Replace the whole bridge, or get new saddles?

Changing either or both will not give a very significant difference in tone. However changing between top loading and through body will give a significant change in feel if it gives a different break angle of the string through and over the saddle.

 

Your bridge plate is probably steel. If you want to change things, start with the saddles, but I wouldn't get hung up on top load or string through myself. The only one who can answer the 'tone' questions is you, by trial and error, unfortunately. Adding to that thought, those saddles probably ARE pot metal or zinc, and I consider stamped steel an improvement. Others will say diffently, of course.

 

the pickups are affected by steel strings vibrating on nut slots, frets and saddles. If the saddles are steel and the bridge is steel, the sound will beat pot metal bridge/saddles. A steel tremolo block on a Strat (versus pot metal) is easy to hear as an improvement... same principle.

 

That’s a sharp looking guitar. I’ve got a thing thing for HH jaguar/jazzmasters and hate trems, so that’s right up my alley.

 

i always go for steel saddles.is enough to make deference

 

I was gonna say that the Wilkinson Tele bridge allows for string through but it's got the Mexican Tele 4-screw mounting holes. May have to modify pickguard as well to accommodate.

 

I know there's a lot of argument back and forth about Graphtechs and tone changes. I tried a set on a strat I owned years ago, just to see what they were like. In that guitar, they seemed to soften the highs a bit, which was great for the bridge pickup, but I wasn't as happy with the neck and middle tones -- it seemed a little "mushier" to me. I ended up going back to the steel saddles and swapping in a different bridge pickup, and I was happier with it. This was in about 1995, so I don't know if the Graphtechs back then were the same as what they sell now? It's possible their formula is different these days, but I can't comment on that.

A friend of mine uses Graphtech saddles on his gigging guitars, simply because he breaks a lot of strings. He plays hard with light strings, so he's rough on them, and he claims to get a little more life out of his strings with the Graphtechs. I almost never break strings, so I have never felt a need to go that way.

 

I don't know what the OP's bridge would be if it weren't steel. It is a bent plate and there aren't a lot of metals that will work besides steel as far as I know to maintain structural integrity without being a super expensive material. I agree on the stamped saddles though. There is nothing wrong with the original stamped steel saddle design. The ones that I have on my Strat also have an indent in the middle of them for the string to seat in. At his point I think that an import manufacturer is the only one that makes them that way.

 

I would say that steel saddles would likely be an upgrade and the GraphTech, not so much, despite their advertising hype. I do however, love the GraphTech "TUSQ" material for nuts and string trees. It's a much more consistent material than bone and almost as hard.
Just My $.02 & Worth Every Penny!
Gene

 

That's a chrome plated steel bridge. The main problem is the springs and screws make contact with the end portions of the strings, and the amount of downforce is inadequate and you get a lot of trashy noises. And yes, superficially the Graphtech could tamp down the worst of the rattling - BUT the guitar will sound like dreck because the saddle material is just soft like old chewing gum - doesn't IMO work for a saddle (unless the guitar is just for making percussive sounds).

Check out the Bubba Mod (convert the existing plate to a 3 barrel toploader). That's what I would do - I've converted 39 Squiers in that way.

I would expand on what Gene is saying and say that both Tusq and Graphtech are good for nuts and string trees. Material can be much softer at that far end of the string, away from the pickups and the difference in sound is extremely minor.

 

I meant that it allows for top load stringing... my bad.