Breaking strings at the saddles? Here's the 2 minute fix!

[DrKev]

Now, these are of course the vintage saddles but you can clearly see the burr that was causing my D-string to break. 2 minutes later with a round or half-round needle file and no more problems. (Sand paper works too but can be a little fiddly in such small spaces). If you have the modern style block saddles, this may not be an issue but probably worth a look.

 

[TNT]

Just goes to show you, a small burr (over time) can even do in a fairly thick string!

 

[damirpuh]

I don't see any pics in this thread.

 

[BrickGlass]

I don't see any pics in this thread.

Me neither.

 

[DrKev]

No images? W-E-IRD. I see it fine, and so did TNT.

How about this? Click this thumbnail...

 

[damirpuh]

I see it now. Never thought a string can hack into the base of the saddle like that. Tnx for sharing.

 

[DrKev]

Oh yeah, think of the amount of pressure from string tension constantly bearing down on that tiny edge over over time and then add a lot of playing time and it's no surprise. And every string will do this to some extent if there is any contact at that point. It's unavoidable on any guitar with these style saddles, but it does not always lead to problems. Many people never have to deal with it.

My old strat was dreadful for this kind of thing (the slot in vintage Fender saddles is a lot shorter so the contact angle at that point is sharper = more pressure = deeper notch in less time = more string breakage). That little needle file was part of regular maintenance on that guitar.

My Silhouette Special is nearly nine years old (I've had it for nearly 4) and this is the first I've had to deal with it, so I'm pretty happy with that. When the second D-string broke right at that point after just a few hours playing it was obvious to me what the issue was. 20 minutes with a round needle file and all saddles have been done. Nothing to worry about for a quite a while again.

 

[Santuzzo]

Very cool!
Thanks for posting this.
I have that problem with my Sterling JP70s (I opened a thread about that over here), and I got a Dremel drill and polish diamond point to solve the issue. I have not done it yet, but I have the right tools for it
Will do this at my next string-change.

 

[GoKart Mozart]

Thanks for the visuals, DrKev. I'll definitely bookmark this thread for future reference.