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One of my teles have the traditional brass 3 saddles, another one has the modern steel 6 saddles. The 6 saddle one sounds fuller and smoother, the 3 saddle one sounds twangier and brighter. It didn't occur to me until today the difference in sounds of these guitars might be due to the saddles
. I almost sold the 3 saddle one as I don't really need the country twang.
I mean there are other important differences, the 3 saddle one is an American Tele with ash body. The 6 saddle one is a Mexican alder body. I swapped pickups and necks back and forth so I know the tonal characteristic that I'm controlling for isn't due to the differences in the necks and the pickups. I'll swap the saddles today and report my findings. Do you find that the 3 vs 6 saddle make a big difference in tone? If the difference I'm hearing is really due to the saddle differences, 6 saddle might be a more jazz friendly choice.
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12-11-2023 09:46 AM
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that’s quite interesting ….
i was told to go for brass(rather than
steel) to get a softer jazz sound
(3 or 6 type saddle probably wouldnt
affect the sound i assume , but the
material density I can see making
a difference)
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I don't have a brass and steel 3 saddles to compare but there are contradicting reports on the tonal effect of the material. Some say brass is twangier, some say brass is warmer. 3 vs 6 saddle is a mechanical difference that has a potential to make a bigger impact on the tone IMO.
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I was always told brass=warmer, steel=brighter.
Not sure how much there is to it...my steel saddled tele IS brighter than my brass saddled tele...but the pickups and body wood are different too...I guess anything that effects vibration can figure in to tone...
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Yes, brass=warmer, steel=brighter seems to be the more common observation when comparing 3-saddles. When it comes to 3 vs 6 saddles the common observation seems to lean towards 6 saddles being smoother and less twangy. That's also the impression I got from various video comparisons on youtube.
Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
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I would be interested in finding brass saddles for my 70's (old style) 6 saddle Tele. Last time I looked, I didn't see any available, only saw the new style .
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I think the major difference will be with intonation. With 6 saddles the intonation can be set rather precisely for each string. With 3 saddles, there will always be a compromise in the intonation. This will be somewhat more pronounced if using a plain G string, because there is a lot of difference between it and the wound D. I'm not sure the tonal differences are all solely due to the alloy the saddles are made from.
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Intonation is the obvious difference of course between the 3 saddle and 6 saddle designs. In terms of tone, the mechanical/structural differences of the designs probably has a bigger effect on the tone than the material.
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A long while back, after wading through a long thread about numerous things that might effect vibration, I got my stethoscope out to listen to the parts of my guitar (Strat) to determine where the vibration was occurring. Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
At the outset I assumed the saddles and bridge, the bridge block, the body, and neck might be loudest. I was surprised that all of those where silent. No place on the body or neck made a sound.
I did find two places where sound was heard; the trem bar, and the head stock. The nut made sound but the head stock was louder... the tuning machines were even louder, and the tuning keys were the loudest by far of the whole guitar.
This was a very confusing and enlightening ordeal - pretty sure most would never imagine these results.
So, Tal_175, if you are swapping parts to test changes in tone, you might try swapping the tuning machines because almost all of the discernible vibration may be happening there.
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Not sure if a stethoscope is a good way to determine to how each part affects to overall acoustic and amplified tone. If you cut out rubber saddles and replace them with the metal saddles, I'm sure the tone would be very different but a stethoscope still wouldn't measure any vibrations from the rubber saddles. Originally Posted by pauln
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It seems to me that almost all the sound from a solid-body guitar comes from the strings, both amplified and acoustically. I don't know of a way to measure that sound, either by volume or tone, with a stethoscope. You can measure sympathetic vibration of parts of the guitar, but that's a small fraction of the sound produced when the strings are vibrating.
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I swapped the saddles of my two Teles. The one that had 3 saddles now has 6 saddles and vice versa.
The change is noticeable in both guitars especially on the high e and b strings. 6 saddles definitely smooth out the highs. The tele that had 3 saddles was very twangy on the high strings, now it's more mellow and fat. The other tele is a more even guitar, with the 3 saddles it resonates better without being bright like the other guitar. So I guess the saddle choice depends on the guitar and the player but it's an easy and relatively cheap modification.
