Switched the bridge on my tele and now I have to set the saddles so high!

I have a tele that I have been messing with. It started as a CV 50s and now has every single thing on it upgraded. I had a wilkinson bridge on it with their compensated saddles but I thought it was too dark so I thought I would try to use a fender pat pen bridge and some C&J steel saddles. So I swapped the bridge and nothing else has changed but now I have to raise the saddles up so high to get the right string height.



THe new bridge is 1/64" thinner on the bottom so I can see a need for a 1/64" raise in saddle height but my saddle height at the top is now 25/64" and with the old bridge and saddles it was 20/64" on the low E.
On the D string the old height was 25/64 and the new is 31/64.


What this is doing is giving me the proper string height at the 12th fret but the string angle is too much and the strings are way too high at the higher frets.



I am sitting here with calipers and rulers and gauges driving myself crazy. What is going on?



Also, string length is the same and the guitar is intonated properly.

Maybe try a shim at the neck pocket and if you still need to lower action at the nut sand the bottom of the nut down a little. A thin shim makes a big difference so use something thin like a piece of business card or matchbook cover at the front or back of the neck pocked depending on where you need to adjust the action. Im sure there are other ways but thats what i would try. Good luck

I agree it sounds more like a neck problem than a bridge problem. Have you made any changes in the neck setup since you installed the new bridge? If the action is correct at the 12th fret, but too high on higher frets, a shim the thickness of a business card at the back of the neck pocket might solve the problem.

Put your calipers on the saddles on each of the two bridges. How do they compare? The diameter of the saddle could be a part of the equation that you have not accounted for.

But what do I know?

Lost_N_Austin

THe guitar is fine now... I had to adjust the truss rod a little and now its great.

As for the difference in the bridge? Well the wilkinson bridge/brass saddles sounded dark to me. After using the C&J steel saddles on some other teles I thought it would brighten it up. So while I was at it I changed the bridge to a Fender Pat Pen bridge (some say its more vintage/authentic sounding) and it livened up the guitar a lot.

As for why the saddles were so high? I dont know, maybe it was just the first set up or something crazy but a few adjustments and its all fixed.