Hello - Is there an easy way to tell genuine 1950's saddles from the repros? And are these saddles real or fake? Cheers. Len

Hard to say with certainty.

I know these are repro's because I installed them myself......



I think yours may be the "real McCoy" though.

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Thanks for the reply and pics The individual I purchased them from (with the guitar) said he cleaned them up which is why they look clean & shiny. They all have what appears to be a serrated scratch mark on the under side of the hump if that adds any info?

Frankly, I don't think I've ever seen new saddles quite that shiny. And I've owned a few vintage Strats with the original "PAT PEND" saddles back when those guitars weren't quite so "vintage".

Caveat Emptor!

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

They look old but I would expect to see alittle more wear at the point where the string crosses the saddle but I could be wrong also.

According to this site, they seem to be genuine

http://guitarhq.com/fenddiff/

(which is a really good reference site )

Here's the pics from there for quick reference

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Ted

"All right, guys, uh, listen. This is a blues riff in "B", watch me for the changes, and try and keep up, okay?"

Many thanks for the detailed reply and the excellent reference material. Based on your info I am cautiously optimistic that the saddles are genuine. The machine marks are present on the saddles and they do have that "look" to them.