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Sitar buzz is classic sign of the leading edge of the saddle being poorly shaped.

If the shop you took it to is having problems with that and even let you take it home like that, likely not a good shop. Missing it once, it happens, but never should take repeated trips for something so simple. Sounds like a music shop with a faceless tech in the back somewhere?

oid wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 07, 2018 4:36 pm

Sitar buzz is classic sign of the leading edge of the saddle being poorly shaped.

If the shop you took it to is having problems with that and even let you take it home like that, likely not a good shop. Missing it once, it happens, but never should take repeated trips for something so simple. Sounds like a music shop with a faceless tech in the back somewhere?

The guitar had other issues before such as nut problems (with the nut they made, but anyways). It's now obviously clear to be the saddles and the tech even said so himself. It's a very reputable shop, however, they may just be sick of dealing with this guitar at this point or don't care about 12 strings or don't hear what I'm hearing. Hard to say.

It's hard to know what can be done with it, if you know what Electric XII saddles are like there's a lot of real estate, they're just rounded off, no string path. How do you fix this? I guess we'll see what the tech comes up with. I should know within an hour or so.

What would y'all recommend on a vintage Electric XII saddle? Could it be that the saddle isn't smooth due to corrosion, in which case a cleaning and polishing is necessary? Could it be that it needs to be modified in some way to provide a clean/clear string path?

Sounds like it just needs to be reshaped abit, the amout of realestate on the saddle does not matter. The string either has a proper seat or it buzzes to some degree.

A picture of the saddles/bridge would help, not much can be offered since it has been modified and we just have a description to go off of.

Try swapping saddle with an adjacent one to see if the problem is really isolated to that saddle.

oid wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 07, 2018 4:47 pm

Sounds like it just needs to be reshaped abit, the amout of realestate on the saddle does not matter. The string either has a proper seat or it buzzes to some degree.

A picture of the saddles/bridge would help, not much can be offered since it has been modified and we just have a description to go off of.

Not "much" has been modified. New nut made with plek. New frets made with plek. Then some work I did on the bridge to get more string space. You can see in the image below. All I did was modify the string saddle base so I could put small spacers between the strings.... btw the high G buzzed "sitar like" before and after this modification. This mod got rid of the phaser-like buzzing you get when the plucked pairs hit each other while they vibrated.

I can't embed an image because photobucket is shit now, but see the link below.

Original on the left, modified on the right.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WYHPWX ... sp=sharing

Ah, misunderstood the mods. Instead of swapping saddles just switch the two g strings, quicker and nothing needs to come off, just a loosening of the strings

oid wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 07, 2018 5:00 pm

Ah, misunderstood the mods. Instead of swapping saddles just switch the two g strings, quicker and nothing needs to come off, just a loosening of the strings

You mean switch to test?? I don't understand. What about the nut? .20 and .10 are very different.

So the saddle with the offending G has a lip all the way around to keep the string from falling off the saddle into the space between saddles.
I would file off the lip on the saddle from the top to the front, but leaving it from the top to the back, so that the string can still not slip off, but is not vibrating against that lip.

akpasta wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 07, 2018 5:15 pm

oid wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 07, 2018 5:00 pm

Ah, misunderstood the mods. Instead of swapping saddles just switch the two g strings, quicker and nothing needs to come off, just a loosening of the strings

You mean switch to test?? I don't understand. What about the nut? .20 and .10 are very different.

Just a test, things do not need to be perfect, May tell everything swapping saddles would and take 15 seconds, or nothing may be revealed and a saddle swap is next.

Just to add that I had a similar issue with my XII. I bought it in 1992 and it had the original (slightly damaged) nut that I finally got changed a couple of years back. It had that sitar-like octave-G issue as well, which has been cured by the new nut.