TELE bridges again

[6Tones]

Ok I heres my dilema ,
I had 3 compensated saddles on my telecaster, Tone was great,warm and you could hear tonal differences at different points of pickattack from neck to bridge on the gtr, but the intonation was OK at best,livable for "Blues" but for voicing highup it was alittle annoying intonation wise.
So I bought 6 SMALL brass saddles,intonation in near perfect but the Tone advantage that the large Brass saddles had was gone plus it made the high E n B alittle to bright for my tastes

Ive yet to try a fender modern "strat" style saddle on the tele,I think they are made of steel/chrome?, would they sound warmer than the small brass ones I have or brighter?

Any makers of 6 saddles made of brass that are the same size as a fender strat saddles, any suggestions?

 

[roknfnrol]

Maybe the threaded saddles like a '59 style Tele (http://www.angela.com/catalog/guitar-parts/tele.html ,
or some Callaham saddles http://www.callahamguitars.com/

 

[cocheese]

I had the same problem with a previous Tele of mine. I ended up with the 3-barrell compensated brass saddles. The tone was just too twangy with the 6-saddle bridge. I found that the 3-barrell brass saddles were the only way to go. They give the Tele so much more meat to the tone.

 

[Mark Robinson]

I know what you mean about the "twingy" sound of the six saddle Fender made bridge. I also agree that a three barrel, even compensated, can be lacking in intonation, for high gain playing where up the neck, and beating becomes pretty sour.

If that's your desire, spot on intonation, then there is a 1/8" plate bridge with modern cast type Strat style bridge pieces. I have one and it works perfectly for tuning. It's less top endy, sustains better. It's not "traditional" twangy and I wouldn't call it warm.

I have a good friend who really lives in the Tele world and he's shown me with my own ears, that there is an audible diff. amongst the three-saddle variants, between threaded saddles, the little thin plated steel ones, with two grooves, the brass ones. Each sounds different, but do you care? I must admit that I sort of didn't. I went for the tuning accuracy.

I do have one tele with the Stewart MacDonald compensated brass saddles, I set it just a little flat if there's conflict. But I'm less comfortable on that guitar and rarely play it. I have a thinline with the cheapy Fender six saddle and it is bright and twingy, but a little use of the tone knob seems to help. Tunes great. Seymour Duncan Broadcaster pickup, also helps with excess treble, flat poles, no blasting "g" string. Good thing in general. Thought I'd throw that in. Have fun!

 

[baald]

what about the wilkinson compensated brass saddles? like the vintique or callaham or what have you, except they have a gimbal where the intonation screw mounts, so you can swivel them laterally to adjust for the two strings on each saddle. does this make sense? don't ahve a link handy, but i'm sure a google will turn it up. (of course, since the saddles aren't one-piece, they might not have the same tone either....but might be a good compromise)

baald