Vintage style Tele bridges

Voxman

Why did Leo put a three saddle bridge on Telecasters? The concept of two strings having to share a saddle means it's impossible to intonate accurately especially as there were no compensated saddles in those early days.

I'm aware that in those days a wound third was the norm so D and G was probably closer to intonate, but even the plain E and B and wound E and A can't intonate accurately with a shared non compensating saddle. And a third wound was still the norm in 1954 yet Strats had a 6 saddle bridge from the off.

Was it just because three saddle bridges were easier and cheaper to make perhaps? Or was it simply a learning curve on a new solid electric guitar design where the intonation shortcomings of three saddle simply weren't fully appreciated and it was corrected with the Stratocaster?

ICBM

Probably a bit of both. The (wrong) idea that a 3-saddle bridge is the only correct way had not yet arisen, so definitely not that .

stickyfiddle

They knew of the need to intonate the instrument otherwise it would've been a single saddle for all 6 strings.

My guess is the same as every other decision on the Tele - it was cheap and easy to mass manufacture. And intonation is fine, esp these days with fancy saddles

OilCityPickups

Voxman said:

Why did Leo put a three saddle bridge on Telecasters? The concept of two strings having to share a saddle means it's impossible to intonate accurately especially as there were no compensated saddles in those early days.

I'm aware that in those days a wound third was the norm so D and G was probably closer to intonate, but even the plain E and B and wound E and A can't intonate accurately with a shared non compensating saddle. And a third wound was still the norm in 1954 yet Strats had a 6 saddle bridge from the off.

Was it just because three saddle bridges were easier and cheaper to make perhaps? Or was it simply a learning curve on a new solid electric guitar design where the intonation shortcomings of three saddle simply weren't fully appreciated and it was corrected with the Stratocaster?

The interesting thing is that many thousands of musicians and quite a few 'stars' managed to get their Telecasters to intonate well enough to produce the many of the iconic hits of the fifties and sixties. :-)

elstoof

3 saddle was possibly the most adjustable bridge of its time, necessary due to the nature of the overall Tele design. Archtops got by with floating bridge bars with relative intonation set however it was cast, the Les Paul had a straight wraptail until the late 50s. 

OilCityPickups

elstoof said:

3 saddle was possibly the most adjustable bridge of its time, necessary due to the nature of the overall design. Archtops got by with floating bridge bars with relative intonation set however it was cast, the Les Paul had a straight wraptail until the late 50s. 

Exactly ... plus folks just got on and played rather than obsessing about stuff :-) 

elstoof

close enough for government work, certainly 

Strat54

No three saddle bridge....no Tele. Still today Leo's design produces the most expressive twangtastic tones. Currently enjoying Jim Campilongo's latest record out last week....

https://youtu.be/BepT4UXn8CE?si=VHZHRX1CWfq73D-i

Yorkie

What is the twang? What is the source of the twang? Is the twang a tele thing? 

Misleading answers only. 

elstoof

Elastic frets

barnstorm

The early marketing guff written for retailers claimed perfect intonation, so I don't think he regarded it as deficient until people started bugging him about it. Remember that he wasn't a musician and didn't have brilliant hearing, either! 

Other six-saddle bridges were around by 1952 IIRC, so by that stage he was getting advice from various Fender artists and employees and, I suspect, seeing other people implement the solution to the problem. (He later said he couldn't remember if he'd seen another six-saddle bridge before designing the Strat, but I'd be surprised if he hadn't.)

guitars4you

elstoof said:

3 saddle was possibly the most adjustable bridge of its time, necessary due to the nature of the overall Tele design. Archtops got by with floating bridge bars with relative intonation set however it was cast, the Les Paul had a straight wraptail until the late 50s. 

I was about to say the same - So in 1951/52 a 3 saddle Tele format was a head of the game

thermionic

I have two Teles, one has the stock 3-saddle bridge (Classic 60s), the other has compensated saddles (brass, with the angled drilling). I’ve managed to set the intonation for both equally well, which did surprise me somewhat.

BenSirAmos

My 3-saddle (non-compensated) tele seems to intonate just fine.  

ElectricXII

BenSirAmos said:

My 3-saddle (non-compensated) tele seems to intonate just fine.  

Mine too (American Performer Tele FWIW).

ICBM

OilCityPickups said:

The interesting thing is that many thousands of musicians and quite a few 'stars' managed to get their Telecasters to intonate well enough to produce the many of the iconic hits of the fifties and sixties. :-)

In my experience the key is to set each saddle for the sharper of the two strings, not try to compromise between the two - a sharp string is much more noticeable than a flat one, and you can't compensate for it with a slight bend or squeezing the string harder. I imagine many of those players learned to do that instinctively, just like most of us old-timers learned to keep one hand on the strings of poorly-shielded guitars at all times to stop the buzz... it eventually just becomes force of habit and you don't even notice you're doing it any more.

BenSirAmos

I sometimes wonder if compensated saddles are compensating for poorly cut nuts. 

Voxman

Thanks for the many responses guys.  I just thought it made an interesting thread; seems 3-saddle was ahead of its time & still works well enough for most folk. 

HAL9000

The other thing ‘wrong’ with the original Tele bridge assembly was the raised sides of the plate - only really there to grip the ashtray which most players ditched or lost anyway. Apparently the ashtray was only ever there for aesthetic reasons; Leo thought the three-saddle bridge looked ugly.

p90fool

He put a cover on it, you weren't even supposed to know.

The bigger question is, why is a single non intonatable saddle still acceptable on acoustic guitars? 

Voxman

HAL9000 said:

The other thing ‘wrong’ with the original Tele bridge assembly was the raised sides of the plate - only really there to grip the ashtray which most players ditched or lost anyway. Apparently the ashtray was only ever there for aesthetic reasons; Leo thought the three-saddle bridge looked ugly.

Wasn't the ashtray to help reduce noise by acting as a Faraday cage? Or was that just coincidental to the aesthetics?