RAISING THE TONE The Modfather
bill Callaham’s replacement parts are a go-to for modders. Jamie talks to him about improving on classic designs…
Those with a penchant for modding will have undoubtedly heard of Bill Callaham. Based in Virginia, US, Callaham’s eponymous company makes its own precisely engineered versions of classic Fender and Gibson electrics – from neck plates to bridges – and these parts have become go-to kit for many modders.
Hot on the heels of last issue’s modding special edition, we joined Callaham to pick his brains about tone and the engineering philosophy behind his well-regarded components – starting with how he got into making hardware in the first place.
“It was somewhat out of the necessity when we were building our own guitars,”he explains.“I needed to correct certain things that I wasn’t happy with in terms of the aftermarket parts that were available. We had to start making our own tremolo blocks, and there were things about the saddles that we wanted, and it just grew from there. So it really grew out of trying to make our guitars better.”
What qualities did he think were lacking in the aftermarket hardware at the time?
“Well, I knew we could use better steel than what they were using in the trem blocks.And I felt that we could change the design of the arm and make that better.At the time nobody was really doing compensated saddles for Telecasters, which I felt was very important. Because it drove lots of people crazy not being able to get the guitar in tune – or, at least, easily in tune.
“And then I felt the bridge plate design of the Telecaster needed to be much more substantial in terms of its rigidity and its flatness. I also wanted the neck plates to be stronger, so that they didn’t bend. Also I wanted to use stainless hardware so that they didn’t rust so badly. I’d worked on so many used guitars for people and, you know, you’d constantly be working on rusted screws. So I wanted to upgrade the materials in that regard.”
A good piece of replacement hardware should, of course, improve both tone and mechanical reliability. Callaham explains where he places the emphasis on in his hardware designs.
“In terms of the Telecaster bridge, I was thinking tone – I did not think the thin Telecaster bridge was helping sustain because it was not flat and it was not rigid. As far as [Strat] tremolo blocks go, when I first started there were lots of tremolo blocks being made out of zinc – and I knew it needed to be steel, which was originally done in the 50s. I needed to go to that to get the right sustain and note separation and clarity for our instruments.”
Block Buster
It’s Callaham’s upgrades for Strat trem blocks (the rectangular block protruding beneath the bridge that forms an anchor point for both the strings and vibrato springs) that you most often hear praise for, with greater sustain and classic tone being claimed for his steel blocks. But steel’s alleged advantages in these areas are not, Bill explains, anything to do with the relative weight of steel compared with zinc.
“Everybody talks about mass, and mass is not the quantity I am concerned about,” Callaham says.“For example, you could make the block out of lead and it’d have tremendous mass – but it would sound absolutely horrid. You could make the block out of tungsten carbide and it would be tremendously heavy. But it would sound absolutely awful – it would be so brittle and non-musical. That’s not what I’m looking at.”
“I worked on so many used guitars for people and, you know, you’d constantly be working on rusted screws…”
When gently pressed to expand on the real reason why steel is the better choice, he – not unreasonably – proves wary of giving away his hard-earned secrets.
“I don’t know if I really want to talk about it,”he says,“because so many people have been trying to copy us. But we use a very good steel, cold-formed, and the machining processes that we use on the top are to improve the sustain. So that is where [the extra sustain and note separation] is coming from: it’s from the material and better machining qualities of today compared to that of the 50s, in terms of surfacing the top of the block.”
Saddle Up
Next, we turn our attention to compensated saddles for Telecasters. An ongoing beef that some (though by no means all) Tele players have with the traditional three-saddle bridge is that it makes accurate intonation more difficult than on six-saddle bridges where precise intonation adjustment is possible for each string.
To address this issue, Callaham – and other makers including Gotoh and Fender itself – offer so-called‘compensated’Tele saddles designed to promote better intonation. These tend to take one of two forms: saddles that are angled diagonally so as to improve relative intonation for the pair of strings that sit on them; or saddles that have two offset ridges machined into their top surface with the same goal in mind. Callaham calls these ridges “facets” and they are a feature of his Enhanced model Tele saddles.
“I would steer you towards what we call the Enhanced saddle where we have machined the facets onto the saddle,”he advises.“It keeps the traditional look of the Telecaster but the little facet actually helps hold the string in place better, I think, than just a straight round barrel. So that’s a small thing, but it’s a big thing in terms of playing the instrument.The Enhanced saddle intonates exceptionally well. But we still do sell a lot of [traditional] round-barrel saddles to people,” he adds.
Some parts, however, are (from Callaham’s perspective) beyond improvement.
“For the Stratocaster, we only offer the nickel-plated carbon steel saddles. That’s all we offer,” he concludes.