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It's been a while since I've been looking for brass saddles to replace the steel saddles on my telecaster. I've been reading lots of reviews on various bridge and saddle assemblies from Sung Il, Wilkinson, Gotoh, Fender, RS Guitarworks, Rutter's, Callaham and Glendale. A lot of people praise the Rutter's and Glendale stuff, so I thought it might be worth the price tag but I could not justify buying a set of Glendale saddles. For a while I've been looking at used Fender brass saddles at the classifieds section of a local forum. I was lucky enough to find this set of Marc Rutter's saddles for sale at a good price. For a while I've been lurking the thread, checking if the saddles were already sold. Luckily I was able to score it along with a Good All paper in oil capacitor.
My tele is a Fernandes telecaster which I've posting here for quite some time now. It was most probably made in Japan due to the Fender style headstock. The body is zen ash (2 piece with a beautiful grain) while the neck is maple with a vintage tint. The stock saddles were steel saddles (generally a bit on the bright side) and the stock tone cap was a green mylar capacitor. On with the saddle and capacitor swap...
First, the saddles. I noticed these after the saddle change:
1. Overall tone mellowed. This can be heard most prominently on the E-A strings. The "twang" and snap on the low strings were greatly reduced. Maybe that's why I still see those hybrid sets wherein the E-A saddle is steel as opposed to brass. I did not actually like the snappy bass strings. The new one sounded better to me, but I'm still getting used to how it sounds and feels. It's not that it lost the twang, but rather the twang changed its flavor. It's more of a muscular twang now, rather than the snappy bright twang. It's still twangy but not shrill unlike when it still had the stainless steel saddles. The other strings were definitely louder acoustically and plugged. The G string mellowed a bit while the B and high E strings sounded punchier (or maybe just a tad louder thus it seems punchier).
2. Acoustically louder. It was louder acoustically and I really appreciate the warm tone that it now produces. Chords/notes ring and sustain better acoustically.
3. Shimmery/reverby effect. I noticed this on the clean channel. I turned the reverb control on my amp all the way down. No reverb. Just the guitar into the amp, raw. This is the real shocker for me. The clean tone is SO DAMN GOOD. Trust me, I know how my tele sounds, and the clean tone improved A LOT. As I strummed the G chord, I noticed that it sustains better, and the notes ring true. Then there's that sort of reverby effect. It sounded as if you can really hear reverb coming from the amp, but the reverb was turned off. I did the same thing with a Fender Dual Showman Reverb with the reverb off. It really had that character on the clean tone. Shimmery. Reverby. I like what I hear through the clean channel. Never has my tele sounded so good through the clean channel of my Blackstar amp.
4. Balanced overdriven tone. With a little bit of gain (and a few more extra gain stages) the sound wasn't harsh at all. I found myself not fiddling with the tone control which I normally do. Definitely, the tone mellowed and it became a bit rounder.
For the capacitor, I noticed that the sweep was a lot more useable. I have a Bourns potentiometer which I find to be a good tone pot with a high torque. Rotating the pot is really smooth and fast. From what I noticed before, the tone control rolls off the highs but the sweep wasn't really that good. With the capacitor, I felt that I was like rotating the potentiometer a little more. It was like the pot had an extended range. And also, I could get a wah-wah kind of sound while rolling the tone pot even with my previous mylar capacitor. With the Good All, the sweep was much wider. I could easily imitate a wah pedal with this.
I really appreciate the saddles and capacitor. These are definitely not just for the sake of look or simply for the sake of upgrading. They really contributed to the overall character and tone of the guitar.
My tele is a Fernandes telecaster which I've posting here for quite some time now. It was most probably made in Japan due to the Fender style headstock. The body is zen ash (2 piece with a beautiful grain) while the neck is maple with a vintage tint. The stock saddles were steel saddles (generally a bit on the bright side) and the stock tone cap was a green mylar capacitor. On with the saddle and capacitor swap...
First, the saddles. I noticed these after the saddle change:
1. Overall tone mellowed. This can be heard most prominently on the E-A strings. The "twang" and snap on the low strings were greatly reduced. Maybe that's why I still see those hybrid sets wherein the E-A saddle is steel as opposed to brass. I did not actually like the snappy bass strings. The new one sounded better to me, but I'm still getting used to how it sounds and feels. It's not that it lost the twang, but rather the twang changed its flavor. It's more of a muscular twang now, rather than the snappy bright twang. It's still twangy but not shrill unlike when it still had the stainless steel saddles. The other strings were definitely louder acoustically and plugged. The G string mellowed a bit while the B and high E strings sounded punchier (or maybe just a tad louder thus it seems punchier).
2. Acoustically louder. It was louder acoustically and I really appreciate the warm tone that it now produces. Chords/notes ring and sustain better acoustically.
3. Shimmery/reverby effect. I noticed this on the clean channel. I turned the reverb control on my amp all the way down. No reverb. Just the guitar into the amp, raw. This is the real shocker for me. The clean tone is SO DAMN GOOD. Trust me, I know how my tele sounds, and the clean tone improved A LOT. As I strummed the G chord, I noticed that it sustains better, and the notes ring true. Then there's that sort of reverby effect. It sounded as if you can really hear reverb coming from the amp, but the reverb was turned off. I did the same thing with a Fender Dual Showman Reverb with the reverb off. It really had that character on the clean tone. Shimmery. Reverby. I like what I hear through the clean channel. Never has my tele sounded so good through the clean channel of my Blackstar amp.
4. Balanced overdriven tone. With a little bit of gain (and a few more extra gain stages) the sound wasn't harsh at all. I found myself not fiddling with the tone control which I normally do. Definitely, the tone mellowed and it became a bit rounder.
For the capacitor, I noticed that the sweep was a lot more useable. I have a Bourns potentiometer which I find to be a good tone pot with a high torque. Rotating the pot is really smooth and fast. From what I noticed before, the tone control rolls off the highs but the sweep wasn't really that good. With the capacitor, I felt that I was like rotating the potentiometer a little more. It was like the pot had an extended range. And also, I could get a wah-wah kind of sound while rolling the tone pot even with my previous mylar capacitor. With the Good All, the sweep was much wider. I could easily imitate a wah pedal with this.
I really appreciate the saddles and capacitor. These are definitely not just for the sake of look or simply for the sake of upgrading. They really contributed to the overall character and tone of the guitar.
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