Compensated brass saddles - worth it?

lincolnblue

I have a Fender Lite Ash Telecaster and have considered for a while changing the 3-brass saddle to compensated brass saddles.

Firstly will I notice much of a difference to make it worth the money? Also is it something that I can easily fit myself or are they best set up by a guitar tech?

bertie

I paid £6 for compensated ones.................... to replace the stock "stud bar" ones on a CV62,  defo an Improvement

jd0272

Brass or steel comp saddles are worth it all day long re better intonation. My Bardens weren't too expensive, some are daft money so Google is your friend.

jd0272

And no, you don't need a tech.

vasselmeyer

I use them on my Tele and it really does make a difference in terms of the intonnation. I used a Wilkinson half-bridge so I could get a P90 into the guitar but the saddles are the same.

jaygtr

They are worth getting if the intonation issues bother you, if they don't then I wouldn't bother.

The23rdman

Defintitly a worthy upgrade. 

chrisj1602

I got some from from Axesrus. These ones:

http://www.axesrus.co.uk/Compensated-Brass-T-Style-Saddles-p/compsadd.htm

Cheap and worth it in my opinion.

ICBM

I actually found the Wilkinson ones harder to intonate correctly than non-compensated saddles, because the offsets are too great - they need to be about half what they are. They may work better if you're using very light strings, possibly.

The type where the saddle is a plain round bar but the screw hole is drilled at an angle to offset them are better.

crunchman

I have the Callaham ones - which are a plain bar drilled at an angle.  They are good, but expensive.  They were all Charlie Chandler had in stock on the day I went in otherwise I wouldn't have spent that much.

I had to do something as the intonation was horrible before.  They sound a bit warmer than the original steel saddles did, but I doubt there would be a significant tonal difference from another pair of brass ones so it's just a question of the intonation.

fretfinder

Well worth it and easy to fit. I've never tried the Wilkinson ones but they do look more awkward than the bar type that comes on Fender CS Teles.

lincolnblue

Other than the Wilkinson ones which would you recommend?

jd0272

Joe Barden.

alanchanxd

+2 axesrus ones, it does the job perfectly at an affordable price

EdGrip

I bought some from Mark Rutters - by the time I'd paid import duty and random Royal Mail handling charges, it was rather pricey. They're spot on, though - as ICBM says, the Wilkinson ones have a massive offset.

Before that I had a set of the swiveling Gotoh-Wilkinson ones, which work very well as they are built to, but the E/A saddle had to be really swivelled, and I don't like the idea of the string going over an angled saddle (like the Callaham ones). Also they looked a bit not-neat. They're in a drawer somewhere.

thermionic

I got some of the simple "hole drilled at an angle" ones from either Allparts or WD Music. Inexpensive  and takes two minutes to install. I never found intonation to be a big problem anyway, but it's a step in the right direction even if it isn't perfect. It preserves the "conveniently-drilled offcut of brass rod" 50s Tele look, but there's a possibility the strings might end up rather near to the height adjustment screws.