Be it for intonation issues, functionality, aesthetics, or something else, a bridge upgrade can be a quick cure for what’s ailing your Tele-style axe. Here, we’ve rounded up 10 options for this easy DIY mod.
g-gotoh.comfullcontacthardware.comcallahamguitars.comVintage Bridgeplate
Also available in an American Standard version, this bridge is made of the same spec’d material as the original but is slightly thicker to make it less prone to unwanted squeal.
Modern Bridge for Tele
This beefier version of a traditional Tele bridge features a solid-brass baseplate and six completely adjustable saddles for fine-tuning string height, radius, and intonation.
FCH Tele
This direct coupling system features the company’s “eCAM” saddle design, which eliminates unwanted space between the bottom of the saddle and the top of the plate.
Maverick
If a tremolo is in order, the Maverick features the company’s “Blade” technology for clarity, sustain, and stability, and V-Tone vintage-style brass saddles.
Adjustable Compensated Bridge
A locking pivot screw in the center of each unplated brass saddle on this 3-saddle design allows for precision string-intonation adjustment.
M4
The M4’s baseplate is CNC water-cut from stainless non-ferrous steel, while the solid-brass saddles feature the company’s unique hard-chrome-plating not found on other bridges.
Vintage T
Crafted with thicker, specially treated steel for an 80-percent increase in rigidity, this bridge design is intended to dramatically increase sustain, volume, and note separation.
Steel Replacement Bridge
Designed with vintage-bridge specs, these replacement units have a stamped-steel baseplate and brass saddles like the originals, but feature higher quality finish work.
TL Bridge
This bridge’s lightweight aluminum body and raw-brass saddle construction is intended to provide warm and bell-like tone transfer from strings to the body of a guitar.
Telecaster Retrofit Bridge
Available with different saddle configuration and mount styles, these laser-cut, stainless-steel bridges are non-magnetic for more transparent tone in the bridge pickup position.
The 2018 CCL Deco Custom, in all its Pelham blue glory.
Anyway, we became friends and I started working on him pretty early—my 40th birthday was approaching, and that meant it was time for us to start designing his first solidbody build. If you stopped on this page, it’s because the photo of the finished product caught your eye. Beautiful, right? The 2018 CCL Deco Custom: Never shall there be another.
Old National Glenwood guitars were my design inspiration, but I wanted a slim waist like a PRS and the like. We used a solid block of korina to start, routed like MacGyver to get the knobs and switches where I wanted them. Dale builds all his own lathes and machines (usually out of lumber, y’all), as the task requires. This beast took some creativity—it’s tight wiring under that custom-steel pickguard. Many were the preliminary sketches. Four coats of Pelham blue, 11 coats of nitro. Honduran mahogany neck, Madagascar ebony fretboard with Dale’s signature not-quite-Super-400 inlays. He designed the logo; I just said, “Make it art deco.”
We sourced all the bits and bobs from StewMac and Allparts and Reverb and the like, mostly to get that chrome look I so adore. Graph Tech Ratio tuners, Duesenberg Radiator trem (had to order that one from Germany), TonePros TP6R-C roller bridge. The pickups were a genius suggestion from the builder, Guitarfetish plug ’n’ play 1/8" solderless swappable, which means I have about 10 pickups in the case to choose from: rockabilly to metal. And both slots are tapped, with the tone knobs serving as single- to double-coil switches. I put the selector on the lower horn to accommodate my tendency to accidentally flip the thing on Les Pauls—definite lifesaver.
Reader and guitar enthusiast, Cody Lindsey.
Dale offered to chamber this monster, but I said what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. It weighs in at 11 pounds, if it’s an ounce. We carved the neck to match a ’60s SG, so it’s like the mini bat you get at the ballpark on little kids’ day. Easy peasy. 1 11/16" nut, 25" scale, jumbo frets, just 2 1/8" at the 12th fret.
Delivery in its lovely, hygrometer-equipped Cedar Creek case actually happened a month or two shy of my 41st, but hey, you can’t rush these things. We ended up with a studio Swiss Army knife; it does a bit of everything and does it effortlessly. A looker, too. Dale didn’t spend his career doing this kind of thing—he was in IT or some such—and I imagine he’s winding this “hobby” of his down these days, enjoying retirement with a bottle of Killian’s and a lawn chair at Duluth Blues Fest. But this guitar will live on as a marker of his skill and otherworldly patience. It sits at the head of the class in my practice room, welcoming any visitors and bringing a smile to my face every day. And Dale, my friend, I’ll be 50 before you know it....
Cody requested that Dale design an art deco logo for the guitar’s headstock.