Joe Barden vs. Glendale?

[mowcheeba]

Anyone tried both? Any difference in material? As far as I know
the Barden bridge is not "cold rolled steel"

I have the Glendale saddles and have been wanting to get a Glendale "Blackguard" bridge plate for a long time. However 99 USD for
just the bridge plate is almost too much and they are currently unavailable.
Looked at some Barden bridges yesterday and they are about 50 USD, saddles
included. That is more than half the price compared to Glendale.

So how is the Barden bridge? I like the small "Gatton" cutaway on the
lower part of the bridge.

[alba44]

So how is the Barden bridge? Fantastic!

[boris bubbanov]

Glendale's stainless bridge, with a set of 3 brass or 1 aluminum and 2 brass is on sale for $ 135 right now, free worldwide shipping. I've have one already with the 3 brass, ordered a second today with the aluminum E-A. 7075 aluminum, the best readily available.

That price on the Joe Barden is probably thru Best Guitar Parts. Rob at USACG says Best only does business by e-mail; my e-mail has not been replied to. I'm not even 100 percent sure that price ($ 60) is plate and saddles.

[mowcheeba]

Originally Posted by boris bubbanov

Glen's stainless bridge, with a set of 3 brass or 1 aluminum and 2 brass is on sale for $ 135 right now, free worldwide shipping. I've have one already with the 3 brass, ordered a second today with the aluminum E-A. 7075 aluminum, the best readily available.

That price on the Joe Barden is probably thru Best Guitar Parts. Rob at USACG says Best only does business by e-mail; my e-mail has not been replied to. I'm not even 100 percent sure that price ($ 60) is plate and saddles.

I have seen some Ebay sellers listing them for 55-60 USD, saddles
included. Great price but I still think Glendale bridges look
better for some reason and maybe the extra holes on the Barden
is great but I would have a hard time
finding slotted screws that would fit.(Maybe they are included?)

However I find the cut on the treble too long on Glendale's. I prefer
the shorter cut on the Barden. Hopefully Glendale's new "Blackguard" bridge have the shorter cut.
Glendale "Blackguard" bridge is currently out of stock. Hope to find
a used Glendale bridge plate as I already have the saddles.

Do you have any Glendale bridges laying around?

[Shepherd]

Here's the Barden bridge for $45.
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Joe-Barden-C...QQcmdZViewItem
I cant justify paying $135 for a bridge no matter who's name is on it.

[John Thigpen]

I just built a partscaster using the Barden bridge and think it is extremely good quality. I paid about $50, but don't remember exactly who I bought it from. It was a Buy It Now on eBay, and the service was excellent. You can get them from at least a half dozen places for under $60, including saddles.

John

[mowcheeba]

Originally Posted by John Thigpen

I just built a partscaster using the Barden bridge and think it is extremely good quality. I paid about $50, but don't remember exactly who I bought it from. It was a Buy It Now on eBay, and the service was excellent. You can get them from at least a half dozen places for under $60, including saddles.

John

It seems to be good quality and if it were good enough for
Danny Gatton then it is good enough for me.
Are the small screws for the extra two holes included and are they
slotted or phillips head?

[John Thigpen]

All the screws are included, but they're phillips. I bought a set of Callaham slotted screws for mine, and used two of the tuner screws for the front bridge holes. I had already mounted the tuners with the included phillips screws and didn't want to replace them, so I didn't need to Callaham tuner screws.

John

[GuitarJonz]

2 questions on Barden vs Glendale saddles: first, it looks like both have angled saddle edges, so that the saddles fit firmly against each other, not straight barrel adges, like the Stew Mac comp saddles? Correct?

Also, I notice that the Barden comp brass saddles have the low E and high E saddles scooped out underneath, Joe says:

As an added feature, the outside saddles are notched under the "E" strings, like the vintage '53 saddles. This notch helps correct the "loud outside string" problem common to many Telecasters, and adds additional height adjustment capability, while retaining an important and authentic vintage design spec.

Opinions on that? I never noticed a "loud outside string" problem before. The Glendales look to be full (non-cutaway) saddles, apparently he does not see that to be a problem. Anyone compared both of these, and can offer a review?

[boris bubbanov]

Originally Posted by GuitarJonz

2 questions on Barden vs Glendale saddles: first, it looks like both have angled saddle edges, so that the saddles fit firmly against each other, not straight barrel adges, like the Stew Mac comp saddles? Correct?

Also, I notice that the Barden comp brass saddles have the low E and high E saddles scooped out underneath, Joe says:

As an added feature, the outside saddles are notched under the "E" strings, like the vintage '53 saddles. This notch helps correct the "loud outside string" problem common to many Telecasters, and adds additional height adjustment capability, while retaining an important and authentic vintage design spec.

Opinions on that? I never noticed a "loud outside string" problem before. The Glendales look to be full (non-cutaway) saddles, apparently he does not see that to be a problem. Anyone compared both of these, and can offer a review?

I think the loud outside string is only an issue on vintage 7.25 fretboard guitars with flat pole pieces and tilt-only compensation stock saddles. The disparity in string height on the tilt-slant compensated saddles is small enough that there's no sense of the Es being real loud or muddy. This may also depend on how low you like your action.

As for Barden's being good enough for Danny Gatton; I think Mr. Gatton could get the job done with a $ 75 Epiphone had he needed to. I surely can't.
I would buy the Barden if I could get it cheap but most of the guys who seem to sell it don't answer the phone and I prefer to avoid E-bay.

