Hi Guys,

I just got a MIM 70's Strat, and I love it!

However , the saddles on the bridge are a bit of a lower quality than the whole perfect build of the guitar, the height adjustment screws are very loose and the saddle travels sideways even under tension,
I want to change those , and all I found were the fender set of vintage trmolo nickel saddles, are these the same of what I have on my guitar ? also are there any other options ?

Thanks in advance.

They might not fit. There are two sizes in use
see this page for example.

In general, the "import" saddles are narrower than the "American" saddles.

_________________
Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Thanks for the reply,
I see, so the vintage style sadlles that I have on my strat are no similar to the vintage American Saddles ?
What do u think are my options for a replacement of the stock ones ?
thanks in advance

They are very similar, but perhaps not the same width. So measure your saddles to see what you need (it's probably the narrower type) and measure any possible replacements to verify that they'll fit.

An option is to use the Graph Tech Saddles that I linked above. They look pretty good and work pretty good on "seventies" strats:

_________________
Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Thanks a lot buddy, just went and measured my saddles and you're right I have the 10.4 mm wide saddles. By the way I have the same colour Strat

The Classic 70's uses the same size bridge and saddles as the american vintage series spacing as found on the original strat. The Classic 50's and 60's also use this same bridge, along with the Jimmie Vaughan. The mexican standard series uses the narrower spaced bridge.

that's very useful info , thanks.

now i can't find a Graph tech set for my guitar! I found the right width saddle but the E to E measurement are narrower by 3mm on this kit, and the kit with the right E to E measurement has wider saddles than the one I have!! I sent them an email asking for help, but do I have other options for saddles upgrade other than the Graphtech ?

Yes you do - http://www.acmeguitarworks.com/Callaham ... 53C209.cfm

or

http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/sadd ... rstrat.htm (Original Strat Saddles)

For Graph Tech you want Vintage Saddles (PS-8000 FO) and if you want Ferraglides the number is PG-8000 FO.

You want saddles for a vintage strat. If you get the narrower saddles, there will be a space between each saddle as illustrated in the picture of the sunburst 70's in this thread.

Stay Well

If I get the original strat ones, will they be a better quality and more stable than the stock ones or are they the same ?

Thanks for all the help

The Fenders on the link are the american made saddles - the saddles that originally come on your guitar are made by Ping in China. The american saddles are better than your originals - but in my opinion, the Callaham ones in the first link are held to even tighter tolerances than the Fender.

Bill

you definetly know your strats Bill will go for the callaham then.. i want to preserve the vintage look of my strat while fixing the play I currently have with the standard saddles, so it looks like the best option.
much appreciated

Well how about that! When I bought the Graph Tech saddles from Carvin about 10 (or more) years ago, those were the only ones they offered (and apparently still the only ones they offer).

The Graph Tech saddles are 13/32 inches wide, while my original saddles are 7/16 inches wide. I never noticed the discrepancy before and I've never noticed any problems caused by narrow saddles. The tension of the strings holds the saddles quite securely in place.

I've got them on two mid-70s guitars!

_________________
Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.