Help with tele compensated saddles...

[Bettyboo]

Here is my lefthanded MIJ tele bridge; I know, I know, she's beautiful...




(The bridge looks fine when played or viewed from a 'normal' distance, but in these pics and upon closer inspection, the metal work looks pretty shoddy! Maybe I'll go OCD and get a new bridge too...)


I haven't touched the guitar, not even any setup work, just getting to know the guitar still. But, just because I like the look and setup work will need to start soon (oh yeah, a change of strings might be of use too! ), I bought these:




MIJ righthanded compensated telecaster saddles.

Here they are out of the packet, they are very nicely made, look and feel great




Now, some of you folks may think I made an error buying right handed compensated saddles for a left handed guitar. But, no, they are reversible:




However, as simple as this is to you folks in the know and have played around with tele saddles for decades, for me, a virgin in this territory, it posses a dilema: WTF does reversible mean in the context of compensated guitar saddles?

Does it mean just whip them over and take the studs out (and/or the intonation screws) and put them in the other side? Does in mean just take out the intonation screw and put it in the from the other side (with or without turning the saddle over)? Does it mean that the LowE/A saddle remains the LowE/A saddle, so needs to be moved across on a lefthander (aswellas/and/or/either changing the height screws and intonation screws and turning the saddle over), and the same for the D/G and B/HighE (although, I'm sure somebody told me that the three don't work the same way, two work one way and the third one the other way - whichever one that was/is?).

I know this is simple, but I've thoroughly confused meself!

Please help.

 

[donepearce]

Remove the grub screws and put them in from the other side

 

[Bettyboo]

^ Thanks, Don - that sounds super cool and easy!

When I turn them over, should the, for example, LowE/A righthanded (I'm presuming the one on the left on the packet) stay the LowE/A lefthanded or will it become the B/HighE? Sorry if this is a really dumb question.

 

[Bettyboo]

OK, I've had a little think, following Don's advice, and he's right - they just simply flip with these Gotoh saddles.

The design is such that, for want of better terminology, the wider upper groove of the barrel is on the LowE and B (as the two lower saddles in the pic above), but the thinner upper grove of the barrel is on the D. Thus, as the saddles are symmetrical (top 50 % of the groove wide/bottom 50% of the groove shallow on the lowE and B strings, and the opposite on the D string), they simply get turned over and the grub screws put in from the other side.

 

[Bettyboo]

OK, I decided that now is as good a time as ever to put them on.

My plan was to get them ballpark, intonate, and see how they played; still on the original strings that desperately need changing, but it'll be a better comparison over the old saddles. I will play for a few more days then do a string change and proper setup next weekend.

You might find this next 12 pictures, step by step, really boring, but I thought if nobody had done it before and wanted to then maybe, perhaps, there's a small chance, that they'd find this interesting:

Firstly, remember all these pictures are of a left handed guitar, the lowE/A saddle. My plan was to: 1) loosen the two relevant strings; 2) take the old saddle off; 3) compare the two and get the height and length ballpark; 4) put the new saddle on; 5) tune up those two strings; 6) intonate to ballpark; 7) when complete, intonate all the strings correctly (not worrying about string height and full setup at this stage.





You can see that the new saddles are much bigger, and although the old saddles didn't seem to be bad quality, the new ones (about $25) were much better quality. When screwing them in or out, I used a rag to protect that sexy CandyAppleRed surface.





Here's the D/G saddle:

 

[Bettyboo]

So, here are the LowE/A and D/G saddles in. I like this picture because you can see a good comparison between the saddles; I think the brass ones are much nicer to look at.



As I said, I was tuning up as I went along, and it was quick, easy and absolutely fine.




Here's the B/HighE saddle:





You can see above that the intonation screws themselves are the same, but the grub screws on the new saddles have a smoother bottom (they've been machined and finished off better) and they have a larger surface contact point.

All done:





Here's a comparison with the originals:



I much prefer the look of the new saddles.

So, it took all of 5 minutes to get the intonation spot on, and without ever trying the highE/B saddle seems at the right height, the D/G saddle might come down a tad, the lowE/A might needs to be risen a tad but that was true of the original lowE/A saddle too (nice when I play softly, but when I dig in there's a bit of buzz). As I've said, I haven't even attempted to do a setup yet, but my feeling is that'll be pretty straightforward.