[GuitarJonz]

Got a set of the Barden saddles, they look great, and intonate very well. Available on ebay for $29/set with $3.00 shipping. The only thing I didn't like about them was the height adjustment screws: the outside saddle height screws are fine at 3/8", just like Glendale, but the middle saddle is equipped with 1/2" screws, way too long IMO, and the cause of the potential dreaded-shredded-hand. When you spring for a set of nice saddles, you shouldn't have to mod them by filing down the bottom of the screws. I've asked the seller top send a pair of 3/8' screws.

One other thing I noticed about the Glendale design, their height screw holes are further out towards the end of the saddle, reducing the chance of the string contacting the screw, or the hole, like so:


Here's the Bardens:

[JKjr]

Has anyone tried the Callaham stuff? I have a set of his saddles on my 52RI, and they really woke it up. Intonation is spot on as well. Saddles don't touch each other, and the fit and finish is as good as anything I've ever seen. TQR loves the ashtrays, haven't heard or seen one yet. If they're half as effective as the strat stuff...

[boris bubbanov]

The Callaham stuff is great, and a lot of the products are at as low a price as one will readily find, like CTS pots, good 4 way switches, hardened trem plate mount screws. From the Fralins to the plates, the hardware, the saddles, switches, pots, pickguards, all really really nice stuff. The Callaham item I'm reserving judgment on is the G + L block. I changed out the stock zinc one for the high grade steel block and the difference is there; I'm just not sure which sound I prefer. I really try hard not to just like something because it looks cool.

Looking at 2 builds with Glendales on em, one with the Aluminum E-A and one with Brass. Really stellar USACG bodies in both cases, what a match.

Hey, there's another choice nobody is mentioning. Allparts has a TB5125-001 Three Saddle Bridge. One sixteenth inch thick, very nicely plated, compensated barrels with slotted height screws. My local dealer let me have this for $ 40; this seems like a nice piece, Japanese I believe. No Fender ID, a good choice for partscaster builders who like a de-imaged guitar or for anyone needed a husky bridge that won't bend no matter what.

This Allparts plate is eerily similar to the Stew Mac # 0099 plate, but there seem to be minute differences. Comes with the saddles Guitar Parts Resource sells separately for $ 20. All metric hardware.

http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/bridge8.jpg

[boris bubbanov]

Can anyone tell me if these e-bay Barden bridges use Imperial or metric threads on the height and length screws?

EDIT: I'll answer that. M3 height screws, slotted, way too tall, 10 mm at least.
The intonation length screws are slotted M3 kinda filistered; you can tap 'em all out to 6-32 and use the perfect length hardware, McMaster Carr.

The Joe Barden saddles, sold alone, I can't tell ya.

[GuitarJonz]

Well, based on my recent experience, I'd stay away from the guy selling the Barden saddles on ebay, as he does not seem interested in customer service. I emailed him about the long middle saddle height screws, to see if he had a pair of the shorter 3/8" screws. No reply. He should really be shipping with an extra set of screws.

[GuitarJonz]

OK, with no reply from the ebay seller on shorter screws, I go to local True Value hardware store. where they have a nice selection of screws, etc. I find out that the set screws I need are 3mm metric size wide, and the ones I have are about 10mm long, so I need something in the 6-8mm long range. Unfortunately, they had no 3mm, with 4mm being the smallest width in stock. So I'll keep looking.

I suppose I should not have been surprised about the metric size, as I guess you can pretty much assume that most guitar parts (except US companies like Glendale and Callaham) are made offshore, especially when Allparts is selling the Barden bridges. It's just that I've never seen an offshore tele set screw with vintage style straight slot on top, every other offshore model always has the Allen wrench hex adjuster on top.

One more gotcha, when I unscrewed the set screw from the saddle to take to the hardware store, it was so small that it slipped out of my hand, dropped onto the metal bridgeplate, and quickly rolled into the pickup cavity, now out of sight, and probably clinging to the magenetism of the coil. Arrrggghhh!!!

[GuitarJonz]

Pic of the Barden comp saddles (de-installed), I put the straight Mannmade saddles back on. My conclusion: the Bardens are OK, but nothing special, hate the long set screws. I like the Mannmades better: nice short screws, beveled edges, full size big barrels (not 1/2 thick on E ends, even the Barden middle saddle has a flattened bottom, less mass). The Mannmades feel way better on the palm, and intonate just fine for me. I got 2 sets for $25, shipped from John Mann. Good saddles, best straight brass I've tried.

[marsopilami]

ive used them both glendale and bardens and also callaham
i notice the glendales idea is to make the bridge thinner .048 or you loose twang as they say. well i used both the cold rolled model but honestly i didnt like it. so i got the stainless steel version which sounded the same just lauder.
Joe barden bridges are going for 40-60$ on ebay. they make the plate thicker and when i installed it it sounded great something really changed. the callaham bridge is also thicker and his bridge does sound a bit a better then the barden i used it on my main tele for a while. as for what danny used it would be
vintique hardware by jay monterose www.vintique.com i will be switiching at some point hes a nice guy to deal with to. so pretty much for the price and quality the barden bridge kicks the rest.

[Chris Leger]

Originally Posted by marsopilami

as for what danny used it would be
vintique hardware by jay monterose www.vintique.com i will be switiching at some point hes a nice guy to deal with to.

[thaus]

Originally Posted by Chris Leger

Oh no......... I dread that another Vintique thread may start at any moment. May I suggest that you do a search on mr. vintique before you send off any money!!