Roller saddles for Strat?

[kallsop]

Fender has a LSR roller nut for the Stratocaster. Graph-Tech make the Stringsaver and Ferraglide saddles. Anyone make roller saddles for a standard US Strat tremolo bridge?

Maybe I'm off base, but I think a roller would be better than a teflon impregnated fixed saddle.

I'll be fitting a Tremsetter next week and also looking at saddle upgrades. The Ferraglides seem to be the best but I wonder if a roller is better still?

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Roller saddles for Strat?

IMO, roller saddles weaken the tone of the guitar and introduce rattles and other issues. To many moving and non-solid parts messes with the tone, bass response/depth and sustain of the guitar. Lew

 

[kallsop]

Re: Roller saddles for Strat?

Thnaks for the reply. I respect your opinion and will try out the Ferraglides. Been a bit hard on the axe lately and breaking a few strings

But more importantly, getting fed up with losing tune after doing bends. I really don't use the tremolo much and might just use the old trick with halved drum sticks and lock it down hard.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Roller saddles for Strat?

IMO, roller saddles weaken the tone of the guitar and introduce rattles and other issues. To many moving and non-solid parts messes with the tone, bass response/depth and sustain of the guitar. Lew

I concurr. I recently replaced the roller bridge on an Ibanez Artcore guitar with a tune-o-matic (on a rosewood base) and it made a big improvement on sound. Acoustically, the guitar projected much better and was less compressed sounding than before. Plugged in, there was more string seperation in complex chords, the lows were tighter, and there was more sparkle to the high notes. Since the saddles were correctly filed and slotted for the string guage, tuning stability was retained.

 

[Benjy_26]

Re: Roller saddles for Strat?

Thnaks for the reply. I respect your opinion and will try out the Ferraglides. Been a bit hard on the axe lately and breaking a few strings

But more importantly, getting fed up with losing tune after doing bends. I really don't use the tremolo much and might just use the old trick with halved drum sticks and lock it down hard.

After doing string bends, or during? If it's during the bend, it's the nature of the beast. If its after the bend, you may have issues with the nut, tuners, or string trees.

 

[Stringer]

Re: Roller saddles for Strat?

Anybody here directly compared the Ferraglides with the cheaper all-polymer Graph Techs? Any appreciable difference in tone/performance?

 

[kallsop]

Re: Roller saddles for Strat?

Anybody here directly compared the Ferraglides with the cheaper all-polymer Graph Techs? Any appreciable difference in tone/performance?

I am preferring the Ferraglide because it retains the look of stock metal saddles.

 

[kallsop]

Re: Roller saddles for Strat?

After doing string bends, or during?

Both really. I'll see if the Tremsetter helps to firm the bridge up during bends, and have the bridge return to the same position when using the tremolo. I was thinking that a roller saddle might help, but you guys have successfully talked me out of that idea.