Am I using the right saddles??

[5F6-A]

My guitar started life as a late 80's Jap Fernandes Revival. Fab repro of a 62 Strat. I´ve modified it to great extent and I´m most happy with what is now a relic style guitar. Most changes have been good (including a set of BKP Apaches handwound by Tim Mills himself!) but I feel I might not be using the right saddles. Now I´m using a set of DeTemple Titanium with 10.8 mm spacing.

Look closely at the pic:




I have two problems.

1) Sonically, the guitar is too hifi. Titanium is great but a bit too "perfect", balanced and modern sounding. I´m considereing going back to steel with the likes of Callaham or Raw Vintage to return to the tone of the good ol´days!

2) The second problem is that the current saddles look to me as if they are too close together. The outer E strings almost miss out the polepieces in the neck pickup. :(

Compare my saddles to -for example- the ones in John Mayer´s own Custom Shop Strat:





:hmm:

Am I using the right saddles? Unfortunately I haven´t got the guitar here and now to take any measurements... What replecement saddles whould I get?

This might be of some help... 

Callaham Vintage Guitars and Parts (Upgrading a Stratocaster)

Raw Vintage

PLEASE HELP!!

[Philly Q]

Your total spacing is, presumably, about 54mm so that's a bit narrower than the vintage 2-7/32" (56mm).

But the question is, would wider saddles fit the base plate of your tremolo?  I don't know, I'm afraid.

[PhilKing]

I think the Fernandez Revivals used the narrower saddles (I have a 57 Revival that I bought new in 1982).

[5F6-A]

I guess the best option would be to get a correct bridge such as the Callaham, fill the mounting spacing holes and re-drill them for the correct vintage 2 7/32 mount spacing. Good job it´s a relic type guitar

[Philly Q]

Personally I think the slightly narrower spacing is a bonus, to be honest - the strings on vintage-spaced Fenders are awfully close to the fretboard edges.

[XxpapertigerxX]

Unfortunately, I'm no help with this one. I do agree with Philly, though. The narrower string spacing is more practical with the extra fretboard space. String slip off is way too frequent otherwise (at least with my sloppy technique  :D)

What color is the body, by the way? I've developed this fascination with vintagey looking white strats with tortoise shell pickguards, and yours is particularly nice. It also looks like the pickups are the same color as the body and that the inlays are white or mother of pearl, rather than cream. Is that true?

[Philly Q]

I've developed this fascination with vintagey looking white strats with tortoise shell pickguards, and yours is particularly nice.

I know exactly what you mean, there are lots of Strat colour combos I don't like but white/tortoise is a particularly good look.  Especially with a rosewood board, although it looks good with maple too.

[5F6-A]

I havenīt got my guitar here but when I do Iīll share some more pics. I used flash with the pic above... the white is not quite as white, itīs aged olympic white so thereīre some creamy overtones to the cracked nitro. ;-)