Hellow I am new to the forum and I just bought a used Strat and I love it! This Strat has the black graphite saddles, I am a fan of the graphite bridge saddles in my Les Pauls for the obvious reason (string life) but on my Strat they kinda look ugly (natural finish ash body, maple fretboard, white pickgaurd) I was wondering what are some opinions of the Strat players around here on tone verses string ware? I already tried the search so if you could share a link on other discussions that would be cool thanks, any other tips would be cool too.
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It's fine to take aesthetics into consideration and do our best in that regard but at some point function has to win out over form.

Welcome!!

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

The ones on my guitar are graphtech..whatcha think, Strat-like or what?

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

I just switched to graphite saddles a few weeks ago, and I'm surprised it's taken me this long to give them a try. I'm really happy with the change. Good sound and very comfortable under my hand (no more screws digging into the side of my hand).

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David Breckheimer

I have Graph Tech saddles on both of my Clapton Strats and love them. I never cared for the looks of the old all black ones though. I have the classics, like rkreisher above has. They're stainless steel saddles with a small graphite insert. I'm not certain of the policy on here about posting links so I won't, but if you Google "graph tech classic saddles" you'll find many places where you can order them. While not "vintage correct", I find the classics fairly pleasing to the eye and they give a slightly warmer tone. Best of all, I have never broken a string since I've had them on and that's been well over ten years now.

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My one wish when I die is that my wife doesn't sell my guitar stuff for what I told her I paid for it...

I think you answered your own question right off the get go.

If you like the way the guitar sounds, plays, and feels, I would encourage you to leave it alone.

My main concern was that this guitar sounds a little dead on the bass notes and if anyone had insight on tonal character of these things, I just chanced strings and I'm getting a dead tone still, I don't know if the saddles are the cause or something else not adjusted right. Or perhaps I am not used to a Strat I have been playing Les Pauls with ebony fretboards and maple tops so I did't expect it would be a drastic change. Thanx everybody for your fast replies! BTW I just put a new pick gaurd on it watcha think?

I actually found that the Graph-Techs gave a slightly warmer sound and a little more sustain. Don't misunderstand though, it is not a drastic change at all.

If you've been playing an ebony fingerboarded Les Paul than yes, indeed a maple necked Strat is a totally different animal. I would say a Strat with a maple neck is just about as far opposite as you can get from a Les Paul. Not better...not worse.....just very, very different. The Strat is very likely going to sound much brighter and not have as much sustain as the Les Paul. I'm assuming your Les Paul has humbuckers in it. Just the change from humbuckers to single coil pickups is very drastic. Throw in a maple neck vs. ebony and well, those are very different guitars. If your stings sound dead I would check both the saddles and nut.

Hope this helps,

-Darryl

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My one wish when I die is that my wife doesn't sell my guitar stuff for what I told her I paid for it...

By the way, I think the pick guard looks great!

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My one wish when I die is that my wife doesn't sell my guitar stuff for what I told her I paid for it...

Cool, I didnt even think about the nut, i would love to switch the nut to a roller nut.

I think that both your guitar and Marshall look great,however I don't think that I'd ever be able to use a Marshall with all those controls-the most I have on any of mine is 8.BTW if as the other guys say that Graphtech saddles are available with graphite inserts that would probably be the best way to go.I don't think that the old set took away that much from the looks of the guitar anyway,I'd go for function over aesthetics any day.

Edit: Hey Joe,with regard to the E 6th etc. sounding dead or thin,try changing the pickup height. The Strat pickups especially some of the older ones or the ones patterned after them can do strange things when not at the proper height that can include sounding thin in spots to quite the opposite and not beng able to intonate properly at all.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I agree with many of these posts. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. But if you want something that looks stock and feel like you got to change them, consider roller saddles:

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com