Public service announcement: how to set up your own guitar/bass and not pay for others to do it...

Fender style guitars are typically more forgiving than Gibson style for setup and stability, because Leo Fender was an engineer with a very good understanding of mass production

it's amazing how different the philosophies are between the two - gibsons are all carved tops, set necks, rear routes, transparent finishes, angled headstocks and stuff from old timey wooden instrument building and fender comes along and is like, fuck it, bolt the necks, use string trees, and route the top and cover that shit with a giant pickguard and a coat of paint.

anyway one other thing I've heard about tune-o-matic style bridges and string breakage is to try raising the tailpiece a bit so the angle from the saddle to the end of the string is smaller which can decrease the tension

as for notes fretting out on bends, ime this is from the string height being too low at the saddle (and depends on fretboard radius and such). i figured this out when trying to learn the solo from Helter Skelter which has a whole step bend on the 15th fret of the high e - i set the height just high enough that it won't fret out and do the same for the b, g, and d.

fender comes along and is like, fuck it, bolt the necks, use string trees, and route the top and cover that shit with a giant pickguard and a coat of paint

Also if you have a maple fretboard, it is quite literally just the topmost bit of the neck. The simplicity is attractive to me (though I have some guitars with rosewood boards as well).

there are a couple of great Martin Guitar videos for on YouTube on changing strings that have been really helpful

elvis, we took the telecaster to the place in laguna you recommended. just got it back yesterday and, well, let's just say i'm a little tired this morning because i was up late enjoying it last night. thanks again.

Excellent!

also for anyone in the area that wants to check it out: https://www.theguitarshoppe.com

cool place, friendly folks. yeah.

Weirdly or perhaps not because I was doing the right thing, not long since I last posted on this thread, my guitar started working. The strings stopped breaking. I guess I needed to work it in and keep sanding the saddles.

I did figure out a couple of months ago that the action was really high, and lowered, and that helped a huge amount, made it more fun to play, maybe that also helped to stop breaking strings, but the constant breaking stopped before I did that.