the mini-e? It seems there is some magic in those three allen screws ?
https://www.taylorguitars.com/taylorware/category/for-your-guitar/parts/saddles-bridge-pins (https://www.taylorguitars.com/taylorware/category/for-your-guitar/parts/saddles-bridge-pins)
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Pretty sure the standard size acoustic 6-string saddle from Taylor will fit your mini. You can find instructions on the Taylor website as to how to change the saddle when the ES2 system is involved.
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Do NOT modify your saddle on any Taylor with ES2 (which includes your GS Mini-E Koa.) This should only be done by a Silver or higher Taylor tech, and is not the way to adjust action.
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I sent an email to support, but they are closed until next week.
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DDG, why do you say not to mess with the saddle, but take it to a Taylor service guy? I do all my Acoustic maintenance work on all my guitars, including Martin, Gibson, Rickenbacker, Fender and Washburn. If I had to pay someone every time I needed a saddle adjusted, I would Have far fewer guitars, due to the expenses involved. I have done everything except for refrets and neck resets, which I hope I will not need any time soon.
Is there some special fixturing involved, or do you always adjust the NTne k shims to adjust action?
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Just FYI:
I just got off the phone with Taylor, and have the correct saddle coming. I was also told for minor adjustments, there should be no problem lowing the saddle slightly.
I'll report back my results.
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Deleted.
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I appreciate that. I have been adjusting guitars for over 30+ years. I have sanded down the saddles (BTW, the white piece is the saddle) on many a guitar. I couldn't figure out why every one here said it was a taboo. on the GS Mini. I figured it was something to do with the ES2. The guys at Taylor were very friendly. I ordered a saddle just to lower, and will leave the stock one unchanged.
The BRIDGE is the piece the saddle sits in.
My Ovations and Breedlove guitars came with shims under the saddles making it easy to adjust the height.
There is nothing wrong with the way the neck is set, and the relief is where I like it. I just want a slightly lower saddle, and I'm talking 1/16 or less.
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When you do any work on the ES2, you need to loosen the set screws on the pickup before removing the saddle. When you have the action where you want it, tighten them back up. Spec is 6-8 inch oz,but you can feel it when it sets in. Also the saddle needs to be very flat on the bottom. Just like other piezo pups.
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This was an awesome explanation of the ES2 system.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLzGXaaM1lc (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLzGXaaM1lc)
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Okay, Taylor dealer/tech here. A few clarifications and facts:
1) Don't change the height. Don't care what who told you at CS. The fact is that the neck and saddle height were correct when it left the factory. If you lower the saddle you're treating the symptoms, not the cause.
2) The ES2 is not something to be meddling with. The 3 screws are holding the pickup in place about half an inch beneath the bridgeplate, and are not something to be messing with. The metal foil at the saddle, same thing. I had a customer who bought a $6k custom and couldn't help but play engineer. I warned him not to, but he couldnt' help himself. Ended up messing it all up and having to take it to a Gold level tech to get it put back together properly. It was just fine when the guitar was delivered to him.
3) You can void your warranty by modifying components.
4) ES2 is a great innovation, provides mic-like quality from uncompressed piazo crstals. So just play it and enjoy it, please. If there's something wrong with it, a tech will take care of it at no charge to you. Thank you!
When you do any work on the ES2, you need to loosen the set screws on the pickup before removing the saddle. When you have the action where you want it, tighten them back up. Spec is 6-8 inch oz,but you can feel it when it sets in. Also the saddle needs to be very flat on the bottom. Just like other piezo pups.
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Okay, Taylor dealer/tech here. A few clarifications and facts:
1) Don't change the height. Don't care what who told you at CS. The fact is that the neck and saddle height were correct when it left the factory. If you lower the saddle you're treating the symptoms, not the cause.
2) The ES2 is not something to be meddling with. The 3 screws are holding the pickup in place about half an inch beneath the bridgeplate, and are not something to be messing with. The metal foil at the saddle, same thing. I had a customer who bought a $6k custom and couldn't help but play engineer. I warned him not to, but he couldnt' help himself. Ended up messing it all up and having to take it to a Gold level tech to get it put back together properly. It was just fine when the guitar was delivered to him.
3) You can void your warranty by modifying components.
4) ES2 is a great innovation, provides mic-like quality from uncompressed piazo crstals. So just play it and enjoy it, please. If there's something wrong with it, a tech will take care of it at no charge to you. Thank you!
When you do any work on the ES2, you need to loosen the set screws on the pickup before removing the saddle. When you have the action where you want it, tighten them back up. Spec is 6-8 inch oz,but you can feel it when it sets in. Also the saddle needs to be very flat on the bottom. Just like other piezo pups.
