Telecaster 3 saddle intonation question

[DeepDrummer]

Hi. I'm new here and pretty green at playing guitar but I do love making and listening to blues type sounds.
Anyway, I have a couple tele style guitars (squire and a Peavey Gen EXP Tele style). A couple strat copies, a Peavey Raptor and a Gretsch 5122. I traded away my two acoustics last week and one of the guitars I got in exchange was The tele style Peavey which I find to be a very nice guitar. The only problem after setting it up is that I can't seem to get the intonation proper with that 3 saddle bridge. My Low E and A string are flat and sharp respectively by a few points each. No, I won't be taking it to a guitar store. Before last week I had 9 guitars and all my electrics were set up by myself regarding neck bow, string height, tuning and intonation and they all came in perfectly. I realize I could install a 6 point type of bridge instead of the 3 screw ones but I know someone in here has some answers. Any help at all would be appreciated. Knowing that my guitar is not perfect just does not sit well with me. Please help in that respect. Any ideas are appreciated.
What the heck, I may as well try to post a picture of my 4 favourites (not including my vantage and Mega Strat style guitars which perform well too). The peavey in question is second from the right. Thanks in advance for your consideration.

[VikingBlues]

to the forum!

Nice set of guitars in the picture.

I know where you're coming from on the intonation - it can be a real pain on some tele style guitars.

There is a Wilkinson compensated tele bridge you can get from the likes of exesrus.
http://www.axesrus.com/axecart.htm
It's featured on the homepage which I guess shows how needed it might be.
I've used one of these on a self build and the intonation problem wasn't an issue - and it does have the brass saddles and steel baseplate so the sound is not changed in the way that a six piece bridge might. Basically the brass is moulded in a way that the strings sit on the tops of the saddles in a staggered arrangement like you'd see on a normal guitar bridge.

I've found axesrus are very helpful - if you want to try this route probably best to check that sizes match. Tele and Strat copies ought to be standard sizes but I know from building work that it ain't necessarily so!

Good luck.

I think you can also get a more expensive Wilkinson/ Gotoh bridge where the angles of the three saddles are adjustable in some way - but I've not tried one.

EDIT : Just realised from your Introduction post, which I had failed to see, that you're in Canada. Not sure that a UK site like axesrus would be best for you then - but I think the Wilkinson stuff sells pretty well worldwide (just not in any local guitar shops where they specialise in the over priced hardware).

[DeepDrummer]

Yessss, I like the looks of that bridge. I am trying to see how it would affect the other 4 perfectly intonated strings.
Wait a minute, I just looked it over and the bridge appears quite crooked.
I just placed a 24" straightedge on the side of the bridge and at the other end one side is 3/4" from the neck and the other side is 1/2" from the neck at the 24" end nut end of things. I'll get that into line and try again. I'm not sure that would even take me in the right direction yet. Time to fiddle with it a bit and see. If I can't get it right I'll be in the market for a bridge.
If you flip the original barrels over, does that reverse any angle there could be on the individual saddle?
Looking at that Wilkinson bridge and since money is unavailable at this time, could I file one barrel to behave like the Wilkinson? I'm geting ahead of myself. Let me see what happens when I straighten out that plate. Thanks for the speedy reply. My wheels are turning now. I'll let you know how I make out shortly.

[DeepDrummer]

Straightening up the bridge got them all proper when using the harmonics at the 12th fret but when pressing down on the fret it still shows 2 points flat on the Low E only now. Good enough for now but now I have to go back and check my 5 other guitars again. Thanks for the help and forcing me to get back at it. That really bothered me. Mind you, I can see a bridge or some brass saddles in the future.
Those Wilkinson bridges are available on this continent but yeah, not in the usual stores.
I guess harmonics is the way to compare to eliminate any inconsistancies in string pressure caused by actually pressing the string? It seems to hang in until about the 7th fret with similar string fretting pressures.
Do you know if those Wilkinson ones are round on the bottom and reversible? I'm going to fiddle with it some more and thanks again for showing me that bridge. That one is new to me for sure. Very cool.

[vancouverois]

If you flip the original barrels over, does that reverse any angle there could be on the individual saddle?

Not sure, I think the original saddles are not slanted like these ones:


Usually with the compensated saddles the intonation is spot on, on each string.
You can also notice that a saddle looks like it was filed by half, it is supposed to reduce the boomy
sound some Low E strings can produce with brass saddles.

You have to be sure your bridge plate is perfectly flat and aligned before doing the intoation adjustment.
A Tele is very simple but sometimes can become very difficult to set up.

[VikingBlues]

I'm afraid I no longer have either of the Teles I had a compenstaed bridge on so I can't check them. I never had the need to do anything with them but put the bridge/plate in place and put the strings on. As long as you're using 9s or 10s they seem to have judged the moulding of the saddles to give the right intonation. I was amazed at the improvement over the always iffy intonation of the straight saddles - I assume the straight ones contine in such major use because it's cheaper to machine them that way.

Below find a link to a better picture of this style of saddle on this sort of compensated bridge. You'd maybe be better of just getting the saddles only as I have seen that the whole bridge unit does not, for example, fit all the squier teles.
http://www.axecaster.co.uk/index.php?ma ... eabbedd93c
You'll notice the brass saddles are moulded so that there is a peak on the top of the saddle at the right place.
This is the page that picture is from. I guess these can be put on a bridge as just replacement saddles - you'll see with these it says you can flip them over for the ordinary straight barrel. Sorry it's a UK site again but it has such a good picture I thought I'd best use it.
http://www.axecaster.co.uk/index.php?ma ... ucts_id=19

[weelie]

just a thought: http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/ch ... e_up_your/

[DeepDrummer]

just a thought: http://www.seymourduncan.com/support/ch ... e_up_your/

Very very informative weelie. Thanks a lot. I'm gonna play with it some more tomorrow but it sounds pretty sweet as is. Still, I have to try some of those little tests and things in that link. Very cool.