Angled Bridge Pieces

[Mike Shaw]

Alright, this is probably stupid, but I'm curious. How many of you angle your Strat bridgepieces to match the neck. I mean, is the side of the bridgepiece closest to the center of the guitar slightly higher than the opposite side (where the height adjustment screws are). Me. I adjust them level. My thinking is that it will help the string to stay put on the bridgepiece. Whattya say...?

[Guildx700~]

I don't angle em as far as the saddle sitting crooked if that's what you mean, but I do set em to match the radius of the fingerboard, this is a big help on evening out the sound on staggered height pups.

[ShawnRT]

Maybe he is talking about setting the individual saddles at a slant with one side higher than the other as opposed to setting the saddles to match the radius but leaving each individual saddle level? I couldn't quite figure it out from the description.


PS: Guild beat me to it :tw59

[Mike Shaw]

Right. Of course you have to match the saddle height to the radius of the neck or else it wont play for squat. I mean is one side of the saddle slightly higher than the other side or is it straight across - both sides of the saddle at the same height.

[ShawnRT]

Hey Mike,
Sorry about the confusion, sometimes getting a mechanical visual over the net can be a little rough :) I'm with Guild in that I match the saddles to the radius of the neck but leave each individual saddle level. I got a cool little trick from Dan Erlewine's book. Instead of a radius gauge that you set on top of the strings, I cut out a little crescent moon shaped gauge that fits under the strings. It takes string thickness out of the equation and works a little bit better, for me at least.

[Bluenote]

I angle mine to the fretboard RADIUS. Starting with the high E= 25.5,then work the rest of the gauge your using. :tw59

[Guildx700~]

Also you really don't have to match the radius, but I like to personally. You can also set the strings to another known constant radius to get a different feel up in the higher frets.