Zac’s Hacks - How to Compensate Your Vintage Tele Saddles - Ask Zac 159

well hello friends and welcome to Ask
0:16
Zac today I am going to show you how to
0:19
take your vintage style Saddles that are
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uncompensated and how to make them
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compensated it's uh pretty easy so I'm
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going to show how to do that
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then next I'm going to tell the story of
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how I learned about this from Joe Glazer
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and uh you know some of you might say oh
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I don't care about the story well the
0:41
the story has Albert Lee and Vince Gill
0:44
and Brad Paisley in it so you might want
0:46
to stay for the story
0:48
and at the end because I learned this
0:50
technique from Joe I'm going to plug his
0:53
uh Music City Bridge saddle driver which
0:57
I really love so I'm going to talk about
0:58
that at the end and then I'm going to
0:59
end with Book Nook on a another Fender
1:02
book and this time I made sure that the
1:04
book was still in print I know a lot of
1:06
you have gotten kind of upset at me
1:08
because I've a lot of the books on my
1:10
shelf are out of print and so I made
1:12
sure that the book I'm recommending
1:14
today is still available so
1:18
that's we're going to do today so while
1:20
you're thinking about it if you haven't
1:22
done already and if you've been enjoying
1:24
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1:28
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1:51
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1:52
all right
1:53
let's dive in uh I'm just going to show
1:56
how to do it and like I said I'm going
1:58
to tell the story so
2:00
this is for guys that have vintage style
2:04
saddles on their guitar and they're not
2:07
compensated okay
2:10
if you've already got compensated
2:12
Saddles if they're angled or they have
2:14
little funny notches in them and stuff
2:16
then don't mess with it this is for you
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know now this one I've already done it
2:21
on but this is for you know these type
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of uh of saddles whether they be brass
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or
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or uh you know steel or whatever and
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basically what we're going to do is
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we're going to bend this screw okay
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and that allows it to get much better
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intonation now
2:40
where did this come from
2:43
I'm not sure but I know that Fender was
2:47
selling the The caneto Relic no Casters
2:50
in 1995 with what they called Gatton
2:54
Saddles and that's what they were doing
2:55
they were bending this screw and
2:59
allowing basically what it allows is
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allows the saddle to fishtail back and
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forth to where you can kind of get it
3:05
better better intonation on each string
3:09
uh I learned the technique from Joe
3:11
Glazer and of course I'm going to tell
3:13
the full story after I show you how so
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um now I've already actually Joe did it
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on this guitar last week but I'm going
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to uh you know show you what he did and
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you know it's not anything radical it's
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not like you know when you look at this
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guitar you don't think oh my goodness
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those those screws are so bent
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um you know it just entails some gentle
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bending and so he used some big wire
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cutters that were even bigger than this
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and that's what he recommended and so
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what you're going to do is you're gonna
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go across the saddle
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so hopefully you can see this I'm trying
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to show it as best as I can so you're
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kind of going on either side of the
3:58
screw on the saddle okay and then
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you are going to twist it
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this way because what you're wanting to
4:08
do
4:09
is you want to shorten the length of the
4:11
high e strain you want to link and you
4:13
want to get the B string length longer
4:16
okay now if you do this wrong it's not
4:19
the end of the world let's say if you've
4:20
been at the wrong direction well guess
4:22
what as you move this screw the saddle
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will fishtail back and forth and it'll
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be fine so you can actually you could
4:29
actually bend it either way and then you
4:32
can just pull it around now again it
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doesn't matter which way you do it but
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the way to properly do the second one is
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you're going to do it Opposite because
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you want to uh you know you want to
4:44
lengthen the G string and you want to
4:46
shorten the D and then again you're
4:49
