Has anyone tried Highwood saddles for Strats?

CasperCaster

Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone has tried the Highwood Strat saddles, and if so what opinion you have of them? How do they compare to other saddles like Callaham or Raw Vintage?

I'm looking for a decent set of 10.8mm wide saddles (54mm overall spacing). I've got some brass saddles on one of my Strats, and Callaham's on another. I am perfectly happy with each of those on their respective instruments, but whist searching for 10.8mm wide saddles I came across the Highwood ones and couldn't decide whether they were a genuinely useful design, or just a solution looking for a problem! For those that haven't seen them, the website is here:
http://www.highwood-guitarparts.com

Cheers, CasperCaster.

Philly_Q

I haven't tried them, but they look good and they're right, it is annoying having height adjustment screws digging into your hand!  I'm interested.

The Gotoh/Wilkinson VSVG saddles use a similar idea but in a less vintage-friendly way.

Sassafras

They look very nice but I can't say I've ever suffered excruciating pain from the screws in regular saddles.

FelineGuitars

I am their UK stockist and have both the shiny and aged versions in all the different widths
They are really nice and pretty much do what they say on the tin

sweepy

Can honestly say I’ve never impaled my hand on saddle screws either, but tinker we must

stickyfiddle

The folded over element is nice by all they’ve really “invented” is having the grub screws the right length. 

Much easier to use regular saddles and get shorter screws if you need them

clarkefan

Hand palm injuries?  Seriously?  My memory of grub screws on a Strat is about 5 mins of "that's a bit scratchy" then never noticing them again.  Injuries, weird...

CasperCaster

The grub screws have never presented a problem for me either, and I do have different lengths of grub screws in my parts box if I need them. However, there aren't many 10.8mm saddles available, and these potentially look like a quality product, even if they do rather over-sell the grub screw aspect. 

@FelineGuitars I can't find these on your website - I'm interested to know the price of these both in standard and relic versions.

SteveRobinson

Tonetech sell a similar product
https://tonetechluthiersupplies.co.uk/tone-up-stainless-steel-electric-guitar-saddles-10-8mm.html

FelineGuitars

£46 for the standard ones and £56 for the relic ones