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Your cart is empty.The PS-8163-00 is a perfect upgrade or replacement set of saddles for your vintage Tele style guitar. They are fully compensated saddles to help improve the playability of your guitar. They are a drop in replacement set to make for an easy install.
Randomguy
Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2023
I got them a few days early which was cool! There’s a satisfaction warranty from factory for the customer. Was possible to get the intonation perfect with these. My metal barrels weren’t so easy and they had slight variances that made it impossible to get perfect. I really like the look of these too. The way they contrast the plate while matching the pickup… Cool Beans! The only thing that’s wrong with them is they’re expensive. These are about $35 more than an average priced brass barrel set on Amazon. It will be cool in the future when/if these Tusq awesome guitar products become standard or way less $. It was worth it IMHO though cause the difference is noticeable.
Jeff
Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2022
I had pretty high hopes for these. The product itself seems to be pretty well made and they look pretty cool on my black and white American Special. However, they just don't sound good...like at all. The only positive thing that I can say is that maybe they tightened up the low end a bit, compared to brass. But, even that is at the cost of some of the warmth. The intonation seems good and I'm sure the tuning stability would be as advertised. I never break strings, so that wasn't a factor for me.The main reason these are now sitting on my desk in the package instead of on the guitar is that they introduce extremely unpleasant resonances and overtones to the high-mid/highs. Playing an open chord, I could immediately hear ugly frequencies overwhelming the entire tone. I don't have the ear to tell you what freqs, but it makes the G and B strings jump out as if they are louder than the others. Also, when you strum the guitar unplugged, you can hear rattling/buzzing from the saddles that almost sounds like a string fretting out when the action is off. I spent some time trying to figure out where it is coming from even raised the string height up beyond anything reasonable to see if I could eliminate the buzz, but nothing worked. Strumming the guitar, it almost felt like the vibration of the strings just wasn't getting the body and resonating in the way it does with the stock brass saddles.I have Porter 9T pickups, which are voiced to emulate P90s more than traditional tele pickups. MAYBE there is something that just doesn't jive between them and these saddles. But, I doubt it, since even the sound of the guitar unplugged was really unpleasant. I tried to dial these in for about 2 weeks and eventually just gave up and put the stock brass back on. Immediately, the buzz is gone, the tone is warmer, and I realize just how much high end I had dialed out of every pedal/preset/etc in the signal chain. Maybe the set that I got was bad or something? But, based on my experience, the only way that I could recommend these are if you have a tele that is too fat/warm and you want more high end.
30 Weight
Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2022
Seem well-made quality you see in their other stuff. Precise and easy to install. One note they seem to sound quite a bit brighter to me than brass saddles on the telecaster.One solution would be to use these for the bottom strings, the low strings, to increase brightness and stay with brass for the top two strings to dull the terrifying treble some telecasters have.
J. Lear
Reviewed in the United States on July 20, 2016
This absolutely solved my Bigsby saddle binding issue on my Squier CV Telecaster. Originally I tried using some smooth brass barrel saddles on the bridge hoping the strings would slide over the saddles but the brass is too soft and the strings would bind, making an incredibly loud creaking sound. Even with some graphite applied, the strings would just dig into the saddles. I looked for another solution and found these GraphTech saddles. I love the Black TUSQ nuts and use them on every guitar (with or without Bigsby). So it was easy to take a chance on these knowing they make great stuff. They solved the issue.The only slight warning is that the screws that hold the saddles in place (and control the intonation) are a little bit larger than what was originally on a Squier Tele so I used a drill bit to gently widen the holes—barely any material was removed. It must be a metric vs. imperial thing. I only bring this up because if you are also using a Bigsby you don't have much material left around those screwholes because you've had to cut away for string clearance. Luckily they aren't load-bearing so the metal can be fairly thin around there and still be safe.One other slight warning: you will lose string ground. I solved this by running a wire under the bridge to the Bigsby. If you are using a standard bridge you could maybe run a wire to the ferrule where the ball end hits the body.Get these saddles. They sound good, prevent binding (of any kind), and look cool as hell.
Jason Randolph
Reviewed in the United States on February 28, 2014
I have been a Tele player for 20 years. I started using compensated saddles about 7 or 8 years ago and have tried most of the brass ones out there. I recently got a new Tele without compensated saddles and decided to give these a try. At first, I was put off by the black color because I wanted that "classic" look, but I put them on and set the intonation as close as possible. As far as intonation goes, these are on par with most every other compensated saddle.... But when I plugged into my amp and played my first chord, I was sold! These do bring out the top end just a little, but they also sounded fuller over-all.On another positive note, I usually break a string about every 2nd or 3rd show, no matter what guitar I play... I played 4 shows, before I changed strings, with no strings breaking and they didn't get as dull sounding as they used to.I will be putting these on my other two Tele's!
Edward I. Zwilling
Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2013
Excellent saddles. I have a Barden bridge with brass compensated saddles. The Barden saddles were difficult to use insofar as keeping a consistent space between strings and tuning stability. I never cut grooves in them, but I believe they are necessary for the Barden saddles. The graph techs are great out of the box. Much better tuning stability and even 2 step bends don't cause strings to slide on the saddles. If you have a vintage 3 saddle bridge, I highly recommend these saddles. They intonate perfectly as advertised as well. I am very glad I bought these.
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