A lovely guitar, just has a couple of setup problems.

The intonation on the B string wasn’t very good.  The bridge saddle isn’t compensated, the top is rolled over in a straight line

The neck relief was rather large.  I don’t even need to measure it, I can see by eye there’s too much curve.

Since I’m going to make a new bridge saddle I do need to get the neck relief correct first, so that I can accurately assess the height of the existing saddle.

The action at the 12th fret was about right on the Bass side…..

but rather high on the Treble…

Using the old saddle as a guide gives me a good starting point for the new one.

Getting the rough length is easy…

The thickness is a little harder, although it’s not far off and needs to be a snug fit.

I fits into the slot now.

so square off and round the ends.

Coming along nicely.

Fits the slot nicely so next get the shape of the top right.

Having made a direct copy of the old saddle there is still the problem of the action height, it was a little high on the treble side.  So now I’m going to take a little off the bottom, using my sanding guide.  Just clamp the saddle with the bit I want to remove sticking out.

Using a flat board and sticky back sandpaper all I need to do is sand down until the bearings at each corner touch.  It’s impossible to go too far and by definition the bottom must be perfectly flat and square.

With that done I need to turn my attention to the top again.  It’s flat and square so I need to carve it into a point, but angled.  The line is what I’m aiming at.

So out with a couple of files.

That’s the angle I’m after to improve the intonation.

While the strings are off, a bit of a clean-up.

and a spot of oil.

Having upgraded the bridge saddle I’m also upgrading the bridge pins for a nice set of wooden ones.

There’s the finished saddle and new pins, looking good.

Double check the setup, including the action at the first fret….

And there it is good to go, and better than new, with the intonation about right now.