anyone try the graphite saddles?

Don't know about on ESP but on a Tele and Strat I have they worked great; improved sustain and upped the mids a little.

 

I tried the graphtec saddles is a few Strats and, while they seem to help with with less string breakage and better trem return to pitch, they changed the tone in a way that I did not like. To my ears, they sounded duller than the original bent steel one's and seemed to have an upper mid emphasis. But, tone is very subjective and one man's duller is another man's warmer. Not a super expensive experiment, and its completely reversible...so try a set out and let us know what you think.

 

I find the graphtec saddles really produce a warm, fundamental focused tone...they seem to knock downhigh end, upper harmonic complexity and jangle and yeah, they can definitely sound dull and lifeless. I use 'em on one guitar where I had issues with mechanical noise and an unpleasent clankly metallic overhang from a Floyd Rose and they cleaned up the sound of that guitar nicely. A good solution for a particular proble. But I probably wouldn't choose to use them in any other circumstance.

While it's true that one man's dull can be another man's warm, I say if you want to warm up a guitar, try pure nickel strings -- that will give you more warmth and body than steel wound or even NPS strings without robbing your tone of the upper harmonics that give it life and presence and articulation. But, for me, I'd only back to Graphtech if I had a real frustrating problem with a zingy metallic guitar or with excessive string breakage with a trem bar...mostly otherwise I'd say away from graphtech for saddles.

 

IMO there is an uncanny valley between vintage sound and something novel/new and the Graph Tech saddles are in that area. If one of your criteria is the sound of vintage [whatever - I don't get what your guitar is from the description], there are better solutions for the problems addressed by String Saver.

 

I have them on *all* of my electrics. I've played guitar professionally for 20 years now. One of the worst things to me is a string break in the middle of a song. Now I know other ways to correct this, but Graphtech saddles are the most reliable way. And in a desperate attempt to hear a difference, going between them and my stock steel saddles... I hear *no difference*. And upper end harmonics/clarity is very important to me. I realized a long time ago guitarists became averse to high end - but if it's not in the acoustic chassis of the guitar, it can't be boosted artificially with other means and sound good.

Graphtech makes a great product IMO.

Although, I have a custom Tele being built right now. To have as legit of a vintage tone and look as possible it's going to have a Glendale bridge with brass saddles. I'll use some high tech lubricant I've discovered to reduce string breakage... if that doesn't work, I won't hesitate to replace the saddles with the Tele three saddle job by Graphtech.

 

I have the saddles on a tune-o-matic. I used to break tons of strings, then about 8 years ago I put the graphtechs on. Never broke another string on that guitar, and it gets played a lot.

Negligible effect on sound or feel for my purposes. This guitar still sounds wonderful unplugged and amplified, clean or dirty.

 

Allparts lists separate Graph Tech saddles for the Gotoh tunematic - BP 2446-00G

 

I had the exact same reaction to the Graphtech saddles I put on a tune-o-matic.

 

The original brass saddle sound best to me. It's the best balance of everything. A lot of tune-o-matics look the same, but the saddles are not brass.

 

I prefer the bent steel type on Fender guitars. After my G&L started breaking strings regularly around ten years ago, I switched to regular graph tech, and did notice a change in tone- a little less high end harmonic content, not necessarily in a bad way, but just a more focused tone. And actually the sustain was greatly enhanced and I haven't broken a string on that guitar since, except for the occasional bad string (though I do play 11's.)

I just recently put a set of the string saver classics on my other strat, and they do offer up a slightly more traditional tone with the added benefits of graphite- more of a compromise between vintage style and full graphite.

 

Once you forsake the single coils, I doubt there's any additional discernible loss with using Graphtechs.

I bought and installed 3 sets of Graphtechs to 3 guitars at once. It did cut down on some of the extraneous trashy noises associated with those guitars. But the sparkle was gone as well. I took the Graphtechs off and solved the trashiness another way or just got rid of the guitar.

I'm resigned to the truth that guys, some guys, deliver a serious pounding to their guitars. Since I almost never break strings, I was never the intended customer in the first place. I can't relate to breaking strings and I have no idea what I would be prepared to sacrifice if I did constantly break strings.