replacement saddles?

[bassix]

Hi,

I've been playing for a long time,, and have quite a few nice basses, but I've seen references from time to time on TB about saddle upgrades and I'm curious about them. I might want to replace the saddles on one of my Fender 5's to some threaded ones to help center my strings between pole pieces. (Yeah, I know,, "it doesn't matter". Well, it does to me.)

If heard that different saddle materials can affect the tone and response of the bass. I know that my Stingray has large, heavy saddles and I'm sure that contributes to it's excellent tone. I'm looking at the the KTS Titanium saddles,, but they are pricey, and if they don't have 5 string sets,, they get REALLY pricey! Does anyone know how just the standard 'vintage' replacement saddles that Allparts stocks would affect my tone - if it would at all?

[JLS]

Originally Posted by bassix

Hi,

I've been playing for a long time,, and have quite a few nice basses, but I've seen references from time to time on TB about saddle upgrades and I'm curious about them. I might want to replace the saddles on one of my Fender 5's to some threaded ones to help center my strings between pole pieces. (Yeah, I know,, "it doesn't matter". Well, it does to me.)

If heard that different saddle materials can affect the tone and response of the bass. I know that my Stingray has large, heavy saddles and I'm sure that contributes to it's excellent tone. I'm looking at the the KTS Titanium saddles,, but they are pricey, and if they don't have 5 string sets,, they get REALLY pricey! Does anyone know how just the standard 'vintage' replacement saddles that Allparts stocks would affect my tone - if it would at all?

IMHO, if you didn't know which saddles were more expensive, you wouldn't be able to hear any difference. But, since the imperfect
spacing between the pickup poles is so bothersome...

[walterw]

polepiece spacing mattered enough for leo fender to get a patent on it!

IME, if you play lightly and/or have the pickups a little further away, it doesn't matter much, but if you hit it harder and have the pickups closer the way i do, there's a difference in the attack and evenness of the notes. (same principle with staggered-height jazz bass pickups, it makes less or more of a difference depending on how close the strings are.)

as for the saddles, i think big-dollar titanium might be a little silly. the allparts threaded-rod ones are fine (i think they're gotoh, actually). they're plenty hard, but not magnetically attractive, so stainless, maybe? the fender threaded ones are regular steel, but they're a bit more expensive.

with them, i hear a subtle improvement in sustain and clarity over regular single-grooved saddles on vintage bridges, but that could just as easily be from the way they get pressed together by the strings, eliminating side-to-side play.

what kind of bridge would they be going on? the stock 5-string bridge might not have the exact same saddle spacing, in which case all this is moot.

[bassix]

[quote=walterw;10048510]polepiece spacing mattered enough for leo fender to get a patent on it!

Walter,
Thanks for you informative reply! Yeah, I fully realize that for the most part, having the string a bit out of alignment with the pole pieces isn't gonna make a lot of difference. But, I've found that the feel,,, kind of an undefinable quality,, does make a difference. I think it might contribute to the difference in feel between a production instrument and a boutique bass.

The bass I'm putting it on is actually a Squire 'Precision Special 5' bass. I love wide necks, and without spending $3,000+ this is the only way I'm going to have a 5 with a 2" nut. This is actually my 2nd one of these basses and the first is loaded with Villex Jazz pickups and a Badass V bridge. I already have a Badass bridge I bought off Ebay to put on this new bass, but the B string on it is so much better than my original bass that I don't think I want to change what is already working! I've recently had a full Sadowsky retrofit; Humbucking JJ pickups (with staggered pole pieces) and Onboard Preamp with VTC passive tone control. LOVE the sound of this bass!! However, the two outside strings are just slightly out of alignment with the pole pieces. The Sadowsky spec says that the pickups are for 19mm string spacing,, so this bridge must be just a bit wider than that. Therefore,,, I thought the best solution would be just to replace the saddles with threaded versions so that I can alter the spacing just enough to satisfy me.

I appreciate your feedback on the KTS Titanium saddles. My initial thought was that they couldn't make THAT big of a difference - especially for the substantial price difference. I'll probably just buy the Allparts saddles,,, although I'll take a look at the Fender as well.

Thanks!