Telecaster Intonation and Saddles

[Butch Snyder]

I'm going to be going through a rather large pickup test with the bridge position of my Tele. My tech advises to remove the saddles (Am Std bridge) then change ou the pickup. That looks like a real pain. I usually just try to turn the saddles and get the bridge mounting screws out that way. I'm afraid that one of these days I'm going to break one of the saddle screws. If I could do it quickly and get the intonation correct, I would remove the screws.

Anybody got any advice?

[casper g]

butch, if your gonna be going in and out, maybe just leave the two center screws out during the test. then you could get by just removing both E saddles between swaps. just a thought.

[Butch Snyder]

Casper, that's a great idea. It's that one screw in the middle (Am Std bridges have 3 mounting screws) that's the pain. Just one more reason I'm a member of this forum.

Thanks,
:nelson

[casper g]

well sir, i am no expert on teles, but recently i did some work on a fernandez tele that had four mounting screws. i am in the process now of building one with a bigsby. my fear is that the guitar will not live up to the way i "dream" it will sound. lol.

btw, i have a set of fender texas specials that i will try in there first. i dunno if that will get me where i need to be or not. i would like to get a nice chirpy sound when i am in between, and a decent amount of mids from the bridge. may be a tall order.

also, thanks for posting your tunes. i have totally enjoyed hearing them.

[Butch Snyder]

Hey Casper, thanks for the kind words. I was interested in Texas Specials in my Tele. I was going to buy some from a member of another forum. The deal went bad. He sold them to another guy who had the deal before me. The guy never paid. When I said I would do the deal, He got a money order from the original buyer. I was very dissappointed. He more than made up for it though. He sent me, at no charge to me, a Fender Nocaster Clean bridge pickup. How cool is that?!?

So now I have a dilemma. I now own two bridge pickups. A DiMarzio Virtial-T bridge and the Nocaster Clean models. I've yet to install either. I'm thinking of trading the DiMarzio pickup in on a good neck pickup; which I need. Heck, I don't know...

[pc]

Butch, I did that very thing when swapping out several into my Tele--just don't turn up too loud or you might get a heck of a squeal with that bridge not clamped down all the way.

Under which thread are your tunes posted? I'd like to hear 'em.

[Butch Snyder]

Hey Jack,

They're here...

http://www.lespaulforum.com/forum/sh...highlight=tele

[pc]

Thanks Butch!

Those two tunes are now safely stored in my MP3 player for my continuing enjoyment.

Think I'm gon' have to make the trip to Lebanon sometime when your new band gets up & running.

[Marcondo]

When I was changing alot of Tele bridge pickups I bought a whole new bridge and saddles so I could just unscrew the one on the guitar and screw on the new bridge. I cloned the saddle settings from the working bridge and it was in perfect tune.

This way I could swap pickups in about 5 mins time worked great.

[Butch Snyder]

The work is done. The pickups have been tested and I'm finished...

At least for now...:nelson

[pc]

and the winner is???

EDIT-- oh wait--I just read your "Pickup Joint" post. Nocaster clean wins another heart.

Cool.

[Butch Snyder]

Nocaster Clean (7.3k version). I have a DiMarzio Twang King neck pickup sitting here on my desk waiting to go home with me. I'm going to install it tonight.