Am I the only idiot here...help Fuzzy or anyone

Am I the only idiot that beleives a vintage bridge will work on an American Standard Tele.

I have measured and measured and measured.

From the front of the bridge to the back of screw hole is 3 7/16". The vintage bridge that I have is 3 7/16".

You put the pickup on the bridge, slide it back 1/16" to make sure you cover the screw holes. (Usually there is at least 1/16 give between pickup and route.)

Eyeball it to make sure the pickup route is completely covered and the bridge it even. (Don't want the route exposed on either side)

Say a prayer, drill one hole and anchor it, eyeball it again, and attach the rest of the screws.

Flip guitar over. Use the string through wholes as a guide to create new holes in vintage bridge.

Put ferrules in, strings on, intonate...

Walla...vintage bridge on an AS.

Am I missing something...everyone tells me it can't be done. Someone tell me why it can be done or why this is a bad thing.

I think the string-through holes are in a different place relative to the pickup rout. I believe this is due to the different saddles.

I'm not sure, though... I replaced a vintage bridge with an American Standard bridge in the early 90's and had a tough time getting things to work.... I did it, though...

My solution above is, you just put you own wholes in...

to just leave it (for the time being).

I have one tele with the vintage bridge...althought it is a definate improvement on "that" tele...I don't feel I need two tele's with the same bridge.

My tech said that the intonation and his good setup would make it a far less noticable difference...which it did.

I have a guitar with opposite, someone put a 6 saddle Allp*rts bridge on a CIJ 1990's '62 RI. It works fine although it doesn't have the snap of the vintage threaded saddles.