Filling a Saddle Slot - 360/12

[akpasta]

Hi Folks,

I've got an early 80s Rickenbacker 360/12 with an interesting, "custom" 12 saddle bridge (see below). It's not one of the kinds you can buy now, the saddles are quite different, so I can't just swap in a new one. The issue is the high E string saddle is cut a bit too low, part my fault, I asked a shop to cut it lower because it was making some buzz and I thought the saddle needing some cleaning. I was wrong to ask for that I guess and now it's too low.

Ideally I'd like to fill the slot and re-cut it. I can't flip the saddle around or flip it upside down because based on where the hole is drilled for the adjuster post, it's not symmetrical, and the saddle is too small to flip it and tap a new hole. My options are to fill the slot, or cut a new slot next to it, which would also change my string spacing, although possibly minimally.

Any ideas for filling it? Would simple solder do the trick?

[akpasta]

Just to confirm for other folks. You cannot use solder to fill a saddle slot. You'd have to heat the saddle to its own melting point, which is much much hotter than solder.

[teb]

It looks to me to be very similar to the saddle modifications that Mark Arnquist made to the bridge on my twelve (starting with a stock 12 saddle bridge) rounding and smoothing them making palm muting more comfortable. He called it modifying it to"vintage specs", from the days he worked at Rickenbacker. I don't know whether it was done to all or a custom option back then. Here is a shot of mine he took during the procedure.

A decent machine shop could probably make you a new saddle for just a few bucks, as these are pretty easy to construct for someone with good tools.