Intonating a bullet saddle Telecaster. ‘Close enough is good enough?.

Hi fellow guitarist,
this is my first post and looking forward to converting with you all with similar interest’s.

Ok, I’ve been a Stratocaster owner and player for years. I do my own setup’s and intonations with a 6 saddle bridge with no problems whatsoever.

I just purchased a new 75th Anniversary Commerrative Telecaster which is my very first Telecaster and it has the 3 bullet saddle’s, so the question is how hard is it to intonnate this axe.

Without individual saddles to adjust can you do a satisfactory intonation or is close enough is good enough.

looking forward to some advice.

Thanks in advance,

Anthony.

Welcome! I've got a couple Telecasters, & I was never able to get them intonated to my satisfaction. I cheated & bought compensated saddles

I've most commonly heard those referred to as barrel saddles, not bullet saddles.

There's a little bit of an art to intonating them. Involves some compromise. You can always buy compensated saddles. I've been fairly lucky setting them up with stock saddles. IMHO, that slightly off intonation is part and parcel of the magic of Telecasters.

You don't need to convert me, that happened 15 years ago :D I was a Strat snob. "No way three lousy saddles can intonate a guitar, six is far superior." Then I had experience with some 50's strats and found out what the deal with vintage was. One day a battered blackguard showed up on the shop wall. I played it and was amazed. Turned out to be a GVCG (Greenwich Village Custom Guitars) replica. So I learned two things. One is Teles are awesome and two, new modern guitars can be as awesome as vintage 50s guitars.

Thanks guy’s for your replies,
yes Dan that’s what I heard, “that slightly off intonation is part and parcel of the magic of the Telecasters.”