Compensated Telecaster saddles - still somewhat of a compromise?

[Random Hero]

I installed the Wilkinson bridge and bevelled compensated saddles on my Nocaster the other day. I'm not too far off but it's not perfectly intonated. I have a 9.5" radius on this Nocaster for what it's worth so I dunno how much of a factor that is or whether it's just the nature of the beast?

The other thing is, I'm somewhat new to Teles and on a 3-saddle bridge, is it a little bit of a case of three sets of two strings almost? The gap between the A and D and G and B is a little bit wider than the gap between the E/A, D/G and B/E, if that makes sense? I'm talking like 1/64" but ya know...

Any input?

[readymade]

You can usually slide the strings on the saddle to even out the spacing.

And yes, I've also found that the compensated saddles still require a compromise. Perfect intonation doesn't exist anyway, but the comp saddles get much closer that regular Tele saddles IME.

[Random Hero]

Yeah, I have the spacing pretty close but I don't want to slide the strings around on the saddles too much as I don't want them to start slipping!

[Old Tele man]

...each string 'intonation' length is unique, thus...

...each string needs a separate saddle in order to be 100% effective.

[brianr0131]

I thought it was pretty well decided in your other thread that there was some kind of compromise with a 3 saddle compensated bridge.

Out of curiosity, did you leave the swapped saddles? I think you moved your EA saddle to your EB strings. No?

Maybe that is helping to create your string spacing problem. I haven't really heard that complaint much before.

[Random Hero]

Basically, I swapped them, then swapped them back.

[AaeCee]

Also keep in mind there are several different types of compensated 3-barrel bridges. Different shapes, some are angled differently or have notches cut into them, etc. They'll all provide different degrees of compensation and my guess is that certain designs will work better in certain guitars, which is where the guess work comes in.

[rhinocaster]

Man, I've had compensated saddles TOTALLY mess up a great guitar.

Why did I put them on the guitar in the first place? Well, I'm glad you asked!

I put compensated saddles on a perfect guitar thinking that it would make the guitar MORE perfect. WRONG! If there's no problem, then there's no need for compensated saddles. If you can't get the guitar to intonate to a desirable degree, then you probably want to look in to compensated saddles. If it sounds great with traditional saddles, then leave it alone!

We've been trained, recently, that a Tele can't sound right with traditional saddles. This just isn't the case. There are boatloads of vintage Teles that sound killer with the "Wrong" saddles.

Every guitar is an exercise in compromise. Find what works and go with it. There's NO magic pill.

[Jerrod]

What is "perfect" intonation? Hmmm?

[rhinocaster]

What is "perfect" intonation? Hmmm?

And really, that's a HUGE part of the equation. A perfectly intonated guitar that doesn't reflect the actual pressures applied by the individual player means nothing.

[Random Hero]

What is "perfect" intonation? Hmmm?

Well, you know what I mean ;)

[Random Hero]

One thing I may do actually is flip the D and G saddle over to a barrel as I feel it's over compensating a bit but it changes the tone a little...

[donthasslethehoff]

Owned a 52 reissue for a couple years....Me loves the compromised tones of a tele!!!:love: