Does a Bone Saddle Make a Difference?

A bone saddle will make a difference compared to the factory-installed plastic or Tusq saddles found in many acoustic guitars. A beginning guitarist may not notice much of a tonal difference. However, intermediate to advanced guitarists will typically hear a difference. Bone saddles almost always will sound better than the inexpensive plastic saddles used in less expensive guitars.

However, compared to Tusq saddles, bone does not necessarily produce a better tone, but does a different one. Generally speaking, bone produces a warmer and fuller tone, whereas Tusq produces a brighter and cleaner tone. It depends on the individual player and specific guitar as to which saddle material is preferred. Below is a further discussion of the common guitar saddle types.

Inexpensive Plastic Saddles

Inexpensive plastic saddles often appear on less-expensive guitars priced below $300. Theses saddles will result in less volume and less clarity. Additionally, they do not last as long, develop string gouges quickly, and can break easily. Furthermore, plastic saddles on inexpensive guitars often do not match the fretboard radius of the guitar, which can result in playability issues. You can print out radius gauges to check whether your saddle and neck radius match. If your saddle and guitar neck radius do not match, please contact us and we can suggest a saddle with the correct radius. If your guitar has a cheap plastic saddle, then it’s best to replace it with another material, such as Tusq or bone.

Tusq Saddles

Acoustic guitars in approximately the $500 to $2,000 range commonly have Tusq saddles from the factory. Tusq delivers a clean, bright tone that some people will prefer over the tone of bone. In particular, we’ve often found that Taylor Guitar owners often prefer the tone of Tusq. The tone of Tusq compelements the clean, bright tone associated with Taylor models. However, we’ve also seen a number of Taylor owners who want to warm up their guitars a bit, and a bone saddle does this well. Conversely, in our experience, Martin guitar owners almost always prefer the tone of bone over Tusq as bone produces a warmer, fuller tone that many want from a Martin model.

Bone Saddles

Bone saddles are almost always made from cow (bovine) bone. MacNichol Guitars makes all its bone products with cow bone. As mentioned previously, bone produces a warmer, fuller tone. Bone is an inconsistent material, and so you might get a bone saddle that has a dead spot, or overall just does not transmit tone well. In higher-quality bone saddles such as the ones that we sell, this is unlikely. But since bone is an organic material, despite all QA efforts, a specific bone saddle may sound dull in your guitar. However, if you receive a saddle from us that you are not fully satisfied with for any reason, then please contact us and we will provide a free replacement or full refund.

Looking for a saddle for your guitar? Please visit our Acoustic Guitar Saddle Size Chart.