Compensated Guitar Bridge
This split saddle compensated bridge is a patented invention of Portland Guitar’s Jay Dickinson. By allowing the nuts to move individually it creates perfect compensation and thus perfect acoustic guitar intonation.
There are a variety of benefits to having an acoustic guitar bridge. The first is the intonation benefits and the ability to home in on the note at the 12th fret and tune it until perfect intonation is achieved. A standard acoustic guitar compensated bridge is sufficient for most intonation purposes, but for spot on precision that is resistant to the effects of humidity, strings, age and playing style the split saddle bridge is an excellent solution.
The second is that the bridge is available to suit a left-handed acoustic guitar player, since the nuts move, they can be adjusted into a left-handed bridge. With the addition of a left-handed nut and fretboard dots it morphs into a left-handed acoustic guitar.
The last benefit of the split saddle compensated acoustic guitar bridge is for builders. Placing the bridge is easy and there’s no need to worry about whether the nut will land in the exact right position. This eliminates a step from the build process, making it easier. Any time that can be saved means that it can be spent focusing on the details that make a guitar great.
Each nut sits in a channel on the saddle plate. The nut can move back and forth in the channel, under tension these can be pushed either direction. When the strings are off, the nut is held in place by a spring underneath it. This ensures that it does not move while the strings are changed. Each guitar or bridge sold alone comes with a wood fork that can be used to push the nuts.
The channel that the nut sits in is 0.25”. This gives a significant amount of room for the nut to move in. It is enough to make any intonation change necessary. With the split saddle acoustic guitar bridge the scale length is adjustable for each string and gives the option to tune the scale length for microtonal changes.