I spoke to Taylor directly. They told me there is no issue making minor adjustments to the saddle. I in fact, I purchased a new saddle from them, and used it for the adjustment. The biggest issue with the string height was the truss rod needing adjustment. That got me close, and the lower saddle made it perfect.
There is NO WAY an out of box guitar is set to suite everyone. It also depends on the environment, if it needs adjustments such as a Truss Rod change. I have 20 guitars and I am completely confident in my skills to make adjustments. Had I needed to adjust the neck tilt, I would have let Taylor do it, but this t me is just everyday maintenance.
So we will agree to disagree.
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Okay, Taylor dealer/tech here. A few clarifications and facts:
1) Don't change the height. Don't care what who told you at CS. The fact is that the neck and saddle height were correct when it left the factory. If you lower the saddle you're treating the symptoms, not the cause.
2) The ES2 is not something to be meddling with. The 3 screws are holding the pickup in place about half an inch beneath the bridgeplate, and are not something to be messing with. The metal foil at the saddle, same thing. I had a customer who bought a $6k custom and couldn't help but play engineer. I warned him not to, but he couldnt' help himself. Ended up messing it all up and having to take it to a Gold level tech to get it put back together properly. It was just fine when the guitar was delivered to him.
3) You can void your warranty by modifying components.
4) ES2 is a great innovation, provides mic-like quality from uncompressed piazo crstals. So just play it and enjoy it, please. If there's something wrong with it, a tech will take care of it at no charge to you. Thank you!
When you do any work on the ES2, you need to loosen the set screws on the pickup before removing the saddle. When you have the action where you want it, tighten them back up. Spec is 6-8 inch oz,but you can feel it when it sets in. Also the saddle needs to be very flat on the bottom. Just like other piezo pups.
DDG,If you hear it from CS it's just like you saw it on the internet. Like my Grandpappy Ole use to tell me "Never try to teach a pig to sing, all you do is waste your time and annoy the pig."
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I'm resurrecting this older thread from 2017 because there was a bit of contention and controversy about pulling the saddle out of a Mini with the ES2 and taking a little off of it to bring the string height down. So you can read it if you wish. I'm here to say that I did it regardless of the warnings, it brought the string height down and made it surprisingly easier to play and no harm came to the ES2. I readjusted it, plugged it in and is sounds better than ever. It was not difficult to do but you do have to be careful and not force anything. Right now the low E is at .100, high E is at .070 and relief is at .004. I'm playing Elixir lights. I really like my Mini and I even like it better now. I set my Guild Dreadnaught to the same specs.
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I know this is an old post, but I'm resurrecting it because there hasn't been much new activity here and I recently lowered the action on my AD17e by sanding down my saddle.
As others have previously posted, Taylor does not seem to discourage customers from performing their own saddle work.
I bought a string height gauge and measured the factory-set height on my 2 year old Grand Pacific. It measured High and was very difficult to play the closer you came down the fretboard towards the sound-hole. I did some research and watched some videos on how to safely and accurately sand the saddle. Not trusting my hands, I bought and successfully used a saddle sanding tool which guarantees a square bottom result.
I bought a new saddle from Taylor and modified that one so that I could have the original as backup in case anything went terribly wrong.
It was not expensive.
I then loosened the strings after putting a capo at the first fret and removed them from the bridge.
After loosening the 3 allen screws on the ES2, the saddle was easily removed.
I was careful to shave a few millimeters at a time off until I got the string gauge to measure medium-low.
The guitar now plays wonderfully up and down the neck and sounds fantastic.
I didn't need to look around for a Taylor-authorized luthier and spend days without my guitar wondering if I would be satisfied with the work.
I've also been tweaking the truss rod in response to different string gauges and humidity changes.
Don't be afraid. ;)
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Piling on to hopefully close the loop for future searches. I don't recall this thread when it was fresh, and I was around here back then. Maybe the next time this thread get resurrected cooler heads will prevail, aided by this information.
Sanding the saddle is the only option for setting action with a dovetail neck. With the NT neck system that we all know and love, a trained tech can set the proper neck angle in 15 minutes by changing out shims and usually get the action to factory specs again (6/64" bass E and 4/64" treble e at the 12th fret). Then if you still want an extra 1/32" of lowered string height for your playing style and feel, you can sand 1/16" off the saddle bottom. Most techs experienced with dovetail necks ONLY know to sand saddles. The Taylor system is different and they can mess your guitar up.
The ES2 pickup element is an extra wrinkle. If you don't remove the side tension from the saddle by first loosening the three screws, the element can be damaged when you forcefully pull out the saddle. It is always a good idea to work with a new saddle and save the original - the voice of experience (and mistakes) here.