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Ok you guys know i brought home a used MIM Tele the other day... It has an aftermarket Gotoh Vintage tele bridge on it with the 3 bar saddles on it... I figured great intonation on such a bridge would be impossible as it has 2 strings per saddle. I figure that this must be apart of the vintage tele sound. But when setting up a bridge like this what is the best intonation you can shoot for? Which strings do i try to get closest to intonate?

I lowered the string action last night as it was really high... before i lowered the action it played pretty well in tune... I lowered the action and it now sounds a little off on chords up near the 10th-14th frets... I guess for whatever the reason the high action helped intonation

I think i'm changing the bridge to a modern Gotoh 6 saddle so i can intonate and set up the guitar the way i want it but what is the tips and tricks of this Gotoh 3 barrel vintage tele bridge?

Pete Townshend of the Who used a pair of real 1952 teles in the studio in the late 70's thru the 80's.... He sold them off as he was afraid he may damage them oneday in a Who style ending. I have seen photos of these teles and they have the 3 barrel 52 bridges. Later on after he sold his real 52 teles he bought a pair of Fender 52 reissue teles and had a modern 6 saddle tele bridge installed on them. He used these teles on his 93 USA solo tour. He still has those teles at his studio along with 4-5 Clapton strats. Part of me wants that PT Tele sound he had thru out the final Who albums and Pete's solo albums. Wish i could afford the real american versions but i'm poor... Live he used Shecter teles with humbuckers but in the studio he had the Fenders. You can see the 52 teles i'm talking about in the rare Who MTV videos of You Better You Bet, Another Tricky Day, Don't Let Go The Coat, and in Pete's Rough Boys solo video.....

WhoFan

those schecters he used were usa models and for those that havent played the usa stuff, its very very nice.

i have an esquire that has the three saddles and basically i get the guitar set up the way i want it then set the intonation.
first i set one string on each saddle then i go and check to see how well it plays up and down the neck. then i set the strings for the best overall balance, for example i will set the high e string then play the b and see how far out it is. then ill kinda move the saddle to where the strings sound best with each other. its a compromise but one that i can live with

You also might want to consider going for a set of three angled brass saddles like Danny Gatton and Joe Barden pioneered. I use them on all three of my Teles and not only do I prefer the tone of brass on a vintage Tele, the intonation is much better. I have some in stock...PM me if you're interested. Lew

a HUGE 1 to compansated saddles...I use them on my Tele and will use them on all my other Teles...the intonation is all but dead on with mine, FWIW...I use 10-52 (lt top/hvy bottom) and the intonation is all but spot on!


Originally Posted by LewguitarYou also might want to consider going for a set of three angled brass saddles like Danny Gatton and Joe Barden pioneered. I use them on all three of my Teles and not only do I prefer the tone of brass on a vintage Tele, the intonation is much better. I have some in stock...PM me if you're interested. Lew

Yea, i was going to suggest that. Wilkinson also do some adjustable angle ones.

yeah, the compensated saddles are great

if you use the straight saddles, there's an article in the FAQs on the main site, where Jerry Donahue goes through his tuning routine for that style saddle

Ya i think i'll try these compensated saddles.... I have seen them in the Stew Mac catalog.... I had the Tele playing thru a loud heavily distorted amp tonight jamming with a friend and there was a few times it sounded out of tune on some chords higher up the neck but over all not bad! For a tele it is pretty quiet too... low noise for the stock MIM pickups.....

WhoFan

I tried the angled saddles, but I went back to my straight ones as I preffer the tone of steel.

On my Duo-Sonic, though, they were a big help in getting the intonation right.