Boy - natural spring reverb from my Bridge !

[alanfc]

I have a top loading Telecaster copy,

and the saddles and springs give me a sort of undesirable reverb! Only noticeable when I stop hard/fast with silence after. Its isn't bugging me too much.

 

Is this a matter of very cheap stuff ? Or is this a common thing with the springs on any Tele bridge?

 

I am looking in to GraphTech set of 6 saddles eventually.... but is there a lo-budget way to correct the ringing without sacrificing too much tone?

 

thanks.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Try something that damps the source, like a rubber band or foam or piece of teflon tubing or similar wire-insulation under or around the strings, springs, and hardware that is buzzin'. Tape will work, but looks fugly and leaves sticky residue.

 

I have a little blue string-like piece of plastic (from between some earplugs) beneath the strings behind the saddles om y Les Paul, and some braided blue yarn behind the nut, to dampen the harsh odd overtones that ring sympathetically. Just lightly touching enough to damp most of that out, without being so tight as to completley choke off all sustain ringing through the string-ends at the head- and tail-ends of the guitar.

 

It makes for more "fundamental" and even-order harmonic overtones, and less white-noisey dissonance. A subtle difference, perhaps not even noticable when plugged-in, but I like it, especially as I enjoy playing it "unplugged" from time to time.

[NMcGuitar]

That's pretty much what I was going to suggest, Caev.

 

Personally I've always kinda liked the "natural reverb" that a couple of my guitars have (particularly the Artcore). It just seems to add more meat to the sound. I haven't really run into much trouble with harmonics & overtones that don't work. I find thatif the string (or spring) doesn't resonate with the note/chord I'm playing then it doesn't get any sympathetic vibrations going, and therefore stays quiet.

[alanfc]

y'know now that I think about it

 

I don't think anyone's going to hear this sound but me. I mean live there is going to be =no= time where it will be dead silent enough for people to hear. Even the band stops cold, there's still talking & milling around noise from the audience so, I think its OK.

 

NMcGuitar- I never thought of that, maybe this is part of what I like about this new ax !

 

thanks guys

[Caevan O’Shite]

Well, is it a musical sort of sound, or a harsh, loose mechanical sort of sound? (Some may ask, "What's the diff'?" )

 

On many a Strat, the tremolo springs ring and reverberate in a cool way; one of the ways that Strats and Teles sound different from one another... and THE reason that Eric Clapton requested that his signature model Fender Strats have whammies, but are "blocked" so as to be immobile. They don't sound quite the same if made as "hardtails", and he never uses the trem.

[alanfc]

thank you-

 

its sort of a metallic springy sound.

 

but luckily it has no apparent tonality to it

 

It may be unnoticeable to everyone but me

 

I think I may have bigger fish to fry, like my sliding saddles (during bends)

 

my upgrades will be New tuners and some new saddles, Graphtechs. Hopefully both of these I can teck myself

 

thanks

[Caevan O’Shite]

If your saddles slide- side-to-side, I'm guessing- you'll need to replace the assembly, saddles/bridge/and-all, to stop that. Otherwise, your pricey new saddles will probably slide, too. (It's the design of the bridge that's wrong.)

[alanfc]

well I 've read that the moving saddles thing is symptomatic of the top loader since there's less downward pressure on the saddles like the STB's (see I know the lingo now)

 

but I also read (this is all from the Telecaster board) that there are lovers and haters of the top loader for different reasons. The proponents say that bending is easier and therefore you can use heavier strings. I have .010's now but am graduating to .011's within the next few months.

I only found =one= guy that shared my problem and his solution, which was to use a peice of metal or something to stop the top edge of the low E string from moving upward, thereby stopping all of them from moving.. I don't know exactly how he did it.

 

I still really like this guitar though. If somehow stopping anchoring the saddles doesn't work, I'll look into a whole new assembly,,,unless of course I've saved enough $$ by then to by the American Standard I want.

[Guitarzan]

i may also be from the pickup springs under the bridge plate. i used to get some wierd vibes and also squeal from my bridge pickup on my yamaha pac 311 ms and after no longer having the guitar i found that it may have been the ajustment springs under the plate. this can be remedied by using surgical tubing instead of springs.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Guitarzan, that's brilliant! http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/icons/icon14.gif

[alanfc]

UPDATE

 

I used the guitar at rehearsal last night full out with the band.

 

Guitar =felt= great. I had been practicing my ass off all week with it. Totally used to it. Cool. Sounded great thru the Rivera at Bedroom volume. Single coil twangy but beefy and very authoritative. Everthing is beautiful

 

At practice, at band volume, Guitar was practically impossible to use.

Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. Turn down the gain... Squeeeeeeeeee. I can't stop playing and I can't turn the volume down for every 1/2 beat stop , can't do anything plunky or grindy or it goes Squeeeeeeeeeee. Lowered the pickups. Turned down the tone on the guitar to zero and brought up a =little= treble on the amp. Made it thru practice with a tone like a cross between Tony Iommi's Paranoid and SRV. That's not me .

Anyways, I 'm supremely bummed

[Guitarzan]

yeah Caev , there is so much metal (springs and the plate) around the tele pickup(or telecopy) that ringing and feedback can be a problem when some gain comes into the picture. i would guess that the actual "intonation" springs would give some ringing as well. i have heard of people putting a bit of masking tape under the bridge plate (pickup area) to deaden unwanted vibes.

[Guitarzan]

my pac 311 ms had shallow grooves in the bridge plate for the saddle height screws to sit in so there was no side to side movement. they were free to move forward and backward for intonation but not side to side.

in my previous post, the masking tape thing is for bridge plate vibrations.