Best modern strat saddles?

andypwudtone

ThePrettyDamned said:

I'll see how I get on, but I rely on heavy palm muting for percussive stuff.  So I reckon it'll kill me 'and if there are screws sticking out.

But maybe I can just file them down.

Or maybe it'll be a total non issue! I'll ask for further advice when it's all set up

Hi There,

Some saddles have shorter saddle height adjustment screws for the first and sixth string ( Callahams do ). stock fender don't always and need shortening,  You can get rid of any sticky out screw probs easy but you don't want to go shimming the neck.  I would live with it for a period until you really get a feel for the set up that offers, the right combination of neck relief ( truss rod adjusted) , saddle height and consequent action these deliver. ( PS this assumes frets are nicely levelled). Experiment with truss rod / saddle height adjustments etc. Once you are pretty settled on a set up to suit you, then if necessary reduce the height of the screws by fililing away some metal off the bottom of the screws until they become exact and flush with the top of the bent steel saddle . 

chrs

  week aor two to get a feel for the  

andypwudtone

besides blood is rock and roll , ask Chris Duarte 

Richardj

I'm slightly surprised the Callaham saddles have the screws sticking out. IIRC the American Fender trem saddles have different height grub screws to help with the comfort.

I had a set of KTS titanium bent style saddles, with different height screws, for my US Standard and Deluxe Strats and they worked really well and made the guitar feel much more 'alive'.

fretfinder

ICBM said:

fretfinder said:

Thanks @ICBM. Does the shim affect the ability to get a low action? I currently find that with a 9.5 radius and 6105s I can't get the action as low as I'd like without choking when bending on the top two strings above the 12th fret.

Have you checked the nut height and the relief?

If you have and they're good, and you can't lower the saddles without choking, shimming the neck won't help. All it does is tilt the neck relative to the body and so change the effective height of the saddles above the body.

Thanks for that. The neck relief is fine and the nuts look OK too.