Fender Vs. Sqiuer SADDLES

[Ritzy]

Since you're the one in possesion of the saddles in question, my suggestion would be just to try both of them and see which you prefer. Regarding cast metals, there are cast metals and then there are cast metals... they're not all the same. Different alloys resonate differently, and therefore, sound different. You've got high quality, el premium cast metal compositions which are dense and can be presision machined. And then you've got the el cheapo stuff, the kinda crud they make hot wheels cars out of. Both of these are not going to sound the exactly same.

Light made a pretty good summary in his first post regarding the sound differences between stamped and cast saddles in general terms. That should be a pretty good starting point; beyond that, things start to get subjective and you're dealing more with opinion and personal preferences than anything else.

Rate, in sound quality, CAST, STAMPED, and GRAPHITE saddles, from best to "worst."

Again, it's subjective. One person's "best" may not be another person's best.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

but that would be the single best change you could make.

if you're really not that interested in improving the overall tone and playability, i'd suggest just leaving it like it is.

that'd be a real budget call.


have you ever tried the graphtecs?

plus, there's MUCH more involved with what makes one trem sound better or work better than whether or not it's floating.

Different strokes for different folks, then - I put Graph-techs in my American strat, and really didn't care for them. I was actually happiest with my guitar's unplugged tone after I pulled the stock bridge (which now had grpah-techs) for a Wilkinson VS-100. Ironically, tuning stability got a lot better too, but I suspect that had more to do with the new bridge.

I'm not saying that "graph-techs suck" or anything like that, just pointing out there's a WORLD of factors you need to consider when talking about saddles/bridges, and that it's not as simple as "you either use Graph-tech saddles, or you don't care about tone."

 

[SHEPPARDB.]

Not a theoretical query...

Bought a Lotus Strat at a garage sale, intentions to clean it up and re-sell. Two saddles (string carriers, between the bridge and the strings) were missing. Got a take-off Fender Strat bridge- freebie from my buds at Ken Stanton Music- and noticed some differences between it and the similar part on my 2001 top-drawer Sqiuer Strat:

Fender bridge is vintage style, and only allows down action on the whammy. I prefer the modern style, as it allows pushing down or pulling up on whammy bar.

Fender saddles are stamped from heavy-gauge, ferrous metal, and chrome plated. Squiers are cast metal, and NOT magnetic.

Any advantages either way? Worth it to change them out? (I am keeping the Squier, selling the Lotus.)

Thanks.

I picked up a Lotus strat years ago in some kind of trade or what-not.It was a real pos and I only got it so I could use the neck as a testing ground to learn how to scallop a finger board.One thing the guitar had going for it was a nice sound when you plucked the strings acoustic.
Turns out that the body was Mohogany.Slapped an after market neck on that pup and added decent eletronics and played it for quite a few years.

 

[Madguitrst]

Sorry, but I just couldn't read through everything.

Here's something I can definitely tell you:
The saddle widths on strats are not all the same.
Some of the MIM and Squier Strats have more narrow saddles.
It may not be visually obvious, and you may get away with one or two wider saddles on the narrow width guitar, but put a whole set on and suddenly they won't fit.

FWIW, I bought a Roland VG-88 and got a Roland Ready Strat for free.
The reason: The guitar was without saddles - staff at Sam Ash couldn't figure out why the saddles they had in stock (standard Fender) would not fit. They gave me the guitar and a set of All Parts saddles, which were too wide. So, I called All Parts and the first thing they asked was: Is it MIM? I told them it was. They told me the widths were different. To top it off, they sent me a call tag for the saddles I had and sent the proper ones for free - very good customer service.

In any case, just make sure you get saddles that fit. Personally, I would not spend much (if anything) and would not get specnoscopic about the tone of a Lotus-fixer-upper-for-resale-flip.

Heck, you can get a whole set of Strat saddles on Fleabay for $10-$15.

 

[stevieb]

Personally, I would not get specnoscopic about the tone of a Lotus-fixer-upper-for-resale-flip.

Now, there's a word-use that impresses even me.