Portland Guitar Co. | Portland Oregon | Contact Jay Dickinson-503.245.3276 | jay@portlandguitar.com
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Portland Guitar Pretty Good Intonation (PGPG) System
Short Version | Introduction | Intonation Errors | Analysis | PG Approach | Comparisons | Conclusion
The Split Saddle Nut
This technology was in house (Patent Pending). Using the nut to make the scale length changes causes all of the notes on the string to change by an equal amount. In effect we are adding a constant to the line that fits the errors. Move the nut saddle toward the bridge and the intonation goes flat. Move it away from the bridge and the intonation goes sharp, (got that, it’s not necessarily intuitive). After a nut is designed and manufactured using the theoretical model it may be difficult to modify it if the intonation turns out to be off a bit. Removing material from the nut (intonation goes sharp) is easy, but adding material to the nut (intonation goes flat) is much more difficult. However, almost any nut compensation will improve the situation over an uncompensated nut. To address this problem I have developed a nut that has individually moveable and removable saddles. When designing this I have tried to respect the esthetics of an acoustic guitar. My adjustable nut uses a set of well-hidden miniature brackets, fittings and set screws that allows the precise and repeatable placement of each saddle in the nut saddle bracket. This means that a setup can be evaluated, and then the compensation adjusted. And, we can iterate the process until a best intonation is reached rather than arbitrarily taking the guidance of a theoretical prediction.