replacing stock saddle with bone saddle on a parlor

[leftybill]

Has anyone replaced their saddle on a parlor that can share their experience?  Was is worth the upgrade?  Did you have any difficulties?  Is there a tonal difference between bone and TUSC?
My current saddle was shimed down to improve intonation, which is now very good but I am getting some fret buzz above the 8th fret.   I tried a small adjustment on the truss rod last night which helped a bit but I don't want to bow the neck too much.
thanks in advance

[jankymutt]

hey Bill,

Check out this older thread: http://www.larriveeforum.com/smf/index.php?topic=580.0

[leftybill]

Wow, that more than answers my questions.
Thanks

[Hoser Rob]

A bone saddle is a great upgrade ... there's a reason almost all high end small shop customs have them.  They work better.  You may have to reevaluate your choce of strings but that'd be my only caveat.

My advice to you would to be to get a luthier to put it in.  If the action isn't quite right as it is, and it obviously isn't, well, sorry, but it's apparent from what you're saying that you don't know how to do it.  If the guitar's buzzing above the 8th fret the truss rod isn't going to help much.  It's not there to adjust string height but to prevent buzzing in the lower frets, not the higher ones.

[Roman]

I make my own saddles from blanks I get from FQMS for about $3 ea.

Note:  on a parlpr giotar each string is compensated unlike a full size guitar.

It's pretty easy to do yourself actually.  In my opinion, if you have a nack for these kind of things, do it yourself. You will deffinately hear a difference in overal tone . . . in my case in improvement in sustain, volume and clarity.  I don't have a Larrivée parlor, but on my Seagull and the cheapo AMI and Cort, a nice improvement.

[jwieties]

I switched to bone in my p-03mt.  Honestly I didn't feel there was a drastic difference in tone... maybe a little.  Where I did feel there was a difference was the harmonics.  They seemed to ring out clearer and longer. 
Could be in my head.

-josh

[Hoser Rob]

... Where I did feel there was a difference was the harmonics.  They seemed to ring out clearer and longer. 
Could be in my head....

I don't think it's in your head.  WHen I put in a bone saddle (not a Parlor but hey, it's a guitar) harmonics started jumping out like crazy.  The 3.3rd fret and 4th fret ones are as loud as the 5th and 7th fret ones now.

[poki]

i made a bone saddle for my parlor using the stock tusq one as a template.  to be honest i didn't notice a difference for better or worse between the two but i had fun making it from a bone blank.  i was going to make a bone nut to replace the stock one but heck that nut must be glued in place really good cause i can't budge it.