GGE DIY - Strat Mod 2

Stratocaster Mod 2

New Solid Steel Saddles and Set Up

(Work by )

(July, 2007)

As I mentioned in my previous guitar modification write up (Strat Mod 1), I love the feel and comfort of the Fender American Stratocaster. It’s a classic guitar with great curves, a great neck and wonderful tones. However, the modern tremolo tail piece leaves a lot to be desired. I’m not sure why Fender changed or “modernized” the tremolo tail piece but for me, it clear did not work. I struggled with it up to now and It was time for me to make another change to this guitar. To date, I have replaced the pickups with Suhr V60s (wonderful by the way), installed the Suhr BPSSC system, changed the tuners to locking Sperzels and played around with different tone caps. All of the electronics I can handle myself. However, when it comes to guitar set up, I have had limited success. Setting up a guitar and making it a “playable” instrument is a real art form. This is why I turned to guitar and amp consultant Andy Brauer.

Andy and I go back a few years now when he guided me to my new amps sound. In 2002, I purchased my first Fuchs ODS from Andy and since then, he continues to give me great advice about gear, tone and boutique trends. One of the things that I love about Andy Brauer is that he treats me the same as all his customers. Andy works with some of the greatest guitarists in the world. I’m just a guy from Pasadena and I always feel “taken care of”. Every guitar that goes on the AB bench receives equal consideration. He really listened to what my concerns were and tailored this modification to my individual taste, style and desire.

That said, I had three modifications done by Andy on this guitar;

1.) Replace the Saddles

2.) Customize the tremolo arm

3.) Complete guitar set up

Saddles

Not knowing a whole lot about what makes a guitar tick, I didn’t realize how important saddles were to the guitar tone and sustain. This first came to fruition when I had my Jack Briggs guitar made and he used the Tone Pros II bridge. Then last year at NAMM, I ran into Ben Leck who is marketing the Xotic

line of equipment. Ben told me about their new Raw Vintage Pure Steel saddles and how these new saddles made a world of difference on his Strat. The Raw Vintage saddles are nickel plated over a steel body and they claim to be close to early 50’s vintage saddles.

I originally purchased a set of the Raw Vintage saddles from Xotic but didn’t realized that my bridge utilized an “offset intonation” set up. Unfortunately, the Xotic Raw Vintage saddles do not come in an offset intonation configuration at this time. This is when I really started to learn more about bridge bodies, saddle spacing, inline or offset intonation, 6-point vs. 2-point pivot, etc.. Its these small details that make the difference in a bridge assembly.

After much research, I found that one major problem with some modern saddles is that different materials are used like copper under nickel plating which can result in inconsistent hardness. This fact alone will make or break your tone. My goal now was to find offset solid steel saddles.

Andy Brauer turned me on to Callaham Guitars and Amps. Bill Callaham has a wonderful business producing a variety of high quality guitars, amps and replacement parts. Bill grew up in a machine shop and between his mechanical engineering degree and his love of music, he provides very high quality guitar parts and a valuable service to the guitar industry.

Reading through the Callaham website is pretty interesting. As you can see from the picture, the CG saddles (left) are designed from original Pre-CBS saddles (middle) with improvements. The picture shows a Callaham, Pre-CBS, and a current production Fender saddle (right). Callaham has slightly lengthened the string slot compared to the Pre-CBS saddle so that the string will not bind and bend against the sharp edge before it goes over the saddle. According to Callaham, this greatly reduces string breakage and improves intonation. The current Fender production saddle is moved too far to the rear causing string breakage, loss of downward pressure on the saddle hurting both sustain and tone.

I ended up buying the Callaham Vintage S Model "CG" Saddles for my Strat. This set includes 6 stamped steel “CG" saddles with stainless screws, springs, and height adjustment screws. They even throw in an allen wrench. The saddles are designed for 2-7/32 string spacing.

With my Strat and new saddles in hand, I then made an appointment to visit Andy Brauer to get this modification going. Andy and I played the guitar for a bit and I showed him what bothered me the most about the tremolo arm and set up. He seemed to instinctively know what was going on. The tremolo arm on my guitar was bent out of position and the saddles were not adjusted to anything that made sense. Even the intonation was off. It obviously needed serious attention.

The guitar would be his shop for a couple of weeks but I have plenty of guitars to keep me preoccupied. Andy takes his time and it is well worth the wait.

Mechanical Fit and Setup

As you can see from the pictures to the left, the CG saddles fit perfectly onto the standard Fender bridge body. Andy did a great job refitting a new Tremolo arm too. The arm is now tight with no jiggle and it stays in place the way I like it. It’s also bent at just the right angle.

Regarding setup, Andy did his usual magic. The intonation is perfect, the string height and action are low but not too low. This guitar never felt or played better.

Tone and Sustain Improvement

Fitting this guitar with the Suhr V60 pickups was a great improvement on tone. See my last Strat modification MOD-1. However, I must say getting the bridge right made this guitar even better. I truly misunderstood the importance of the bridge and saddle contribution to tone. The Callaham saddles seem to make this guitar much more alive. The sound brightens up and has even more detailed. There seems to be a much more harmonic resonance when playing clean. The notes sustain and ring with a little more natural harmonic clarity.

Where I found the most noticeable tone differences was in a high drive gain sound. The V60s have a nice round tone to them without any harshness. The CG saddles seem to allow more of the “wood tone” to come through. I guess this makes sense when you think about it. When playing a dirty lead, the sound is a little rounder with a tighter bass response and a fuller mid-range. The most surprising thing about the saddle upgrade was the difference that it made to sustain. I can really tell the difference.

Sound Samples

Below are a couple of sound samples.

Titanium Saddles by DeTemple

I wanted to mention this unique solution from Michael DeTemple. While I was on my search for solid steel saddles, I ran across DeTemple’s website and they offer another bridge saddle solution using Pure Titanium. Michael claims that Titanium gives your guitar a quicker response, overwhelmingly long sustain, and a clearer more precise sound which far exceeds steel, brass or aluminum. I haven’t tried these yet but it does seem like a great solution. He also states that it will raise the efficiency and voice of your bridge by giving it more string-to-string definition, clarity and power.

Conclusion

Overall, these modifications were a great improvement to my Strat. I play out a lot and having a Stratocaster in my arsenal of guitar tones is essential. More importantly, modifying this guitar to improve its playability, setup, tone and flexibility was critical. The Callaham saddles worked out great. I’m sure the Xotic Raw Vintage saddles are just as good and I will probably install those on my Music Man guitar next. I use it for mostly funk, blues and dance tunes. I’m really happy with it now. Thanks Andy for helping me out...AGAIN!

To Visit Andy Brauer’s website, click HERE.

Clean Funk 1 Sample

Here is a clean sample playing a little funk. The guitar just plays so nice now and the notes really stand out.

Gain 1 Sample

This really shows off how these saddles help sustain the notes and allows me to express the line a little more. This is the Mid-Bridge PU into an Xotic BB Preamp and then in my Fuchs ODS.

Gain 2 Sample

I just really like this Neck PU tone. This is the Neck PU into an Xotic BB Preamp and then in my Fuchs ODS.