in love

[George]

Tonally speaking, during my A/B test the vintage saddles sounded more like what a Strat should sound like.

[honeyiscool]

I
Also, the saddle screws are not hard to find. They are M3 metric-threaded socket screws, they can be found at hobby shops (for RC cars and stuff like that) or on Ebay for pretty cheap. Most American saddle screws are 4-40 and I prefer the M3 screws because M3 hex heads are a lot heftier and so don't strip as easily. Some bass bridges are 6-32, and I've heard of some bridges using M2.5 screws, but I've never encountered them myself.

If they aren't hard to find, send me some. Because no shop I tried has the fucking things.

Hobby Hardware Plus

Look for for M3 socket set screws. You can even get them the exact height you want them, in 2mm increments. So you could buy a bunch of different heights and get them just right so that you don't have any screw cutting your hand.

The shipping is a bit much for one pack of screws but consider the fact that the average parts store charges like $5 for these screws. I also bought some 4-40 and 6-32 screws from them at the same time for my other bridges, so combined it was a good deal. They all work great. The 4-40 is the standard US saddle height screw size, and 6-32 is the size for some of those vintage bass bridges. They're black, though, if you care about things like that.

It worries me a bit that you couldn't find a screw for your saddle, though, considering if you replaced it with a cheap block saddle, the cheap block saddle probably had M3 screws as well and I figure you must have tried that at some point. I mean, I've had M3 screws in every single import bridge I've ever found. So maybe you actually have 4-40 threaded screws in your bridge, or the elusive M2.5, but I doubt it. It's probably an M3 screw. As a size reference, 4-40 is smaller than M3, which is smaller than 6-32.

[Joey]

I've been trying to track down the set screws for my Mustang bridge, to adjust the height of the bridge. Smallest Home Depot carries are the M4. I gotta check Ace Hardware store for M3. If they don't have em, I'm gonna tap it and install 6-32's.

[honeyiscool]

6-32 is kinda large... you sure about that? The site I just posted has every size of grub screws you should ever need, pretty long ones too.

[Joey]

The 6-32's won't fit, unless I tap/re-thread the bridge. I bought some 6-32's at Home Depot but haven't looked closely at it, to see how much material I'd have to remove to make it work. I keep leaving my tap tool at work and I loaned out my full set of taps to a mechanic. I may just break down and order em from that site.

[Dillon]

I'm more interested in the pickups...they look like normal sized humbuckers, so I wonder how much they sound like wide range humbuckers?

Played an LPB one today at GC. Answer: they don't Still not bad sounding, though. Lots of different tones.

BTW I just re-read rob's comment about Strat saddles and noticed he said Supersonic. I have a Pro Tone Strat from that same era and the saddles on that thing did indeed rust to fuck. I forgot I replaced them with AV saddles before I got my Graph Techs...and those are the ones that were (and still are) fine. Must be a Squier thing.

[Billy3000]

Those saddles suck. Why would anybody like them?!? I have them on my tele deluxe RI still but I don't know why I haven't changed them yet. If I was playing guitar in a band, that would probably be the guitar I'd use, and those shitty saddles would have to go!

I like them because they say Fender on them and they're pretty easy to get working well. The block saddles are a superior or more sensible design, I give them that. If anything, they keep the string in place better, although some people like the bent saddles precisely because they can alter the string spacing a bit right at the saddle. Also, they can use shorter saddle screws, which is nicer for palm muting. So yeah, I give them these advantages.

But in terms of actual measurable performance, i.e. tuning stability, buzzing, string snapping, etc.? I've realized that it's not the design that makes saddles good or bad, since both are working designs. It's materials and construction. The Fender stamped saddles are pretty good, actually, much better than many cheap block saddles I've found, which use the hefty looking block design to hide the fact that they're cheap lightweight pot metal, probably zinc. It just seems a bit funny to me that some people are actually contemplating switching a steel saddle for a zinc saddle and will probably think of it as an upgrade.

Really, at long as you have a decent bridge and decent saddles, you will have no problems.

For me it has nothing to do with tone, stability, buzzing, snapping or anything like that. All saddles can be adjusted to get rid of/fix those problems. The problem with these saddles is that they're uncomfortable as fuck for palm muting cause the height adjustment screws stick into your palm. If the screws didn't stick up above the top of the saddle it wouldn't be a problem, but for some reason, even after all these years Fender hasn't started using shorter screws on these stupid saddles. The block style saddles on my American strat are infinitely better, I have no idea what the fuck they're made out of, and I don't care, because they're comfortable and they work.

[honeyiscool]

If that's all that bugs you, you can get shorter screws.

Secondly, after playing Strats a while, you start palm muting a bit differently so that the saddle screws are no longer bothersome.

[desertan]

In Braille it says, " who the f*** designed this POS?"