I understand your concerns. But I think there is something to it.
edit: there are a number of guitar makers (examples below) who do tilt the saddle, but mainly for intonation reasons. As far as 'tipping' goes, I don't think that any variables matter; no matter what strings, woods, thicknesses etc., the tipping force will be reduced somewhat by the tilt of the saddle. maybe/maybe not beneficial?
I confess that I don't tip 'em, but SCGC, for instance, does, to help with intonation.
Another edit: from some other luthier group, on this subject:
___________________________________________________
Bashkin
The bottom of a saddle shouldn't be angled, if the saddle slot is not! Some Luthiers angle their saddles back a bit, (and slot) to compensate for the forward pressure the strings will cause... Actually, I only know of one that does this.. Michael Bashkin...
Back - angled saddles
The saddle slot is cut at an 8 degree back angle, which has several advantages. First the string pressure is focused down towards the bottom on the saddle slot, rather than forward against the front edge of the slot. This minimizes the stress on the front edge of the bridge and therefore the likelihood of cracking in front of the saddle. Additionally, because of the direct downward string pressure, under-saddle pickup performance is enhanced.
http://www.bashkinguitars.com/images/f0 ... dle_lg.jpg
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Santa Cruz does this with there current models. The SADDLE SLOT is angled back about 10 degrees toward the bridge pins. So the base of the saddle itself is still flat.
One advantage of this, as I understand it, is that intonation corrects itself as the saddle is lowered.
Most folks agree that you want the base of the saddle nice and flat in the bridge slot, so you have even contact across the entire surface.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________RHolmes
05-31-2007, 08:16 PM
At the Taylor road show I attended last week the Taylor rep mentioned that they angle it approx. 8 degrees.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
Along with being properly compensated for excellent intonation, my saddles are precisely fitted to their slots and back-tilted. This allows string pressure to drive the saddle directly down to the floor of the saddle slot rather than pushing it forward. The result is more effective transmission of vibration, especially beneficial to the use of an undersaddle pickup. The possibility of the bridge splitting from forward pressure by the saddle (another fairly common structural failure with conventional bridges) is also virtually eliminated. - Todd Rose guitars
____________________________________________________________________________________________________
" Recently I looked at the beautiful guitars of Bruce Petros in the US of A. He has a very informative website obviously to impress prospective clients but sites like his are great for luthier sleuths like us! He mentioned that he does indeed tilt the saddle back 10 degrees and he uses an exceptionally wide saddle., I emailed him and asked him about it (making it clear to him that I am a luthier and was interested from a design point of view ) and he kindly emailed back saying that his saddles were 3/16 of an inch wide, saying that it is good for intonation to have that sort of width and signing off that he hopes I have fun. The extra wide saddle gives a wide intonation range and the back angle increases the efficiency of the strings ability to transfer vibration to the bridge."