Broken Pot Metal Floyd Rose Bridge Saddles and What They Look Like

I thought I'd share a little something with my readers... a first-hand view of what pot-metal bridge saddles can do - particularly on a Floyd Rose Bridge.

This is one of those things where the bridge seems fine for a while - then, when you're changing strings and locking down the string tips in the bridge, you hear unusual cracking noises. Using the hex/allen wrench to tighten down the lock blocks usually makes little popping noises as the wrench tightens down. But... it really shouldn't crack like the sound of breaking wood.

Here is a classic case of the difference between a high-quality bridge and a cheap bridge. Steel saddles (or at least, real, forged metal such as brass, steel, or even aluminum) are hugely better than their cheaper pot-metal cousins. Why?

Because, they break. A replacement Floyd Rose Bridge (licensed or original) saddle is usually somewhere between $7 and $10. Think: if you had to replace all six (or seven or eight), you'd spend more than the cost of a new, cheap Floyd Bridge. It's worth it in the end to get a better bridge. Better yet, look into one which has speed loader back ends, load-through-tube back ends, or just go with real name brand bridges and pay the extra twenty or three. In the end, when you're NOT breaking a saddle just before a gig or a recording, you're saving yourself LOTS of time, energy, and even money, in the end.

Here's the anatomy:
A bridge saddle I've removed that has had that "crack" sound, but not yet broken. Notice the fault-lines around the lock block.




Here is the bridge with a freshly-broken saddle. Yes, this is one of mine. It is in a Licensed Floyd Rose bridge that came with a guitar I took in trade.




Here is the bridge with the offending saddle removed, so you can see what it looks like underneath.




Here are a couple of shots of broken saddles so you can see the inside, under the paint, of the pot metal. Real forged saddles don't behave quite this way.







I ended up tightening down the lock blocks hard on all six saddles on this bridge. Four of them broke with very little effort on my part! The bridge had only seen a few years of active use.

Fun, huh? In this case, you get what you pay for. And I had a really cool Jackson hybrid I was making - that I couldn't finish, play, or sell until I bought either saddles or a new bridge (I went with a new bridge - the kind which does not require string ball cutting (ouch!).)