Saddle worms

I've installed a Joe Barden bridge on my tele. It's a good piece of kit but the saddle worms/screws are a little too short to get a perfect action happening on my guitar.

On both E strings the compensated saddles are flat on the bottom - seemingly designed for a vintage rounded style neck radius. I have a Warmoth neck w/ 9.5" radius, and I can't quite wind the worm out far enough on the treble E - any less bite on the thread an the worm falls out. It's just this one string that is causing a setup problem.

Where can I possibly buy longer tele saddle worms?

hardware store. They are 4-40 I think.

I think I saw some on Stew-Mac.

I had the same problem witha set of Glendale compensated saddles. Had to shim the neck. I don't know why they don't have them longer.

I decided that for me the comp saddles were no help, and they have other problems that standard vintage saddles don't have so I took them off.
Took out the shim and went back to vintage brass saddles. I never have intonation problems anyway, just tried them to see what all the fuss was about. To me, it's much ado about nothing.

I decided that for me the comp saddles were no help, and they have other problems that standard vintage saddles don't have so I took them off.
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What problems do compensated saddles have? No horse in this race, I'm happy with the original three saddle bridge on my Highway 1, just curious.

ya, a neck shim job (add or remove) may help.

What problems do compensated saddles have? No horse in this race, I'm happy with the original three saddle bridge on my Highway 1, just curious.

It's my first foray into this type of saddle too... for mine, a lightly slotted string guide would be nice, to stop the string slipping into the worm threads... this particularly seems to be a problem on the B string. And the saddles on my particular bridge are designed for a very low playing profile with a traditional radius - thus the outside worms are a bit short.

But the benefits are noticeable too - I like to canoodle around the fretboard, and it's nice to be able to play chord variants above the 12th fret and still be 100% in tune.

for mine, a lightly slotted string guide would be nice, to stop the string slipping into the worm threads... this particularly seems to be a problem on the B string

May be a neck alignment issue as well.

I'm actually OK with the neck alignment. The playing plane is only 2mm higher than the sides of the bridge - the height is comparable with both my strats. But, Warmoth offer CNC routed parts so they should slot together like a glove.

My problem with the B string is this - the whole saddle wants to draw sideways (right in this pic) due to the compensation angle, and makes the B string slip into the worm thread (creating a pinch point). On close up i'm not very impressed with the finishing of the brass saddles either.

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh230/ravenhaller/Bridge.jpg

Good pic, may be someone will see it and come up with some more suggestions.

Strange how your B string through hole seems to like right up with the action height adjustment screw.

It's my first foray into this type of saddle too... for mine, a lightly slotted string guide would be nice, to stop the string slipping into the worm threads... this particularly seems to be a problem on the B string. And the saddles on my particular bridge are designed for a very low playing profile with a traditional radius - thus the outside worms are a bit short.

But the benefits are noticeable too - I like to canoodle around the fretboard, and it's nice to be able to play chord variants above the 12th fret and still be 100% in tune.

My intonation is good all the way up with vintage saddles.

My intonation is good all the way up with vintage saddles.


Ya, but you're not standing on your head :lol:

I would take those off and go back to the vintage saddles.. JMO

They just don't look well made

I would take those off and go back to the vintage saddles.. JMO

They just don't look well made

+1 :shock:

Original poster: can't quite wind the worm out far enough on the treble E - any less bite on the thread an the worm falls out. It's just this one string that is causing a setup problem.

Try placing pennies under the saddle adjustment screws or some other material suitable for the job.

The import Joe Barden saddles come in 2 versions.

Both have the same M3 length hardware.

The Older version has very long M3 slot topped saddle screws.

The Newer ones have shorter 6-32 hex head screws.

You should be able to find longer 6-32 screws in a lot of hardware stores, places.

Here's what bugs me about the Joe Barden saddles:

http://i156.photobucket.com/albums/t25/Bubbanov/18OCT202009004.jpg

They slant too much; they're overcompensated on some of my applications. They work decent if you have a 10-16" compound radius, with Hi-Lo string sets, set up real low. But if you have a vintage fretboard, a set of 11-49s, or a real high saddle set up, they usually don't IME intonate all that well. Took me way too long to catch on to this.

Look at how slanted these are. Don't really like the way this looks anymore, either.

Gosh Boris, yours seem to slant waaaay more than mine - i'd have to bevel the barrel edges a little to get it sitting like it does in yours. I'm actually about to put my Dremel to the burrs on the saddle barrels... nice quality control, huh?

PS - I ended up buying some longer saddle worm screws at some online shop - worth the $10.