dp wrote:

I truly love the Mastery Bridge on my CIJ
Jazzmaster...it truly makes the JM/Jag bridge a
"non-issue"... absolutely functional piece of guitar
engineering...

Right on, DP. I got my Mastery Bridge on Saturday (man that was a long 4 week wait...), installed it in my AVRI JM, set it up and haven't looked back. Best part of this weekend. Played with some friends on Sunday, forcing Latinia on them :), and couldn't be happier.

Rick

Rick

websurfer wrote:

dp wrote:

I truly love the Mastery Bridge on my CIJ
Jazzmaster...it truly makes the JM/Jag bridge a
"non-issue"... absolutely functional piece of guitar
engineering...

Did you specify CIJ when you ordered and did you have
to use the smaller posts to fit?

You have to specify Japanese, they throw in an 2nd set of posts that fit Japanese models. The posts should fit snug in the thimbles on these, no movement.

Stormtiger wrote:

You have to specify Japanese, they throw in an 2nd set
of posts that fit Japanese models. The posts should fit
snug in the thimbles on these, no movement.

Thanks, Doug.

And hey, Scot, yeah everyone I've heard love them. But it's always good to get a different perspective, too.

* Warning: Ancient thread reawakening *

I've had a Mastery Bridge on my Jazzmaster for several years now. At the time I installed it, I immediately thought that it "improved" things for me. It obviously "fixed" several well-known and discussed issues I had with the stock bridge.

Recently, I did a little experiment and put the stock bridge back in because I felt that I just wasn't getting "that" Jazzmaster sound that I want. So, I have been A/B ing them (in my head at least) and here's what I've settled on with the great offset bridge debate:

The Mastery bridge does remedy several "issues" with the stock bridge. Most notably it keeps the strings in the saddles. That was my biggest problem with the stock bridge as I had pretty much solved all the other issues with other well known set up techniques.

However, it does "change" the sound of the guitar. It is subtle. But it is there. A lot of people say that it "improves" sustain or "improves" the tone or increases resonance. IMO, it changes the tone. Whether or not this is an improvement is a completely subjective and individual thing. I will say that I do prefer the tone of the guitar with the stock bridge in it. Its "flaws" or whatever are contributing to its tone. With the Mastery bridge, the following things happen (for me, YMMV):

The string tension is greater, the tone is noticeably brighter, there are more extraneous tones/harmonics happening behind the bridge, there is more sustain, and there is a stiffer and more metallic (for lack of a better term) feeling I get when hitting the strings. With the stock bridge, the string tension is looser, there isn't as much harmonic noise happening behind he bridge, the tone is darker and the middle pickup position tone is really happening in a way that it doesn't with the Mastery bridge.

Does my low E string slip out of the saddle? You bet. And I'm back to breaking strings again. So, the predicament remains. What do you give up? The absolute tone you're looking for or the super high performance of the very nicely machined Mastery bridge? For some people, the Mastery Bridge is a no-brainer. But for some, maybe me, it takes away as much as it gives.

I'm tinkering with the idea of the Staytrem as the middle ground solution. Some people say that it maintains more of the Jazzmaster's tonal character than the Mastery bridge does. We'll see. To be continued...

Ryan
The Secret Samurai Website
The Secret Samurai on Facebook

Last edited: Sep 21, 2016 16:30:03

Ryan I too came to the same conclusion about 6 months ago. I never really minded the stock bridge, but I got caught up on all the hype about the Mastery. I too felt the guitar lost some of its true character, or at least the character I was used to. Also I question the design choice to eliminate the ability of the bridge to rock back and forth with the trem. That was kind of the point of the whole thing.

Danny Snyder

"With great reverb comes great responsibility" - Uncle Leo

Playing keys and guitar with Combo Tezeta

Formerly a guitarist in The TomorrowMen and Meshugga Beach Party

Latest surf project - Now That's What I Call SURF

DannySnyder wrote:

Ryan I too came to the same conclusion about 6 months ago. I never really minded the stock bridge, but I got caught up on all the hype about the Mastery. I too felt the guitar lost some of its true character, or at least the character I was used to. Also I question the design choice to eliminate the ability of the bridge to rock back and forth with the trem. That was kind of the point of the whole thing.

Yeah, that's a good point that I forgot to mention. Now that the bridge is back to being a rocking bridge, the tremolo action and tone is much sweeter than with the Mastery. Again, its really a subtle change, but I can feel/hear it for sure.

Ryan
The Secret Samurai Website
The Secret Samurai on Facebook

Last edited: Sep 21, 2016 18:18:58

+1000 on my mod that Eddie K mentioned above, which is not really a "mod", per se. More like a "tweak".

I use a triangular jeweler's file (available very inexpensively on Amazon) to slightly enlarge the appropriate threaded bridge barrel groove . This keeps the string from moving to an adjacent thread and works like a charm.

After 52 years of playing Jaguars and Jazzmasters in a pretty aggressive manner, I have NEVER had a string pop out of place after doing this simple tweak.

Jack Booth
(aka WoodyJ)

The Mariners (1964-68, 1996-2005)
The Hula Hounds (1996-current)
The X-Rays (1997-2004)
The Surge! (2004, 2011-2012)
Various non-surf bands that actually made money (1978-1990)

Hey folks!

I put a Mastery vibrato and bridge in my Jaguar - I love the vibrato but I am having a little issue with the bridge and would love a suggestion or two.

As I manipulate the vibrato - as Jake notes - the saddles rock a bit. My issue is that the saddles on the 3 treble strings tend to ride up towards the tailpiece and don't return to their original position - the springs on the screws aren't strong enough to push the saddles back where they were. What winds up happening is the screws get loose and I start getting a clicking sound when I dive bomb. This seems to be the sound of a string getting unstuck in the saddle as tension is reduced and causing the aforementioned screw to rattle. If I push the saddles back where they were so the screw is taught and secure, the clicking goes away.

In real-life playing it's not that noticeable, but it's definitely noticeable when things are quiet - CLICK! and a couple of strings ringing softly. And it's just annoying to have this problem with such an expensive piece of equipment.

It feels like it has to be an easy thing to fix. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance!!!

Jonathan the Reverbivore

The Reverbivores

Please check out our latest album The Reverbivores Watch TV!

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