Saddle and Nut Height

Stillgrinning

Hi I am new to the forum, I have a question about saddle and nut height. I have acquired a new Tanglewood 12 string electro acoustic, no nut or saddle fitted.
How do I determine the saddle and nut height? 
Which would I do first? Saddle or Nut.
Do you wood glue the saddle?

Thank Chris

sweepy

If you have a new saddle and nut to hand, fit them as they are and see where your string height sits. Never glue the bridge saddle in as it's not necessary, indeed if you have a bar piezo, it'll be a nightmare As far as which to do first, I'd do a bit of both tbh, it's a balancing act and especially as it's a new guitar to you with new parts to fit and adjust

richalderandash

@Stillgrinning - start as sweepy said; put both on and check the height of the strings at the nut and the other end of the neck.

A way to get the height on the nut right is to press the strings down at the third fret, and see how much clearance there is over the first fret.  You're looking for about 10 - 12 thousandths of an inch (or a tiny bit of clearance if you don't have feeler gauges).  Ideally, you'll want to shave the bottom of the nut to get the height, unless you have nut files.

Once that's set, check the action the old fashion way. If it's high, shave the saddle down from the bottom edge.

It'll be worth noting that the neck relief may have changed if the strings have been off for a long time, so if you have a high action, make sure it's not too much relief in the neck.  Depress a string at the 1st and 13th fret at the same time, and check the height above the 7th. Again, you're looking for about 10 thousandths. If it's higher than that, you need to tighten the truss; if the string hits the frets, you need to loosen it.  Get a tech to do this if you're not confident with it, as I've seen stripped, snapped and broken truss rods from people going nuts with them.

Hope that helps.

Bridgehouse

Yep.

Relief first - capo at first and fret at body join fret means nut and saddle are irrelevant.
Then nut - fret at 3rd fret and measure height of string at first
Then saddle for action.

Stillgrinning

Thanks for all the help, getting there now. Did the relief the neck first then the saddle and last the nut.
Doesn't seem to bad now, a little room for adjustment on the saddle left.
Was told not to worry about slotting the saddle for the strings as they will make slight slots themselves.
Thanks everyone.

Stillgrinning

Hi there Bridghouse got it. Only one small problem, all 12 strings tune fine the intonation is fine or as fine as my Martin.
The B string intonation is fine but doesn't sound correct on the first fret, it is also difficult to fret, sounds fuzzy when playing a chord, fine when playing a single note.
Thanks of all the help.

Andyjr1515

Stillgrinning said:

Hi there Bridghouse got it. Only one small problem, all 12 strings tune fine the intonation is fine or as fine as my Martin.
The B string intonation is fine but doesn't sound correct on the first fret, it is also difficult to fret, sounds fuzzy when playing a chord, fine when playing a single note.
Thanks of all the help.

Sounds like the nut slot on that string is poorly cut (ref the fuzzy sound) and too high (ref the note distortion and difficulty of fretting it)

Stillgrinning

Cheers

Bridgehouse

Yep - that's nut slot height. Probably only needs a touch off it.