hello all!

looking to replace my saddles on my nashville tele. any suggestions as to what saddles to buy??

the best thing I ever did on one of my teles was to spring for the Joe Barden bridge and the compensated saddles ,to me that was when I got the iconic tele tone.

Go for one of the Glendale Guitars bridge plates and compensated saddles set. He has several different options depending on what you are looking for. Easy to install yourself and it will be like someone gave you a new Tele.
The sounds I get now are like night and day compared to stock. Plus the intonation and tuning are solid now.
Sorry to gush but it was a real eye opener for me what some simple hardware changes can do.

I just got a 'Glendale' bridge and saddle set for one of my Teles.
After a lot of research I settled on a "vintage BG cold rolled steel" bridge plate and the "twang plus" compensated saddles, which are a combo of stainless steel and brass saddles.
It just came in the post today. I'll get on the axe probably in a week or two. Can't wait.

What would be the tonal impact for changing on of these bridge and saddles? I have an Am. Std. Tele and just wondering what the tonal diff. would be....

You are going to have to buy a brand new bridge and saddles for that guitar if you want to replace the saddles. Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it. The bridge is a vintage style but with 6 individual brass saddles instead of three. I have a Callaham vintage style bridge on one of my parts teles and it sounds good but I dont know if the change would be that drastic considering the bridge you already have on there. I'd spring for a new bridge pickup if you are going to spend $100. That's gonna give you a much more noticeable change in tone than changing the bridge.

quote:

Originally posted by Ry-guy:
What would be the tonal impact for changing on of these bridge and saddles? I have an Am. Std. Tele and just wondering what the tonal diff. would be....

It depends on a bunch of other factors: body wood, neck and FB wood, etc., besides the bridge and saddle material.
I've decided after having Teles since 1979 that I 'prefer' the 3 saddle bridge. The best I can tell you about that is that it's "twangier". I've also found out recently - since I got my G-bender - that different metals for the saddles make a difference in tone, sustain, twang and harmonics. The Crook G-bender that I got has a stainless steel low E/A, aluminum D/G (bender mechanism on G), brass B/E.
The brass on the high E & B definitely cuts back on a bit of the super high end - richer, less twang.
The s.steel on the low E & A accentuates the twang (but decreases the sustain a bit).
Also, a lot of the companies making Tele replacement saddles can do very accurate, intonation compensated, two string saddles out of different materials - S.S, aluminum, brass even titanium. Bridge plate materials also varied during Fender's Tele build history.
When I get that 'Glendale' on, I'll post about how it's working for me (or how it's not working?).

I have the The Glendale vintage "double-cut" non-magnetic stainless steel bridge-plate and it does just what it claims to do.

It is way better at transferring vibrations and sound and keeps my tone bright, snappy and harmonically complex.
The dead hunk of metal that was my MIM Tele bridg-plate was worthless and lifeless.

I have the compensated Twang set of saddles and the brass on the higher strings helps to balance out the tone and shaves off a bit of the ice-pick quality as klasaine said.

Now if you have a top of the line Tele, these changes might not make anything 'better.' They'll probably just be a different flavour but some flavours are better than others, right?

That said, I'm a bonafide believer in having my strings pass over some high quality, musical metal before they go through the body of my Tele.

A little up-date:
I replaced an 'allparts' american std, 6 saddle tele bridge with a "Glendale" American standard 'cold rolled' blackguard magnetic bridge plate (magnetic - intensifies gauss field around bridge pu'p. Various year teles did and didn't have mag bridge plates.) 3 compensated saddles. E & A - aluminum. D G B E - brass.

Well, it's a couple of ounces lighter.
It still sounds like my guitar but it is definitely more open and more of it.
All 3 pickups sound better - more articulate, more distinct especially in the in-between positions ... it's a 3 pu'p tele (in some ways it's own beast).
The aluminum saddle on the low E and A give it more "twang" though it sacrifices a bit of sustain.
The brass saddles (DGBE) increase 'slightly' the sustain on D and G and definitely mellow out the B and E, especially on the bridge pu'p and especially on the high E string.
Tuning is overall VERY good for a 3 saddle bridge. Not perfect, but I'm fine with it and I'm a tuning freak.

Overall, it's just more "Teleish" (snap, sparkle and twang) than it was before.

On this particular guitar I knew that the change would be both obvious and beneficial.
"All Parts" bridges are generally NOT very vintage sounding (if that's what you're going for?) and I already have an axe that has compensated brass and aluminum Tele saddles. So I assumed that everything would "open up". Not super dramatic, but it's a better guitar than it was before.

Oh yeah, the Glendale bridge with the different alloy (color) saddles looks really cool. I'll post some pics when I can figure out how to make them 'not disappear' - lol!

Joe Barden brass saddles. They fix the normal intonation issues associated with the three saddle setup. Well worth the investment.