I've had a Tele for about a year or so which I really like, it's this guy
http://www.fender.com/products//search.php?partno=0256800500
However it has always had a lot of buzzing in the bridge area. Now that the honeymoon period is over I've finally gotten around to fixing it.
The first problem was the spring in the bigsby. Through normal usage, the spring would tend get slightly unseated and it would buzz horribly. I was able to fix that by running a loop of surgical tape around the outside of the spring on both ends, trimming off the excess tape. Now it sits snug in its socket, problem solved.
The second problem is that the tremelo action works the height adjustment screws loose on the adjustable bridge. With 12 of them it doesn't take long for one to work loose. (2 screws per saddle on a 6 saddle bridge seems like an awful lot of moving parts for what is basically a one-time adjusment - and the factory setting was perfect anyway.)
As an experiment I put a little glob of silicon adhesive on the top of each of the screws. That fixed that. No buzzing at all, nothing coming loose.
But life is never simple. Maybe it's my imagination but it seems like the glue is muffling some top end. (?)
I'm thinking about putting in mustang bridge saddles. Not sure but from the picture it looks like the entire mustang bridge assembly would be a drop-in replacement. Apparently there are some issues with that too, which I found on a Jaguar page. http://www.fenderjaguar.net/setup.htm
Yet another option would be to take the saddles out and TIG weld the screws into place.
Anyone else been through this? (rhetorical question)
As an experiment I put a little glob of silicon adhesive on the top of each of the screws. That fixed that. No buzzing at all, nothing coming loose.
But life is never simple. Maybe it's my imagination but it seems like the glue is muffling some top end. (?)
It's a common problem with strat and tele bridges. Substitute a drop of clear nail polish for the silicone. That's the traditional fix, dries harder, and has less tendency to muffle the hi freqs.
Playing guitar and never playing for others is like studying medicine and never working in a clinic.
Thanks for the tip, that did the trick and it looks a lot better too. (The "cosmetics" are better. :) )
BTW I've had a strat and a jaguar for years and they've never given me a lick of trouble. This tele has the threaded jaguar bridge, the setup is basically identical to the jag. The only difference I can tell is made in USA vs. MIJ.
