Tele bridge upgrade?

[redelephant]

Hi. Being bored at work I read some interesting articles from the 3w on bridges . According to the 'experts' a light and stiff material such as aluminum gives a more resonant tone than the heavier and softer brass. Supposedly brass is cheaper to mass produce and that is why it is used so much, not b/c it sounds the best.

So I wonder if anyone here has tried swapping the brass sadles on a Tele with something like aluminimum, graphite, or whatever.

???

[FunkyKikuchiyo]

Graphite (or at least, "graphtech") sounds dull and lifeless. The advertising says "warm", but that just isn't the case. Graphtech isn't worth doing unless you have breakage issues that can't be resolved any other way.

I've never played a tele with aluminum saddles, but I have played other guitars with aluminum saddles - typically in the form of a single compensated piece. It tends to have a jangly/trashy/vintage vibe. On the instruments I see it on I wouldn't want anything else, lest it ruin the vintage vibe of that instrument. On a tele I really wouldn't know what to expect, but I can't imagine a very clean sound. Also expect them to wear fairly quickly.

Stainless steel is the other tele barrel saddle type you'll see. They are a bit cleaner sounding and have WAY more high end. Not my favorite, but I can see how people might like it.

Brass is probably the easiest metal to machine, with 1950s technology anyway. Aluminum does weird stuff when you put a bit to it and it can be tricky to exhaust the metal as you cut. Someone experienced with aluminum knows how to deal with this, but I can definitely imagine lots of people trying aluminum and ultimately saying "screw it, I'm just using brass!" I haven't had great luck with getting aluminum to hold threads, either.

[redelephant]

Thnx for reply.
Yeah, I guess a Tele is bright enuff as is. I also need to worry more about my playing skills than what a bridge upgrade can do. Sometimes I just can't leave well enough alone.