Telecaster bridge replacement

[Ian Price]

Hello all. I'm thinking about changing the bridge on my Baja - intonation issues are starting to bug me. Basically I want to switch to a 6 saddle version. I'll either go for a modernish bridge (a la Keef/Andy Summers) or a vintage styled one with 6 saddles. Would there be any differences in tone/sound in these?

Would like to hear some opinions!

Cheers,

Ian.

[Philly Q]

The Gotoh "modern" bridge will definitely change the tone, you'll lose some (or a lot) of that classic Tele twang.  I've never tried the "vintage" six-saddle type but I've always thought they look a bit flimsy and fiddly.

Have you considered just getting a set of compensated saddles to improve the intonation?  There's Glendale or Callaham:

http://www.glendaleguitars.com/saddles.htm
http://www.callahamguitars.com/partstel.htm

Or the budget version (near the bottom of the page):

http://www.axesrus.com/axeteleh.htm

[Frank]

I installed a Gotoh 6-way on a Japanese tele a few years back and had no end of problems - the thicker baseplate raised the saddles a too high from the body and I couldn't lower them enough to set the action correctly. I ended up grinding the back edges down and removing some of the adjustment springs to make it fit nicely.

[Ian Price]

Cheers Frank - that sounds like a huge pain in th a$$!!!!!

Philly - will take a look at one of those. Could be worth a shout.

EDIT  :oops:

Just realised I have a Wilkinson compensated bridge in my spare parts drawer! What a clown!

[Twinfan]

:lol:

[MrBump]

I put a Joe Barden bridge on my bitsa - I'd definitely buy one again.

[HTH AMPS]

gotta try some compensated bridge saddles for my Tele - it does bother me from time to time that the guitar isn't as in tune as it could be.  however, because of the vintage radius, the action is also quite high, so that doesn't help with the tuning either - compound radius seems the answer.

[Ian Price]

I put the Wilkinson compensated bridge on over the weekend - much improved intonation. Not perfect but significantly better than it was.

Only problem is now I am getting a lot of buzzing/humming when not touching the guitar - I can only assume I've screwed something up with the wiring. I'll be opening her up tonight to see what's going on.

[Twinfan]

Ian,

I think you should have had a wire from under the bridge pickup that grounds on the back of the bridge?  You have to fan the core wire out to create a connection and therefore ground the strings/bridge assembly as it sandwiches between the body and the bridge.

The pickup screws should actually make this connection to the bridge pickup baseplate, but I found on your old Esquire that the relic-ing (rusting) made this impossible, so I added a an extra ground wire a few months ago.

Leo Fender was a genius and actually saved the cost of this wire on the original Teles!  :lol:

[Philly Q]

The pickup screws should actually make this connection to the bridge pickup baseplate, but I found on your old Esquire that the relic-ing (rusting) made this impossible, so I added a an extra ground wire a few months ago.

That's interesting, I didn't realise rust is an insulator!

[Twinfan]

There was loads of it on these screws Phil - no way the 'leccy was getting through!

[Ian Price]

Cheers Dave!

There was indeed loads of rust on that Esquire. Attention to detail is very impressive. The relic Strat I had had loads of rust on the screws as well!

[AndyR]

Hmmm... I didn't reply yesterday because you said "a lot of buzzing/humming when not touching the guitar"

I'm not sure this grounding wire suggestion will do a lot to alleviate that problem?

I had a problem with the original pups in my Baja - after a couple of months the strings/bridge weren't grounding consistently. I got a load of intermittent noise when I was touching the strings/bridge but not the control plate. It sounded as if a ground wire to the bridge was giving out.

So I looked into it, and found that the Baja has no such wire under the bridge plate (an old Squier I have somewhere does). And then I found out that tele bridges/strings traditionally ground through the screws into the bridge pickup's baseplate - so no wire necessary.

When I replaced the pups with Blackguards (same bridge assembly), it all worked as expected, no extra wire, no noise. No problems for a couple of years now.

When I tried the Baja pups in another tele, the same problem was there. I found that the baseplate of the Baja bridge pup is not always grounded - must be a dodgy solder joint on the pickup somewhere. Rather than mess near the coils, I soldered a separate ground wire to the baseplate and it was fixed :D

[Ian Price]

Cgheers Andy - I'm hoping I can get on with ordering some BG50s soon. I'll not be bothering messing around with the stock pickups just yet, I can live with the noise for a while.

[Twinfan]

I think our point is the same Andy.  The noise shouldn't be there in the first place, and the grounding we both did cured the source  ;)