going to do the the A and E string like
4:53
you did the E and B so what you're going
4:55
to do is you're going to come on it like
4:57
this and you're going to twist it this
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way because you want to make the length
5:01
of the low E string longer and again you
5:04
don't have to do it a lot this one's
5:05
already been done
5:07
and uh yeah it just gets it in a lot
5:12
closer and you can keep you know you can
5:14
just subtly bend it and again it's
5:15
easier to do without the strings on
5:18
um but uh you know if you got to do it
5:21
you got to do it you can kind of scooch
5:22
them around and such
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why
5:28
would you not want to do this
5:31
well sometimes this won't work well if
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you don't have enough brake angle so
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let's say if you have a problem with the
5:39
strings moving around on the saddle it
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might not be the best methodology you
5:44
might want to go with just a good
5:46
old-fashioned compensated saddle like
5:49
what I have here so this is my 67 tele
5:53
and these are these are saddle steel
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Saddles from Advanced plating that are
5:58
compensated so these have a Groove and
6:00
the groove is compensated and so that
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way you know this worked better that way
6:07
but if you have enough brake angle
6:10
and you like your saddles then you know
6:14
that's that's a you know it's an option
6:16
this is all about having options to find
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out Works what works best for you one
6:20
thing I found out a long time ago when I
6:23
bought this guitar
6:24
again this is my 67 Maple cap here
6:27
you've got the headstock
6:30
um
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it had you know what we call the uh the
6:34
threaded saddles and
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they sounded really good but they were
6:39
not compensated and the guitar was not
6:41
in tune
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so I I found some really nice Saddles
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from uh actually a guy that I know that
6:48
makes great Saddles that are heavy duty
6:50
they're heavily Chrome plated they're
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beautiful saddles
6:54
well when I put those beautiful saddles
6:57
on this guitar the tone changed a lot
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and I wanted to keep the sound it had
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and the first thing I noticed was that
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those new Saddles were a lot heavier
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that the original steel Saddles you know
7:10
that came on this guitar they weighed
7:12
nothing and they were really cheap soft
7:14
metal
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and so I uh I found some you know
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lighter weight Saddles and that's kind
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of what I went with and these are pretty
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lightweight these are currently made
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oops
7:27
hit the old Shelf
7:29
uh let's see yeah and so I also have
7:32
been the saddles on my 57 Esquire here
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so this of course has steel Saddles and
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they've been you know bent and again it
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didn't take a whole lot of bending but
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uh that's what got that to where it
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stays in tune
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better
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all right now it's story time
7:54
so way back in uh
7:57
golly it's probably around 2004.
8:00
I was I was working for Brad Paisley and
8:03
I was his guitar tech
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and we were in the middle of recording
8:07
one of his albums
8:08
and I got a call from a guy named Steve
8:10
Fishel now Steve if you're not familiar
8:13
with him he was the second steel player
8:16
in emmylou's hot band so he replaced
8:19
Hank DeVito fabulous fabulous steel
8:21
player and also great dobro and
8:24
weisenborn player and so if you ever
8:25
have heard the trio album you know the
8:29
first one with of course Dolly and Linda
8:31
Ronstadt and emila Harris you've
8:33
probably heard the tune those memories
8:35
of me still haunt you well the intro and
8:40
uh and part of the solo on the wisenborn
8:42
that's Steve playing
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so Steve went from kind of the hot band
8:47
to being a record producer in the late
8:49
80s and throughout the 90s and and
8:51
onward till today he's still producing
8:53
records
8:54
Steve was producing an Albert Lee record
8:57
and he was trying to get through Brad's
9:01
management at the time and was having
9:03
trouble
9:05
so even though it was kind of not the
9:08
right way to do it
9:10
he knew that you know that Brad really
9:13
loved you know Albert Lee and so he was
9:15
trying to gauge if Brad even knew about
9:17
this so Steve called me up and said hey
9:20
Albert Lee's cutting a record here in
9:22
town you know would Brad be interested
9:25
in doing this
9:26
and I said I think he would let me let
9:29
me ask him so I asked him and and so
9:31
then we got management and Steve and
9:33
everything involved together and so it
9:35
was worked out
9:37
so the session came up and Vince Gill
9:40
was also part of this and so it was an
9:42
instrumental track of the tune of the
9:44
Graham Parsons tune luxury liner and so
9:47
there was Albert Lee Vince Gill and Brad
9:49
Paisley you know all in a circle with
9:52
their guitars playing and it was it was
