Tele bridge recommendation?

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benjammin308

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I've got a tele style guitar that I like everything about except the bridge.  It's traditional ashtray style but has six individual saddles instead of three pairs.  They rattle, buzz, and are a general PITA.  I'm leaning toward the more traditional three pairs, maybe with the slanted center saddle to aid intonation.  Any recommends?

 
The Allparts Barden tele bridge is nice and solid, but it sounds fatter than a traditional tele 3 saddle bridge due to the beefier baseplate (kinda the same way the Wilkie on a T51 makes it sound better than a traditional tele should lol).  Wilkinson makes a 3 saddle bridge that is compensated and the baseplate is more like the traditional thickness. Personally, I'd grab a $15 fender vintage style baseplate and a $28 set of the Allparts Barden saddles from darrenriley.com, dremel the sidewalls for clearance and call it a day lol.  Traditional baseplate and compensated saddles works for the sound I usually look for.   

 
I have 3 Brass on my 60's Tele and 6 Steel on my 50's Tele, i've become unbiassed and could not tele you which one I like better. Stonge is the man so take his advice and call it a day. 

 
stonge said:
 Personally, I'd grab a $15 fender vintage style baseplate and a $28 set of the Allparts Barden saddles from darrenriley.com, dremel the sidewalls for clearance and call it a day lol.  Traditional baseplate and compensated saddles works for the sound I usually look for.   
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I'll echoplex this. If you want to save a few bucks, I've had great results with the StewMac brass compensated barrels. 38 five-star reviews (I would be 39), $15, fast processing, cheap shipping, I haven't had to modify them to fit a plate, and "I don't like them" will get you a full refund if you wish to return them.

http://www.stewmac.com/Hardware_and_Parts/All_Hardware_and_Parts_by_Instrument/Electric_Guitar_Parts/Electric_Guitar_Saddles/Compensated_Bridge_Saddles_for_Tele_Set_of_3.html

 
I've used the Wilkinson half-tray style bridges with the compensated saddles on my last two tele builds and I really like them. $30 plus shipping from Guitar Fetish for the chrome plated bridge / $34.95 for gold plated. 

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jaberwock said:
The Babicz is pricey, but adds substantial body, and sustain, if your Tele is lacking in that department; veers away from the traditional look, but much more comfortable than the ash tray type.  

 http://www.fullcontacthardware.com/fch-tele-bridge.htm

 Jaberwock
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+1 to Jaberwock's comment above. ^^^^  I bought a Babicz full contact bridge for my '98 American Deluxe strat a while back. Amazing build quality and very much in keeping with the Steinberger design philosophy with lockable saddles and smooth contact. Immediate improvements in sustain, consistent intonation and super smooth trem action. The only downside was the expense. 

 
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Lots of great options here - I have also used Glendale saddles (alum/brass/brass) and those were nice as well.  the great thing about teles as platforms is that they span the gamut from  rat-rod to Rolls, depending on what you want to spend or hear.

 
     I have a Wilkinson three saddle adjustable ash tray bridge on my other Tele, it sounds and works great, but occasionally I get a "banjo tone" on one or two of the unwound strings, I can get rid of this by moving the saddles sideways a little, now I normally have the top two saddles pushed together to make contact to avoid this problem.

   Jaberwock

Wilkinson_Adjustable_Compensated_Bridge_for_Tele_sm.jpg

 
Lots of great suggestions.  I went with a Wilkinson full ashtray and compensated saddles (I like the full tray).  There's a dealer on ebay selling them for $20 shipped so I won't be out much if it doesn't work out.  It just arrived so I haven't installed yet but I can tell by looking at it that it will be an improvement.  Thanks all for the great suggestions.  There's probably a hundred forums I could have asked this question on, this is the only one I trust.

 
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