Vintage vs. Contoured Stratocaster Saddles. No more pain - only gain. Part I

[@Steinstra-vj7wl]

Love the sound of this Strat and you play it so well. Chrome is a harder finish than Nickle, so that is why the Chrome finished Saddles are a little brighter sounding than the Nickle plated Saddles .

[@davidpeterfia]

It is just finish, it gives the look and doesn't affect tone... ;) Imagine it as a thin layer of paint. What makes difference is the main material/composite of the saddles.

[@davidpeterfia]

I tried Highwood saddles, and took them off after 2 days. They kill the roundness from your clean tone - what I play most of the time. They are not bad for distorted tones, cause produce a more focused tone and faster attack. But definitely not for warm clean tones...

[@1000foxtrot]

Clearly the new saddles are brighter sounding .... But I like it better ....

[@aux-box]

How did you darken the bare wood where the paint is scratched off?

[@GUITARSGIZMOS]

Hi, I can't remember that I did. I think it was like that when I got it.

[@aux-box]

@ oh ok thanks, looks like a very nice relicd build. Good job

[@marcellosguitarcorner4004]

Definitively brighter and better sounding with the new saddles, IMO. I didn't think it would have made such a difference....food for thoughts. Well, it now looks like the Gary Moore Strat, well done! 🙂

[@GUITARSGIZMOS]

Yeah, I was quite surprised to hear the difference. And I just discovered I already have a set of nickel saddles from Highwood here. So now I'll have to put them into this guitar and compare those to the chrome ones of course. To be honest, I never thought of that it looks like Gary Moore's guitar. How cool 😆

[@jubyerhashin8214]

Regular saddles better. Did you run audio through a tremolo? It washes in and out. Nice strat 👍🏻

[@GUITARSGIZMOS]

Good observation. Yes I have a tremolo going here.

[@AnnaSibirskaja]

Why not just to get some shorter screws? I like the originals.

[@LoneWolf-cv6pl]

Did you buy the parts on eBay?

[@GUITARSGIZMOS]

Hi, I got the body from Reverb and the neck at some Swedish Craigslist site. There are more details in the video of when I made the guitar on my channel. The saddles are available from most music stores and I got mine from a store in Norway. Cheers!

[@LoneWolf-cv6pl]

@@GUITARSGIZMOS Thanks!