Factory Custom Mod -- Graph Tech 'Tusq' or 'StringSaver' string saddles CAUTION -- To preserve the Buzz Feiten Intonation System installed on your Megatar, the replacement bridge must be factory installed.
Canadian company Graph Tech has designed (and patented) some brilliant string saddles. The 'Tusq' material is an ivory substitute, beautiful to the eyes and to the touch, and with an exceptionally brilliant compositional structure, with the result of maintaining full-frequency sound from your strings. Their 'StringSaver' saddles are also made of a super -hard material to improve frequency response, but one with a special property -- the harder strings press, the easier they slide. It's as if your strings ride over the saddles on microscopic ball-bearings (because that's pretty much what's happening), and so you get two unique benefits: (1) When you tune up, your string can equalize its tension better along its length, and this means you stay in tune longer! (2) Because the string is 'cushioned' at the saddle, they break less. In fact, that's why the brand is called 'String Savers'. Saddles naturally include dual height-adjuster screws (just like on our steel saddles on factory instruments), positioning springs, and custom metric 'cap-screws' for setting intonation.
Either saddle increases sustain (about 15% longer than equivalent steel saddles). The Tusq are a beautiful color similar to ivory, and the String-Savers are a deep charcoal color. Both look great, and sound even greater!
Factory Custom Mod -- Graph Tech 'Tusq' or 'String Saver' Custom Nut Your instrument's strings change direction at two places. From the ball, the string comes through the instrument's body (this anchoring position maximizes sustain), and then they change direction as they go over the rounded saddle. The string then extends the length of the fretboard and when it reaches the nut, it must again change direction to access the tuners located on the tilted-back head (this tilt-back head design again maximizes sustain over flat head designs).
So as a matter of physics, the two locations where your string changes its direction are the two places where your string is actually connected to your instrument. And it is here that your string's sound is modified by your instrument.
For example, if you made the nut or the saddles of rubber, you would have one dead-sounding string, because the nut and saddles would *absorb* the vibration, effectively killing it.
Luthiers around the world have experimented with different materials for the nut (and to a much lesser degree with materials for the saddle). Various ivory and ivory substitutes, brass, aluminum, and steel have been tried . And by test, the Graph Tech materials out-sustain them all!
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