9:55
pretty ridiculous and uh at one point
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they were taking a break and Vince Gill
10:01
came over to Brad's guitar and just
10:04
picked it up and started feeling it and
10:06
playing on it and he kind of had this
10:09
kind of you know he you know his eyes
10:12
were kind of squinted and he looked very
10:14
serious as he was you know moving his
10:16
hands up and down the the neck of Brad's
10:18
you know 68 Paisley
10:21
and then you put the guitar down and I
10:23
thought hmm I wonder what that was about
10:26
so the next day I get a call from Joe
10:28
Glazer and Joe Glazer tells me he said
10:30
hey uh Vince Gill wants his guitar set
10:34
up like Brad's
10:37
Anna and I laughed and was honored you
10:39
know because of course
10:41
I was
10:43
I didn't I was setting up Brad's guitar
10:45
at the time but I have to give credit to
10:48
Bill crook Bill crook had re-fretted it
10:50
and set it up and then I was kind of
10:52
maintaining that and so I was keeping
10:54
the neck where it just had a slight
10:56
amount of relief where it was really
10:58
pretty straight and I was keeping the
11:00
action really low just uh you know where
11:03
it would almost you know or kind of
11:05
rattled just a little bit on the on the
11:06
low strings and uh and just you know
11:09
kind of keeping it healthy keeping it
11:11
intonated
11:12
so we had uh so uh Joe asked if he could
11:16
borrow Brad 68 Paisley and so I took it
11:18
down there
11:19
and uh and I got to watch a little bit
11:23
as uh you know Joe kind of was taking
11:25
measurements and he said well I'm gonna
11:27
need this you know for a day but you can
11:30
you can get it back tomorrow and uh and
11:33
so he said and and by the way we just
11:35
have this new thing called the pluck
11:37
machine do you would uh would you be
11:38
open to doing that and uh I said
11:40
absolutely so got a free play job on
11:44
Brad Paisley 68 Paisley guitar and uh I
11:48
think Vince's guitar I think the biggest
11:50
change was I think he had smaller Frets
11:52
on it and Brad had 6105s and so I think
11:55
that was kind of the main thing that
11:57
Vince was was wanting was was bigger
11:59
Frets I think I think that was the big
12:01
difference at that point
12:03
so anyway the next day I come to pick up
12:05
Brad's guitar and he's got Vince's out
12:08
there that he's working on and I see him
12:11
take pair of pliers go down
12:15
on the bridge Saddles and give it a
12:17
Twist and I said Joe what the hell are
12:19
you doing he said I'm intonating the
12:22
saddles
12:23
and I was like what he said yeah you can
12:26
just bend the screw and so that was
12:29
where I learned about that and so thanks
12:33
to Joe and Joe actually
12:35
did this guitar last week and so I was
12:38
asking him to make sure that I was doing
12:40
it the right way and he showed me how he
12:43
did it
12:44
all right now a plug for Joe because he
12:49
showed me how to do this and uh because
12:51
he's just such a good guy and I have a
12:54
set of these and I use these all the
12:55
time so these are Music City Bridge
12:59
saddle drivers and uh they're just
13:03
fantastic I keep this out all the time
13:05
and I use it you know always you know
13:08
when setting the action on guitars and
13:11
adjusting my Benders all sorts of things
13:13
and so these are pretty you know these
13:15
are all the common sizes that you need
13:16
so you have 0.05 inches uh you know
13:20
Allen you have uh 1 16 Allen hex you
13:24
have 1.5 millimeter Allen hex and then
13:27
you have a a small flat head and so of
13:30
course I use the uh the small flat head
13:33
a lot to uh adjust the Saddles you know
13:38
on telly you know I use that a lot and
13:41
then also I use them because that's
13:43
really handy for a tightening the the
13:45
knobs and then of course on the uh on a
13:49
guitar with a B Bender of course this is
13:51
you know this is an essential because it
13:53
has all of the uh adjustment sizes that
13:56
you need to adjust the B Bender or even
13:59
if you've got these other compensated
14:01
saddles
14:04
like that are on my 67 you know these
14:07
have you know these are you know Allen
14:09
key and so you go right in there and
14:11
adjust and it's just so much easier to
14:12
use this than using you know a regular
14:15
old bent allen wrench this is much
14:18
easier you can flip them over back and
14:19
forth again it's got the uh the three
14:22
different Allen sizes that you're gonna
14:24
use the most Plus
14:26
it has the uh the small flat head which
14:29
is essential
14:33
it's time for the Book Nook
14:35
today I'm going to talk about Fender the
14:38
Golden Age by Martin Kelly Terry Foster
14:42
and Paul Kelly
14:44
this is a beautiful beautiful book that
14:47
uh these guys are serious collectors and
14:51
these are some of the most beautiful
14:52
photographs you're ever going to see of
14:54
vintage Fender guitars also it is the
14:58
best collection of kind of Fender
15:01
ephemera and memorabilia you're ever
15:04
going to find there's just all sorts of
15:08
photos of
15:09
amp covers tolex manuals uh you know
15:14
really great modern pictures uh vintage
15:17
pictures of people you know playing
15:19
vintage you know vintage Fender guitars
15:22
there's pictures of catalogs uh all
15:26
sorts of wonderful things and again it's
15:28
still in print so there there you have
15:32
it it's a book I really enjoy just uh
15:34
glancing at it you know and it's it's
15:36
everything it's you know it's the amps
15:38
it's it's all the guitars it's not just
15:39
telecasters it's uh you know Jazz
15:42
Masters and strats and everything else
15:43
just beautiful shots and just the the
15:47
cover shot with the the three blonde
15:50
fenders you know the the strap the Jazz
15:52
master and the Telly is just uh you know
15:56
you know seeing that nice Ash there
15:59
all right no jokes
16:01
all right guys well I hope you've
16:03
enjoyed today's episode and uh you know
16:07
just appreciate you watching uh I want
16:10
to thank all my patreon people uh they
16:12
really you know keep this thing going
16:14
and I'm very grateful for you guys all
16:16
right see you next time bye