OO body and saddle compensation?

[jpmist]

A few years ago I ventured into making my own bone saddle for my OO-05. Did ok with it but the hard part was deciding where the saddle edge would be for the best intonation.  Pic below shows how it ended up. (Later I noticed the high E string was buzzing, hence the DIY shim . . .)



So this was re-string, tech-check and clean weekend for my entire harem as I'm months behind on all that and I notice that my other 2 OO's have different intonation points than my OO-05. The intonation is off on those as well so am about to order new bone saddles. FYI - Macnichol has some great info on compensated saddle types.

https://macnichol.com/guide-wave-compensated-saddles/

So a few questions to the other OO owners here. Is your intonation accurate and what kind of saddle do you have?

[B0WIE]

I do the saddle for each guitar, based on what it needs, or rather, what I need out of that guitar. I rarely tune to E standard so it's a must for me, but even at E there are things that come into play like action, string preference, etc, all of which affect intonation points. One that affects everyone, and every guitar, is the fact that the guitar is an imperfect instrument so you can intonate to favor one spot, but another will be slightly off. It's one of those things you can just keep chasing until you find the "good enough for me" point.

[jpmist]

"It's one of those things you can just keep chasing until you find the "good enough for me" point."

What got this on my radar was the recent purchase of an Acoustasonic Tele. One of my motives for buying it was so that I could play up past the 5th fret with a capo with decent tone. To my surprise I kept noticing how dead accurate the pitch was playing that high. (To digress slightly, that Tele is a blast to play and with the notes so accurate, it's like playing a piano anywhere on the neck with the sustain pedal on) I just now checked and the Tele intonation is dead on, which is impressive considering mine is the low end Indonesian model.

I'm a tad miffed that I've been playing indifferently intoned acoustics for decades and never noticed how off my high fretted notes were on my OO-44 and OOV. I simply got used to them being "close enough." The only perfect one is the OO-05 with my handmade shimmed saddle.

Pondering a bit on why acoustic manufacturers can't nail this as preciesly as Fender Indonesia has, the one crucial variable is the nut and where exactly the string rests in the string slot. A few tenths of a millimeter either way could alter the intonation enough to change pitch, I think.

[B0WIE]

The problem with the standard acoustic saddle is that it's narrow front to back, and just gives enough room for the G to be all the way forward and low E all the way back. This works for some strings as long as you stay in E standard. But, you really have no where to go in terms of tuning or string variety.
 
Do you tune to E standard? I sometimes have to create a saddle that overlaps the slot and rests on top of the bridge to get decent intonation when tuned half a step down with round-core 13's.