fat neck plates

in everyones opinion would attatching a fat neck plate to a tele, as opposed to a standard one, make much difference in tone??

chunkymac wrote:

in everyones opinion would attatching a fat neck plate to a tele, as opposed to a standard one, make much difference in tone??

I've got the rutters fat cold rolled steel on one tele and a standard off the shelf on another. The neck moves less..thats about it. spend the money on a bridge like rutters, callaham, or glendale. (I of course love what Marc is doing)

Surely less movement equals better contact/join equals better tone ;-) I should be a salesman
While we are on the subject of pimping teles, string ferrules????? Any difference in tone if theusing different metals for there construction

chunkymac wrote:

Surely less movement equals better contact/join equals better tone ;-) I should be a salesman
While we are on the subject of pimping teles, string ferrules????? Any difference in tone if theusing different metals for there construction

Big BIG BIG difference in metals used.. although i think it starts simply with getting far away from modern production that detroyed tone/vibration/string transfer.
Most bridges are made from either cheap pot metal, low grade brass or high carbon
steel and are then plated.

Another thing is that dissimilar metals are not always a good thing. Marc Rutters was sharing with me that in his background as a stone/tile saw builder/machinist he was
telling me that good saw blades are mixed with dissimilar metals to curb the blade
"ring" (y'all know how irritating that blade ring is on a table saw after about 10min).

Anyway his question to me with this analogy is "why would you take dissimilar metals and put them on a guitar bridge when the goal is to increase sustain and vibration transfer?

Basically he was pontification about using pure metals for each saddle, for the bridge construction. You know I'm all ears for this kind of thing but I have been a purist about stamped steel tele bridges forever. I take the time to hone the bottom of the plate surface completely flat with a belt sander and try to find good brass saddles but
these things literal respond like pickle jar lids compared to the fat cold rolled steel
bridges he is making. My favorite saddle combo at the moment is an aluminum
low E and A with Brass D,G,B,E

please forgive me if I'm like "marc said this" "marc said that" yada.. I am just captivated by this former machinist turned tele expert's (he is building bodies and hardware for Crook as special order to Paisley and Keith Urban) take on harware.

I'm a beliver in the CRS bridges. now if I could find some pickups that give a fat, early 60's slabboard tele...I may keep this thing

I'm Incinerator wrote:

I'm a beliver in the CRS bridges. now if I could find some pickups that give a fat, early 60's slabboard tele...I may keep this thing

are you playing a an early 60s slab board tele or repro? If so, I use to have
Rio Grande's in my 62' reissue that replaced the lame seymore duncans I had in there.
(I did have SD antiquities in a semi hollow maple warmoth body tele once that were
quite nice)

tvthewiredturtle wrote:

I'm Incinerator wrote:

I'm a beliver in the CRS bridges. now if I could find some pickups that give a fat, early 60's slabboard tele...I may keep this thing

are you playing a an early 60s slab board tele or repro? If so, I use to have
Rio Grande's in my 62' reissue that replaced the lame seymore duncans I had in there.
(I did have SD antiquities in a semi hollow maple warmoth body tele once that were
quite nice)

It's an American series deluxe tele with the rosewood board (still has a skunk stripe?) and alder body. I have some Harmonic Design vintage plus pickups in there, but I feel might be too hi-fi. I like the Peter Florence Voodoo 60's tele with the "tall" neck pickup, but those seem pretty hard to come by. I've thought about Don Mare, but his selection makes my head spin. Fred Stuart is another tele guy's favorite, but his winds are pricey! I'd love to get a blonde with a fat slabboard style tele or esquire someday...maybe I'll turn my tele into an esquire! I mean who needs a neck pickup creating string pull anyways?

How about a set of bare knuckle tele pickups. They seem to be getting amazing reviews over here. I can't talk about the tele pups but the humbuckers that he made for my semi-hollow epiphone are amazing, it really has turned that guitar into a gibson beater.
I really am open to everyones opinions on all this and that rutter stuff does look amazing, tavo you are right to admire the mans work as he really does seem to be attacking this stuff from a slightly different angle which makes more sense than the usual guitar voodoo.