Sounds: yeah, great, produced a bit more volume and the bridge was really raunchy, I liked it. But, I just had 20 minutes, so I don't really know yet - certainly the sound was not worse. I will take some time to work that out.'

Thanks for your help, Don - I wasn't intending to get this done today, but when you said it was so simply...

 

[eS.G.]

Man Boo those look great ---if they sound and work 1/2 as good as they look I bet you are a happy man

 

[JohnnyGoo]

Nice work,much better.did you adjust saddle to match ur neck ?? fairly easy to do

 

[JohnnyGoo]

Brass is where its at

 

[Bettyboo]

Man Boo those look great ---if they sound and work 1/2 as good as they look I bet you are a happy man

Thanks, eS.G. - I'm happy with how the look and they sound great. I can understand why many folks make this change.

Nice work,much better.did you adjust saddle to match ur neck ?? fairly easy to do

Yes and no, JG. The previous saddles had been set up for the neck radius curve, and lazy old me just copied the previous saddles. &, it's ballpark with regard to individual string height, buzz, playability, etc. The intonation is spot on and was very simple to do. I'll change the strings next weekend then I'll adjust each individual string to it's perfect height (for me, on this guitar); I will not be using any measurements, I'll be using the Biddlin method! I've noticed over on the tele site and on lots of videos that folks are crazy for Fender's numbers and getting their rulers out - all seems a total waste of time to me to try to get your guitar to some numbers and sizes which were developed as an easy factory average rather than specifically for me and my guitar. Biddlin's approach is so much better, imho...

 

[JohnnyGoo]

ok.looks good

 

[67plexi]

As far as import bridges I can't say I have no experience. But the best I have found is http://www.glendaleguitars.com/glendale2.htm

On the 1950 Esquire I used the Billy Gibbons and the 1962 Esquire I used the cold rolled steel.

 

[JohnnyGoo]

thanks for the Link there 67Plexi.i have a Tele myself. nice parts they have on there

 

[Bettyboo]

Yeah, the Glendales are super cool.

I'm very happy with my saddles; Gotoh Japan always make great parts at excellent prices, imho. I did a bit more research on the bridge as the shoddy looking metalwork had me worried that the underside of the bridge might be uneven and affect the sound. But, it seems that Fender Japan just tries to be authentic wherever possible and wants the bridge to look like the original Fenders (this is a 62 reissue model) while also maintaining quality parts, so the underside is modern machined to a high standard. Hence, no need to change the bridge other than for looks.

 

[Paul G.]

I've experimented with plenty of Tele Saddles. Some notes:

Intonation is close enough with straight saddles. Sorry, it just is. I do not sound any more out of tune on a Tele than any other guitar.

Slanted but unnotched saddles are a problem, especially with light gauge strings. Your strings slide on them and are never positioned well, and you need to retune often.

Slanted but notched and straight but machined work best.

Bright guitars can sound better with brass saddles. Darker/throatier guitars (like my AVRI '62) come alive with steel. After many experiments, I'm right back to the threaded steel rods that came with the guitar.

As far as quality of finish, Tele's have always been a bit rough at the edges, not a lot of machining and polishing on those steel bridges. It's not furniture, it's a guitar. The steel contraption that is on Telecasters, is actually the heart of the Telecaster. That unfinished, stamped and chrome plated piece of junk is precious. Embrace it.

P.

 

[Bettyboo]

my AVRI '62

I bet that's nice; pictures?

 

[Paul G.]

It's a 1999, one refret with Gibson style jumbos. The pickups on these is unique to the model, not high output, but real throaty. Best of the more than a dozen teles I've owned over the last 40 years.

 

[Bettyboo]

^ very nice (although they seem to have put the cut away on the wrong side...).

 

[Bettyboo]

I've noticed that you don't see those AVRI62s up for sale; I guess that's because folks that have them don't wanna sell them... Same with the newer AVRI64s although I do like the double binding on an early 60s tele!

 

[JohnnyGoo]

Very nice Tele Paul. perfect color to