Telecaster bridges are the strings' worst enemy...

[Pierre]

I broke two strings today. One when retuning, it broke at the headstock, that's not so bad. I replaced it and it broke while stretching at the bridge... turned out the holes on the bridge that lead to the strings' ferrules are sharp on the edges... So strings grind on it, eventually wearing it off and it becomes quite sharp.
So I took a piece of heatshrink and put it on the string, where it protects the edge at least. It's not a pro job, but you can't tell nor hear it's there and it does the work. But I'll need to have that bridge rewored and smoothed out on those edges.

What do you guys do to counter this? Of course the same issues can also arise with Strat bridges...

 

[Hellion]

Re: Telecaster bridges are the strings' worst enemy...

Replace them with Graphtechs. They've worked wonderfully for me over the last 15 years.

 

[Pierre]

Re: Telecaster bridges are the strings' worst enemy...

Graphtech makes Tele bridges, or did you mean the saddles? The saddles aren't creating any issues.

 

[FretFire]

Re: Telecaster bridges are the strings' worst enemy...

Just take a file to it to remove any burrs. You could have the same problem with a strat bridge plate, or any other string-through plate for that matter.

 

[j9fd3s]

Re: Telecaster bridges are the strings' worst enemy...

next time you are ready to change strings, mark the ones that need attention, pull the bridge off and either file the holes, or drill it, depending on how bad it is.

your goal is to make the turn there as gradual and unsharp as possible

 

[Philcguitars]

Re: Telecaster bridges are the strings' worst enemy...

Looks like your high E stringthrough needs some serious attention! At the moment it looks like a wire cutter!

 

[FretFire]

Re: Telecaster bridges are the strings' worst enemy...

Looks like your high E stringthrough needs some serious attention! At the moment it looks like a wire cutter!

I think you're seeing the heat shrink tubing he mentioned. It's kind of crimped up to a point, and is mostly blocking the high E string-through hole.

 

[Pierre]

Re: Telecaster bridges are the strings' worst enemy...

Ooops it does look like the hole got bigger hehe no that's just to show how I used the heatshrink.

 

[Philcguitars]

Re: Telecaster bridges are the strings' worst enemy...

Yup, I think you're right on a third look.

 

[veryhungrycaterpilla]

Re: Telecaster bridges are the strings' worst enemy...

I've never had string breakage problems with my brass-saddled Tele.

 

[Bludave]

Re: Telecaster bridges are the strings' worst enemy...

Graphtech makes Tele bridges, or did you mean the saddles? The saddles aren't creating any issues.

Yes they are! Unless the strings are breaking inside the bridge the cause is usually a burr on the saddle. It is possible to buff the burr out, but it is really easier to just replace the saddle. Now you mention that you broke a string at the tuner as well, so you may need to buff those as well. Check the graphtec stuff out. It really does stop the strings from breaking. I have them on all my Strats and all but one Tele.

 

[ibanezrocks]

Re: Telecaster bridges are the strings' worst enemy...

Yes they are! Unless the strings are breaking inside the bridge the cause is usually a burr on the saddle. It is possible to buff the burr out, but it is really easier to just replace the saddle. Now you mention that you broke a string at the tuner as well, so you may need to buff those as well. Check the graphtec stuff out. It really does stop the strings from breaking. I have them on all my Strats and all but one Tele.

He stated clearly that the hole in the bridge plate has a sharp edge on it though. I really don't see how saddles could be the issue here.

 

[ES350]

Re: Telecaster bridges are the strings' worst enemy...

Take off the bridge, round over the area where the string lies, and polish it with some fine paper...

 

[blueman335]

Re: Telecaster bridges are the strings' worst enemy...

With the local players I've hung around with, the only ones that had frequent string breaks were Tele owners; not every guy with a Tele, but if someone kept having way too many breaks, it was on a Tele. Once they swapped out the stock saddles, they were fine.

 

[Philcguitars]

Re: Telecaster bridges are the strings' worst enemy...

Just increase the hole diameter on the bridge, so that the wire is resting on wood! That should do it, after a de-burr.

 

[JB_From_Hell]

Re: Telecaster bridges are the strings' worst enemy...

Didn't SRV (or some other famous Fender player) do the same thing with shrink tubing?