I have listened to YouTube comparisons of brass and steel saddles, and I do believe I can hear a difference. They all sound good to me. On darker sounding Tele especially, steel saddles do great twang. But I've also got a relatively high output pickup that still has plenty of treble punch, even with the flat wounds I'm currently using. But i find that ruins the tele tone i like. This bridge is made of stamped steel combined with compensated brass saddles. I generally prefer brass when playing rock or blues stuff, or R&B. On my current tele, which is also currently my only tele, I prefer brass. Take a listen. I like brass myself, but steel is fine too, brass is warmer, steel brighter and a little more defined, to put it simply. I actually preferred the sound of the original steel saddles in that particular guitar, and so I switched them back, again without changing strings. I played a Hwy One Tele, [I think that was the one], that had smooth steel saddles with no grove, and they slipped around like crazy. Block Saddles vs Bent Steel. It truly shows superb built quality, which is why it is a great replacement and upgrades from ordinary bridges on tele guitars. I had a 66 Tele and the stock saddles were steel and had 2 groves in them so they couldn't slide.. But other smooth steel vs brass i don't find steel brighter in general as many say. Just less bass. The steel magnetic plate helps the sound too, imo. I had changed from steel to brass mostly for aesthetics, but it did also take the sharper, and often unpleasant, bite out of the sound. Just pointing that out to isolate the issues, which to me seems in this thread to be brass vs steel. Not all brass saddles are compensated, and not all steel saddles are threaded, and steel saddles can be compensated. Did you ever wonder how block saddles sound different from bent steel saddles? That being said, I have a Tele with brass saddles, one with steel saddles, and one with a "modern" 6 saddle bridge. When playing more twang stuff, on some guitars I like brass, on some I like steel, and I've played the "twang set" from Glendale - I think that's aluminum on the two low strings, and brass on the 4 higher pitched ones - sounds great to me. Posted on January 18, 2015 January 18, 2015 by Gray. BUT, I swapped out the 3 steel saddles on my HW1 Tele with brass (did not change strings) and it made a very noticeable difference in tone. I find some of them thinner but not really bright. We will get started with the Wilkinson Chrome Ashtray bridge for tele guitars. Here we took a guitar equipped with cast block saddles and replaced them with vintage-style bent steel saddles, recording the same little phrases before and after the change – two clean, two dirty. I don't think it's as big a difference as some claim it to be, but there is a difference. But what i find is you can't just say brass vs steel because different brass saddles can sound as different from each other as the do from steel, and same goes for steel. I have sets that are a lot less bright than my fav brass set and smoother too. I could never pick the guitar with steel vs brass saddles in a blind test. I have brass thats brighter then any of the steel I've tried except threaded.