Fender tele bridge issue

[sydsbluesky]

Okay, so here's the story

I'm setting up my friend's '52 Fender reissue tele... onea dem der Squiers from back in the 70s, actually... but every time I set the thing up it just turns to mush again. The set screws WILL NOT hold the saddles in place. They creep back down every time you play the thing, and the action ends up being lower than the joke I was about to make about Tiger Woods.

This guitar plays as well as any I've ever picked up, but the tele bridge is very poorly designed, if you ask my opinion.

I'd rather not use locktite on the set screws... so... any other ideas?

[sydsbluesky]

Oh, almost forgot. It's the style with six individual saddles with two set screws per saddle.

[sumgai]

Jesse,

How about fingernail polish? You can think of it as a low-grade locktite.....

Just be sure to keep the stuff out of the hole where the wrench goes. In fact, put the wrench in the hole, apply the polish, let it set up, then pull out the wrench. Overall it'll take a bit longer, but it's the best way I can think of to keep the holes clear, so's you can do future adjustments.

Also, don't get in a Zorro mood and start flinging the stuff around - it'll eat just about any kind of finish you might have on that there geetar. Prepare the surrounding areas with copious quantities of masking tape.

HTH



sumgai

[sydsbluesky]

Hrm... I'll try it out! Thanks a bunch... but only if it works

[newey]

SG's suggestion sounds as good as any I can think of. This is pretty bizarre- I could understand this happening if the screws were stripped, but it's strange that it would be all 6 strings, that implies that at least one on each of the strings would have to be stripped. It's also strange that it would hold against string tension but not when playing.

If the guitar, as you say, is otherwise nice, a new set of saddles isn't a big ticket item.

[cynical1]

Most of the times I've seen this issue before it involved a problem with the breakover on the saddle from whatever holds the ferrule of the sting in place.

Generally this is not an issue with string through, or a well designed bridge/tailpiece.

How high is the action when it's "setup"?

Is there a very shallow angle to where the string enters the back of the tailpiece and the saddles?

HTC1

[sydsbluesky]

Nothing appears to be stripped. From what I can tell, the set screws just like to back themselves off from the vibration of the strings, and then whichever half of the saddle has the funky screw will slump down on an angle and drop the action.

The action of this guitar is the best I've ever seen, by the way. They did something right when they made these, because I have this guitar lower to the frets than any of mine and, until the screws unscrew, it doesn't have a hint of buzz anywhere.

I'm hoping the finger nail polish will help... They make that stuff in clear coat, right?


P.S. - just as a curious case, this guitar seems to like a lot of relief on the neck. I set it up initially with a good amount of it because he like to flail on the strings like a madman, but then he went from light to mediums on a string change, and the increased amount of relief actually improved the action all across the fretboard. I can't get this to work for me on my guitars... makes them buzz, but this thing is unbelievably low and clean on every fret with every string.

By "a lot" I'm talking about double what I have on mine. Generally I aim to fret on the 1st and 14th and then pluck the string at 7th. If it doesnt fret out, yet is still too low to the fret for me to actually be able to SEE the gap, It's good enough for me. I was taught to aim for the "playing card thickness" between the string and the fret, but... yeah, whatever. That's hard to see. I like my test more, and it's allowed me to get great truss rod adjustments for years now on about 5 or 6 guitars belonging both to me and my friends.

This tele defies my experience... Im not complaining, but I think it's a curious case.