Staggered discontinuities in the saddles of accoustic guitar, Why?

Strings of different gauges and density will be affected differently as they are deflected when pressed down to the fret to play a fretted note - which is why acoustic saddles will often have staggered offsets in addition to being angled.

1. What does adjusting a guitar saddle do?
2. Why is a guitar saddle compensated?
3. Should a guitar saddle have grooves?

What does adjusting a guitar saddle do?

Adjusting the action on a guitar is key to making sure that it sounds as good as it did the day you got it. ... You can also use the saddles to adjust the intonation of your guitar. Intonation refers to the accuracy of the pitches produced by fretting.

Why is a guitar saddle compensated?

The most common type of saddle is known as a compensated saddle (picture below). It is designed to provide the most accurate intonation and ensure the guitar is in tune along the fretboard and produce the correctly pitched note. ... When the 12th fret is pressed the string is stretched causing the pitch to go sharp.

Should a guitar saddle have grooves?

he insists grooves have to be there or the strings will slide out of position, and if grooves aren't there you have to put them in. No, they start life smooth, and depending on your style, the guitar and density of the material (including bone and ivory) they all at least develop dents if not small grooves.