But I do seem to be swayed slightly towards the glendale bridges at this time but only because the bodies I have been eyeing up are routed for an american standard hard tail bridge and glendale seems to be the only place making bridges for said application

chunkymac wrote:

How about a set of bare knuckle tele pickups. They seem to be getting amazing reviews over here. I can't talk about the tele pups but the humbuckers that he made for my semi-hollow epiphone are amazing, it really has turned that guitar into a gibson beater.
I really am open to everyones opinions on all this and that rutter stuff does look amazing, tavo you are right to admire the mans work as he really does seem to be attacking this stuff from a slightly different angle which makes more sense than the usual guitar voodoo.

But I do seem to be swayed slightly towards the glendale bridges at this time but only because the bodies I have been eyeing up are routed for an american standard hard tail bridge and glendale seems to be the only place making bridges for said application

what do you mean, half cut Tele bridges? There are a few makers and its easy as heck
to saw the top off a stamped steel fender tele bridge.

Whats aweful about the half bridges (or hardtail) that fender put out are the hideous compressed metal powder saddles they still keep using. On custom shop guitars at that! What poop. I use to break strings like crazy with my american strat when those were on (now have graphtec on the strat, more sustain, more jangle and strings last forever)

anyway Mate you gotta get a proper bridge!!
here's a close up of my rutters half tele bridge with the stainless saddles


here's his chopped aluminum for a more modern look

Nope they aren't the half cut bridges, they use 4 mounting screws.
The bridge routing I have been looking at have 3 mounting screws and are listed as being routed for an american standard hardtail stratocaster bridges.

Ooo I have fond memories of my old tele and my 1st attempt at sticking a humbucker in the bridge position, so took a band saw to the bridge plate and cut it in half so I could fit some god awful humbucker to it.
You are so right about the fender saddles they are appaling, its the 1st thing I change on any of my guitars as they just slice through any guage of string. In the same way that lower price tunamatics do.

Suppose it does keep rutter/glendale/callaham et al in business if fender can't get the little but oh so important things right

that's the dilemma I faced with my american series tele, I went the Glendale route and it really did turn my tele into a tele! That heavy bridge plate and those six individual saddles don't compare at all.

I've heard good things about bare knuckle pickups, like you I've really only heard about their humbuckers (the Mules seem like a great humbucker) I've also heard that their p-90's are great too.

what am i on about, i have a set of P-90 bare knuckles in a prs, and they are amazing. The stock prs soapbars were nice but when i changed them out to the bare knuckles its was like a whole new level of tone had been discovered, remided me of the 50's lp jnr that i tried out for size.
He really does do a great job on the p/ups and his customer service compares to mr tv jones, i.e you dont like it, you swap it till you do.
Your right about the mules, they are the ones i have in the epi, it beats up my marsh deluxe combo into the most gorgeous classic rock tone ever.

Right on, I think my LP might be sold...otherwise I was seriously considering putting in a set of mules in that. I think any kind of Gibson lust is quickly nullified each time I pick up my spectra sonic, the only thing my spectra sonic needs is a hot-rodded electronics harness and a TV Jones powertron plus...maybe locking sperzels...? That thing gets me LP and 335, or as much as I need

oh for sure i lost all gibson lust when i saved for a 6 months and bought a gibson sg standard and the thing was appaling. The neck felt like it was sticky after 5 mins of playing, the nut wasnt cut at all, and the saddles were like razor blades. I was so disappointed, so sold it and ploughed the money into my epiphone supernova (whatever you all may may think of oasis as a band that guitar is awesome for the money) upgraded everything on it and now its the scorn of all the london guitar shops when i take it in them to try our amps and pedals, they hate the fact that my £600 guitar (with the upgrades) beats the £3000 gibson up o the wall without even trying.

Those Epi Supernovas are great guitars. I played one that a shop here had on consignment a few years back when I was interested in Gibson/Epi semihollows. It was the Man City Blue one, and was a solid player. I went back to play it again and it was gone a week later along with an Epi Elitist 335 that was also great. For the price, those Supernovas are great...I guess it doesn't hurt that I am a pretty Oasis/Noel Gallagher fan . Now I may have to search out a Supernova or an Elitist again...and pull out my Oasis albums! I miss having an iPod where my music collection was pretty much under my thumb, carrying cds around in my car is a huge hassle and liability.

if you do get one swap out those p/ups asap and the tuners. Believe me you wont regret it, that guitar is a beast once the right finishing touches have been added