6 Saddle '52 Reissue Bridge

[DonMI6]

I posted this pic in a thread about '52 Reissues a week or so ago. It came with my new 2011 guitar & I'm just wondering if anybody has used one.

I just can't see how it works, the adjusting spring seems to obstruct both the string through holes & the channels in the saddles.

I'm certainly not planning to put it on my new AVRI, but it seems a shame not to do something with it. Was it ever the 'standard' bridge on a Telecaster?

[boris bubbanov]

I gotta be honest: A few of the guitar greats have from time to time used this bridge, and some still do. All I can imagine is, they have a very patient guitar tech and he triages the guitar and gets it playable again after every show, intermission, encore.

It can be done, IMO, in the same way you could run a footrace in high heel dress shoes. If you have enough reserve in the tank (and some of the guitar greats do) but as for me, this bridge is a strange joke.

You're criticism is valid. The screws are so tall, they'd cut one to pieces given the chance, and these narrow saddles tend to lean against one another and topple over. As the saddles topple the string spacing gets worse and worse, and it isn't to my liking even when the saddles are optimal (too wide, offset). Fender necks being as narrow as they are from the 12th fret to the end of the heel, you can't afford to have strings running wide - as the string plays off the ends of the frets. Probably Fender's biggest WTF they ever did, letting this bridge out of the factory. Now that they made the mistake, they wanna tell you it is nothing.

On top of all else, what happens is a few people substitute this bridge on an AV52 or AV62 (or a vintage guitar) and the original bridge with the original number gets lost or taken, and now you have a guitar with a mystery serial number that's hard to identify or sell.

[Tele Fan]

The Nashville Telecaster's come with one of those from the factory and I had nothing but problems out of it. I think they just include it because it's a part of the history of the guitar.

[boris bubbanov]

Originally Posted by Tele Fan

The Nashville Telecaster's come with one of those from the factory and I had nothing but problems out of it. I think they just include it because it's a part of the history of the guitar.

+1

I always imagined they did it, because they'd made scores of thousands of those bridges and no other demand for them ever appeared. They needed to dump them.

Maybe FMIC felt if the Nashville had had a really superb bridge, in stock form, it would have undercut the sales of too many much more profitable models. The same argument could be made for the otherwise very desirable MIM James Burton Standard (he's one of those guys who genuinely used this bridge type).

[maryjane]

they actually work pretty well, once you get them "dialed in" but it takes a little patience and the angles of the strings from the body exit to the saddles always look a little skewed.

[CustFan]

+1 maryjane

Standard fit on the much maligned late seventies Custom model (with the three bolt neck etc.) but when set up properly they can work well.
I've just compared my '78 Custom with my MIJ 52 Reissue (with US vintage bridge). String span on the '78 is 54mm with the six saddle bridge and on the MIJ is 54.5mm with the vintage bridge, so I don't think the six saddle has problems with strings falling off fretboards...
Looking at the six saddle bridge the saddles do seem to slant slightly which minimises or removes completely any string contact with the springs on the intonation adjustment screws. Height adjustment screws are hex headed grub screws that don't cut your hand up in the same way that the slot headed screws in a vintage three saddle bridge can.

So as usual it's a preference thing.

I have to agree I wouldn't want to fit this bridge to a '52 Reissue, and find it odd that Fender supply it as an optional fit. Having said that, a '78 Tele Custom with one fitted is just fine by me.

[Lee Harvey]

I use them..

No issues what so ever..

I do believe the James Burton standard comes with them