New Compensating Bridge Saddles on my Tele

[Platefire]

Well I got the standard compensating brass bridge saddles from stu mac for my tele. I was kind of surprised to find that even with the compensated saddles intonation is still a balancing act and not dead on. The little e and b are pretty close to dead on but the rest a balancing. It plays and sounds great with the new set up. The court is still out on the difference in sound between steel and brass saddles. Plate

[G._Hoffman]

Get the saddles right between where they need to be, then give them a little twist (bend the screw) to get them perfect. 

It's an old trick for getting the old tele saddles in tune.


Gabriel

[Platefire]

OK thanks for the tip. I had read comments refering to that.

Say Greg, I've become somewhat of a decent guitar tech from doing all the work on my own guitars over the years and can pretty much do anything I need done except one area---frets! I have an old 95 Ibanez RG-450 that hads a spot in about the 14th fret where the little e would fret out. I thought "Aw" since the neck is straight, that one fret must be higher than the rest---so I proceeded to file it down. I did use a level metal straight edge to identify the higher fret but my filing seemed to make thing only worst. I finally managed to get it back like it was not by filing but I think by driving that end of the fret down by using a socket extension and hamer lightly tapping with one end of the extension covered with cloth. I also left some filing marks on my mapel fingerboard around the fret--which in hindsight, I should at least covered with masking tape. Well the problem still exist however minor but still bugs me! So much for being a fret man! Any suggestions on how correct my file marking on the neck and also bring that fret into check? Thanks, Plate

[G._Hoffman]

Send it to a good repair person. 

Sorry, but fret work is a high skill job, and it's very tough for an amateur to do it.



Gabriel

[Platefire]

Yeah---I'm a DIY type guy but the time it would take me to research the subject and get up to speed to actually try a correction that may or may not be successful due to lack of experiance---that would make more sense. Thanks, Plate

[HotBluePlates]

I used a Callaham Vintage T compensated bridge on my tele copy. The hole through the brass barrel is drilled at an angle to allow for rough compensating of the strings. The fine tuning is done with a combination of adjusting string length and adjusting the height of the individual strings. You wind up juggling a few variables at once, but can get things quite well intonated compared to the typical tele.

[G._Hoffman]

Yeah---I'm a DIY type guy but the time it would take me to research the subject and get up to speed to actually try a correction that may or may not be successful due to lack of experiance---that would make more sense. Thanks, Plate

By the way, the problems you are having with the intonation could very well be related to the fret wear.  Flat frets move the contact point of the string, which throws things out of tune.  Get your fret work done before you start bending screws.


Gabriel

[Platefire]

Yeah that Callaham bridge & Plate are nice. I just got the generic stu mac compensating brass saddles, screws and springs $14.00. I read a lot about them after I ordered mine but happy with my intonation and they are better than the straight steel stock saddles that came on it. Maybe I'll upgreade to the high bridge and plate someday.