Telecaster brass saddles

[bigomw]

I'm in the process of 'improving' my Squier Classic Vibe Tele, with a real Fender bridge plate and generic but compensated 3 brass saddles. My question is, should these be notched or is that Tele sacrilege? Opinions seem to differ! The guitar came to me second hand with a no-name 6 saddle brass set up which are notched and work great. Guitar plays wonderfully, better than my '78 Tele.

Thanks

 

[toxpert]

No notches. Just lay the strings on top like the old days.

 

[CDTGuitar]

I'm in the process of 'improving' my Squier Classic Vibe Tele, with a real Fender bridge plate and generic but compensated 3 brass saddles. My question is, should these be notched or is that Tele sacrilege? Opinions seem to differ! The guitar came to me second hand with a no-name 6 saddle brass set up which are notched and work great. Guitar plays wonderfully, better than my '78 Tele.

Thanks

If the guitar plays wonderfully, why change it? :hmm

To answer your question, smooth "barrel" saddles will work just fine most of the time. The strings will eventually wear down into the brass and create small notches. With these uncompensated barrel saddles, you can flip them over when these grooves become prevalent and essentially get three new saddles.

Notched saddles (which I have on my personal Esquire) are useful with a Bigsby behind the bridge (which I have), or for maintaining solid string spacing with a top-load bridge. There is plenty of force from the standard Tele string-through design to keep string spacing even. With top-loaders, strings can wander a bit without notched or filed saddles. Unless you have a crazy-small fretboard radius, you should be fine with smooth saddles. If you ever plan on going the "Standard Tele Bridge with Bigsby" rout, then I suggest picking up slotted saddles in advance.

 

[bigomw]

If the guitar plays wonderfully, why change it? :hmm

To answer your question, smooth "barrel" saddles will work just fine most of the time. The strings will eventually wear down into the brass and create small notches. With these uncompensated barrel saddles, you can flip them over when these grooves become prevalent and essentially get three new saddles.

Notched saddles (which I have on my personal Esquire) are useful with a Bigsby behind the bridge (which I have), or for maintaining solid string spacing with a top-load bridge. There is plenty of force from the standard Tele string-through design to keep string spacing even. With top-loaders, strings can wander a bit without notched or filed saddles. Unless you have a crazy-small fretboard radius, you should be fine with smooth saddles. If you ever plan on going the "Standard Tele Bridge with Bigsby" rout, then I suggest picking up slotted saddles in advance.

You're quite right, I too am very much in the 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it' school of thought. I just figured that adding an old school, good quality bridge plate and saddles might improve things and if I don't like it, I can just change back and all it'll cost is a fresh set of strings. I also eventually want to upgrade pickups but can't decide to which......

 

[scooterx2]

I replaced the pups in mine with D. Allen wild cats sounds fantastic!

 

[bigomw]

Those pine bodies are very resonant...... I was maybe going to try Bareknuckle Brown Sugars?