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I use Graphtech Stringsaver saddles. They smooth out the attack spike more than brass saddles IMHO. Pretty much work as advertised.
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FWIW Ed Bickert had his three-saddle bridge replaced with a six-saddle bridge to improve intonation with light strings (plain G). See Grant McNeill's notes about working on Ed's tele:
https://www.12fret.com/instruments/e...lecaster-1965/
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I use Fender's intonating 3 saddles so intonation was never a problem for me. I swapped out the original fixed 3 saddles shortly after I got the 3 saddle guitar:
Movable Intonating Tele(R) Saddle Kit | Parts
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I like a 3 barrel bridge to get that traditional "rattle" on the wound strings.
On one of my parts teles I setup as a more jazz specialist, I put on a 6 saddle bridge, with the low 3 strings using stamped steel strat-style saddles and the top three cast steel block saddles. A bit of a Frankenstein job, but it works pretty well.
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Can anyone ID the saddles on this? It's one of Ted Greene's telecasters.
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It looks like a pretty generic steel 6 saddle to me. Originally Posted by Blkat
Can anyone ID the saddles on this? It's one of Ted Greene's telecasters.
Last edited by Tal_175; 12-29-2023 at 07:14 PM.
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The telecaster that I replaced the 3 saddles with 6 saddles became one of my favorite guitars. I had put it up for sale. I'm glad I tried changing the saddles. It's no longer for sale. The high e and b strings sound much smoother now.
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The saddles on the tele above are pretty standard saddles for strings-through-the-body instruments.
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Although I don't believe it's the original Fender bridge. Originally Posted by sgosnell
If that's the guitar I think it is, it's a 1954 body. Needless to say, lots of mods on that guitar. I guess, point being, he opted for a six saddle and replaced the three saddle that came with the guitar.
I want to say Tim Lerch recommends brass saddles in one of his videos. (But I may be imagining it?) And he gets an incredible "jazz" sound out of his telecasters.
I would think that, with brass being softer, it would also be less harsh than steel.
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Marc Rutters builds incredible guitars, but is probably better known for his F-style hardware. Here are some interesting vids using different tailpiece/bridge materials:
Or one vid!
Last edited by marcwhy; 12-31-2023 at 06:53 PM. Reason: add
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I don't know enough about vintage Teles, nor Fenders in general, to say whether the bridge is original. Originally Posted by Blkat
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I have a 70's 6 saddle bridge on my '72 Tele. It's got a pretty regular Tele sounding response, but the 1st string is very bright compared to the other strings when playing on the bridge p/up. I would love to try a brass saddle there. Or is it the pickup that's bright on that end?
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As with most interchangeable parts on a guitar it's very difficult for me to trust the sounds I hear in these clips - MY touch on the strings, MY picking technique, MY amp dialed in to MY preference etc. make all the difference. I will never sound like Ed Bickert or Ted Greene or Tim Lerch or Danny Gatton or Roy Buchanan or any of the other Tele-Masters we know and love. I have trusted the recommendation of Bill Frisell though and swapped out the old Fender 3-barrel (brass) bridge on my Warmoth Tele for a new 2-barrel bridge by MASTERY and to MY ears this mod made an audible difference : the guitar became acoustically louder, with a more balanced tone and a slightly quicker attack. I suspect that the string pressure on the now 2 barrels/string posts results in a more efficient transfer of energy, simply with more sound. I wouldn't know how to demo this in a video without a top-tier recording set-up and I'd have to swap out the bridges twice for an A/B comparison (which would be royal PITA) so there you are : it's quite subjective and without hands-on experience not very enlightening.
One last observation : the highs can be tamed with a simple tone pot (Ted G. had a number of slider-switches on his old Tele for choosing different cap-values) but ADDING stuff to the sound that comes off the guitar is another ballgame. An outside EQ pedal can work wonders though and you remain flexible.
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