C-Martin
New member
Hey, so i have an old strat i fitted a vintage OFR years ago and the low E saddle's pivot has started to seize and is very hard to move. This makes fine tuning basically impossible, or requires excessive force on the thumb screw to get it to move (IE. once the saddle was removed, i was unable to actually move the pivot by hand). I was actually able to find "vintage" Floyd Rose saddles which looked to be identical to mine on eBay so i ordered them, but to be safe i also ordered a brand new low E one to compare just in case. I have other OFR guitar's and i could always use spares anyway.
Here is the problem though, once i installed the saddle i immediately noticed the height was wrong. The string sits considerably higher than on the previous old saddle, enough to raise the action way too much to be usable on this guitar. What i mean is that the bridge height is at the lowest that the guitar will allow, and the action is considered to be pretty high already as it is. This is fine by me since i love how this guitar is setup with the action how it is. The saddle is the correct number, so that is not the problem, i have the rest of the set too to compare as well as the brand new saddle. The thing i have noticed is that these "vintage" saddles i bought have the same height to the new saddles, the old saddles on my strat however have the string groove much deeper. For example, on the newer saddles the wound strings actually protrude above the the saddle, on the old saddles the strings would sit "in" the saddle and not stick out at all. This would make the string sit much lower.
Now I'm stuck and a bit lost as to what to do, kind of afraid of never being able to have this guitar setup with the usability i want. This is by far my favorite and most sentimentally valued guitar i own. The old saddle could still work, if i just never use the fine tuner on it. This would mean i would have to unclamp the nut every time i want to tune, and when you clamp it back it goes off by a bit so it would be an annoying guessing game. Any suggestions or tips on what i could do to save this guitar? Can i find these old deeper grooved saddles somewhere?
Here is the problem though, once i installed the saddle i immediately noticed the height was wrong. The string sits considerably higher than on the previous old saddle, enough to raise the action way too much to be usable on this guitar. What i mean is that the bridge height is at the lowest that the guitar will allow, and the action is considered to be pretty high already as it is. This is fine by me since i love how this guitar is setup with the action how it is. The saddle is the correct number, so that is not the problem, i have the rest of the set too to compare as well as the brand new saddle. The thing i have noticed is that these "vintage" saddles i bought have the same height to the new saddles, the old saddles on my strat however have the string groove much deeper. For example, on the newer saddles the wound strings actually protrude above the the saddle, on the old saddles the strings would sit "in" the saddle and not stick out at all. This would make the string sit much lower.
Now I'm stuck and a bit lost as to what to do, kind of afraid of never being able to have this guitar setup with the usability i want. This is by far my favorite and most sentimentally valued guitar i own. The old saddle could still work, if i just never use the fine tuner on it. This would mean i would have to unclamp the nut every time i want to tune, and when you clamp it back it goes off by a bit so it would be an annoying guessing game. Any suggestions or tips on what i could do to save this guitar? Can i find these old deeper grooved saddles somewhere?
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