Problems with S-500 bridge saddles

[Iguana]

I have an S-500 that I bought in 1990 and I have had to replace the bridge saddles twice since I bought it because they got corroded. I sweat a lot when I play and apparently the salt from my picking hand eats away at the two bridge saddles on the low E and A string and they eventually turn green and get corroded and have to be replaced. I think they are made of chrome plated brass (at least the new ones are per the G&L web site) and the chrome starts flaking off so you can see the brass below.

In the past when I replaced these, I bought bridge saddle sets from G&L's online store. I have a few questions that I need help with because it has happened again and they need to be replaced and I would like to find a more long term solution.

1. I previously bought the bridge saddles for the dual fulcrum bridge from G&L's online store. They don't appear to sell them anymore but only sell the newer style bridge replacement kit which is way more than I need and want to spend. Where can I get the replacement saddles?

2. Is it possible to purchase a type of saddle that won't corrode per the description above. Its a pain to have to replace these every ten years or so. I think the problem is that they are chrome plated steel or whatever and the chrome is what is getting corroded and eventually flaking off. If they were made of stainless steel or some other type of corrosion resistant metal, this probably wouldn't happen.

3. Also, the fulcrum plate for the bridge has started to corrode just a bit in one spot and even one of the fulcrum posts closest to the low E and A string has lost its chrome plating and is discolored at this point (kind of a brownish red rust color). Is there another material available that won't exhibit these corrosion problems? Should I just bite the bullet and replace the whole bridge and the fulcrums with the bridge replacement kit available at the web store and be done with it? I'm a bit reluctant to do this because it isn't the original style bridge unless it is an improvement. If I do this I'll probably have to fix it again in five or ten years since it appears to be made of the same chrome plated metal.

Any help would be appreciated. A friend of mine suggested that maybe I should wear wrist sweat bands when I play to keep the sweat off of the guitar in the first place. Maybe that's not a bad idea even if it does give me an '80s look (I could go Jimi and wear one on my head too! ).

[Craig]

I have an S-500 that I bought in 1990 and I have had to replace the bridge saddles twice since I bought it because they got corroded. I sweat a lot when I play and apparently the salt from my picking hand eats away at the two bridge saddles on the low E and A string and they eventually turn green and get corroded and have to be replaced. I think they are made of chrome plated brass (at least the new ones are per the G&L web site) and the chrome starts flaking off so you can see the brass below.

In the past when I replaced these, I bought bridge saddle sets from G&L's online store. I have a few questions that I need help with because it has happened again and they need to be replaced and I would like to find a more long term solution.

1. I previously bought the bridge saddles for the dual fulcrum bridge from G&L's online store. They don't appear to sell them anymore but only sell the newer style bridge replacement kit which is way more than I need and want to spend. Where can I get the replacement saddles?

2. Is it possible to purchase a type of saddle that won't corrode per the description above. Its a pain to have to replace these every ten years or so. I think the problem is that they are chrome plated steel or whatever and the chrome is what is getting corroded and eventually flaking off. If they were made of stainless steel or some other type of corrosion resistant metal, this probably wouldn't happen.

3. Also, the fulcrum plate for the bridge has started to corrode just a bit in one spot and even one of the fulcrum posts closest to the low E and A string has lost its chrome plating and is discolored at this point (kind of a brownish red rust color). Is there another material available that won't exhibit these corrosion problems? Should I just bite the bullet and replace the whole bridge and the fulcrums with the bridge replacement kit available at the web store and be done with it? I'm a bit reluctant to do this because it isn't the original style bridge unless it is an improvement. If I do this I'll probably have to fix it again in five or ten years since it appears to be made of the same chrome plated metal.

Any help would be appreciated. A friend of mine suggested that maybe I should wear wrist sweat bands when I play to keep the sweat off of the guitar in the first place. Maybe that's not a bad idea even if it does give me an '80s look (I could go Jimi and wear one on my head too! ).

I contacted G&L about this and John Toner from Customer Service suggested Graph Tech String Savers Saddles as a good replacement.
http://www.graphtech.com/products.html?CategoryID=3

Hope this helps.

[Iguana]

Cool - thanks for the reply and forwarding this onto G&L for me. I'll talk to my luthier and see if he thinks the graph tech saddles will take care of this problem and work for this bridge.

I may end up replacing the whole bridge per G&Ls suggestion at some point but that sounds like a can of worms and could be expensive since it isn't the same bridge and the bridge poles may require extra labor since they aren't an exact fit. If I can get the graph tech saddles to work it may be the answer I was looking for and may prolong string life too since they always seem to break on the metal saddles.

Again, thanks for the thorough reply.