Music City Bridge "Groove Master" Compensated Tele Saddles, Vintage Alloy

Groove Master compensated 3-barrel Tele saddles in vintage alloy. Micro-grooves let you set string spacing exactly where you want it, and the built-in intonation line gets you close out of the box.

A direct replacement for any Tele-style 3-barrel saddles, with no modification. Saddles only: for a complete bridge, see our Music City Tele bridge bundles.

History

Who makes it. Music City Bridge products are designed by Joe Glaser and the master technicians at Glaser Instruments in Nashville, the shop where many of Nashville's heavy hitters take their guitars. The parts are made in a facility inside the shop.

The Tele saddle problem. Early Teles needed their intonation screws hand-bent to get close to accurate intonation - bending the screws would angle the saddles, and this helped but it wasn't ideal. But most players didn't bend their intonation screws, they just lived with poor intonation, and many old-school Tele guys - like Redd Volkaert - have commented that they unconsciously developed technique that compensated for the guitar's shortcomings by pulling strings this way and that with their fretting hand in order to pull chords more into tune. This would become part of their muscle memory.

Later, when Fender started using steel all-thread rod for saddles, this introduced another problem - in addition to poor intonation, the steel saddles of around 1960 to 1961 buzzed, since the grooves in the saddles were angled.

The various types of "compensated" saddles that came along years later helped with these problems, but even with these the strings can wander side to side and can chatter against the height screws. The Groove Master addresses all of these problems.

Details

Micro-grooves, not threads. The grooves aren't angled the way threaded rod is, so there's no sitar buzz, and each string stays where you put it.

Reversible. Each saddle has two usable sides. Flipping one reverses its intonation stagger, for example to suit a plain or a wound 3rd string.

Screws. 6-32 height screws like the original Fender saddles, stainless so they won't rust. Four long and two short screws: the short pair goes on the outer strings, so nothing sticks up into your palm.

Also includes 6-32 stainless intonation screws & springs.

What you get. This is a set of three saddles with height-adjustment screws, intonation screws & springs, and a hex wrench to adjust saddle height. You'll use your existing plate. If you don't have a plate that's designed for three saddles, then we offer complete bridges with the MCB saddles installed onto either a Music City Bridge plate, or a vintage-style Fender plate.

Specs

• Material: Vintage Alloy
• Finish: Polished
• Includes: 3 saddles, 3 springs, 3 intonation screws, 6 height screws (4 long, 2 short), all stainless 6-32; hex wrench for height adjustment
• Fits: Tele-style 3-saddle bridge plates