Comp saddles

Tried a set of Stew Mac comp. brass saddles, just for kicks, as my straight MannMade brass saddles were fine. First, I filed off probably about 1/8" off the bottom of the height poles, as the last time I tried them, they stuck up way too far, that made a big difference to the feel. I gotta say that I can't seem to get the high E dialed in. The B is fine, but when I hit a 12th fret E harmonic, the fretted note at the 12th fret is flat by a couple of lights on the TU-2. I thought it might be the wrong saddle (not marked) so I switched the E/A and B/E, and same thing. Any ideas?

Also, I noticed that they sides of the saddles don't fit firmly against each other, like some more expensive sets. Do you think that tone suffers as a result?

Whats your favorite comp. saddles, and how do they fit against each other?

As of now, I'm probably just going to put the straight MannMade saddles back on.

i used allparts saddles, and i had to file the edges down to make them fit closer together, otherwise the string spacing was messed up. no probs or complaints otherwise, they work fine.
do you use 10-46 strings ive read many are compensated for that set

<li>Move it foward one lite then yer B will be jes one lite off as well as the E or bend the screw like we used ta haff ta dew HEE! HEE!


0le FUZZY

Even-tempered tuning is always a compromise.

Compromise your intonation between the B and the E strings and tune your guitar so that the fretted 12th fret note is correct. That will space out the compromise across all of the frets and you probably won't notice it.

Will your 12th fret harmonic be spot-on? No, but it will be OK.

Thanks for the tips. Although the StewMac comp. and MannMade straight saddles both use the same size big brass barrels, the Stew Mac saddles seemed to make the sound slightly brighter. Maybe that has something to do with the comp. saddles not butting flush against each other, I dunno. But the Mannmade sound slightly better, and the tuning is fine, so I went back to the MannMade straight, as I don't need a slightly brighter sound with Bardens.
http://pic7.picturetrail.com/VOL208/996154/4056277/71991625.jpg

Heres what I meant re the saddles fitting together. First pic is the saddles on ebay, that seem to fit better together side-to-side:

http://i9.ebayimg.com/02/i/02/a2/6b/c2_1_b.JPG

Heres a Callaham set, notice how they do not fit flush together?
http://www.guitar-mod.com/ebay1112/callaham.jpg

Does that fit make any tonal difference?

what i did was file the middle one and left the outside two alone. looking from the rear strap button, i held the saddle by the screw and filed the right side, matching the new angle roughly to the b /e string saddle, then gave the other side the same treatment, opposite angle. i lined em up on the desk and eyed up the fit til it was satisfactory (i didnt make it fit flush, i just took off enough so that i could make the strings spaced evenly) i also filed them to "fall off" slightly top to bottom, to account for the radious'ed strings needing to tilt the saddles, and reinstalled em. if you have a file on hand, the brass is pretty soft and easy to work with, i bet with some careful filing you could make em fit flush and see if they sound better, and you'd have a little project, which may or may not be good in your opinion..
anyway
8)

I just got a few sets of the Stew-Mac saddles and I have no complaints about them. They have made my tele's sound a lot brighter. I also have a set of Allparts saddles on my main tele. Not quite as bright sounding as the Stew-Macs and next string change I've got to cut down the height adjustment screws so that they'll stop digging into my palm. Of the 2, I have to say I like the Stew-Mac's better.