This from Mastery..

"This should give it away. I've been working on this part for six months now and three prototypes are finished. Introducing the new Offset Mastery Vibrato."

I hope it's interchangeable with the fender trem plates, I'd love to have the look of a traditional unit with better function.. Still, this is cool news, I can't wait for pics!

image

IMO.

They are great, and you know, "If it ain't broke..."

I'm just curious. They could react better, and not "click", which I think is what you mentioned with the new trem arms fitting wrong.

I'd love to find a vintage trem unit, but they go for too much on ebay, and I don't know where else I would find one. They have always felt better than the AVRI units to me.

IMO.

Also, a Mastery vibrato unit is going to cost more than a vintage unit. A Mastery bridge costs $150, vibrato unit has to cost more than that.

Intriguing... but no lock might be a problem for some.

Quotes from his Facebook page:

There's a long list of features on our new Offset Vibrato. Feature #5? Three undercut flat-head flush mounted machine screws so your E strings have no chance of resting on them.

Our center spring adjustment screw serves one purpose, and that's so the player can adjust the arm tension to their preference. Yes to Lefty versions, everything else my lips are sealed for now as I need to detail this a little more... will post updates here. It's due out in August after a couple months of real world abuse. Nels is once again my test monkey. I'm very happy with it so far!

I don't see myself upgrading the Marr trem unit to this one, but who knows? The Marr bridge also seemed pretty good at first until I put a Mastery bridge on it.

Mike
http://www.youtube.com/morphballio

He also mentioned there would be a fully adjustable Staytrem-like feature too, which might make it more appealing to those without it.

Mike
http://www.youtube.com/morphballio

deadlands wrote:

This is interesting, I was wondering the other day why we haven't seen boutique offset vibrato units, and there it is. The improvement they listed so far don't seem to justify marketing this. Hopefully, in time there will be clear reason this is superior.

The CIJ, Squier, All-Parts vibratos really fall short in comparison to a vintage unit, so there is room for this. At what cost... who knows.

I do kinda like the brushed metal look. If the arm is chrome and doesnt match, its going to look silly, imo. So hopefully the arm will match.

But you know this will cost like $11231098923479282 so... yeah... if it doesn't SUPER improve the guitar in some way, no sense in getting it.

The Mastery Bridge is a huge upgrade in tone and stability...that being said, the design isn't perfect. There's too big of a tolerance between the saddles in the middle of the bridge, and if your neck to bridge alignment isn't absolutely perfect (as with my JM) the strings can pull the saddles off center. The 'fix' is to wedge a piece of guitar pick between the saddles...but you shouldn't have to 'fix' a bridge that is a custom fix in itself. Don't misquote me though, I LOVE the bridge and it's a HUGE improvement. It just isn't PERFECT.

The Mastery Bridge for the Tele was a disapointment because IMO the 3 saddle Tele bridge is perfection. "If" there were cutouts in the back so that the strings could pass through to a Bigsby, well, then it'd be cool.

As for the trem...what are you going to upgrade over the US Fender bridge without violating patents? The ONLY thing I wish is that mine had a better mounting configuration for the arm. Other than that (and the fact that it uses cheaper metal than the machined stainless of a Mastery Bridge) the Fender trem is 'near' perfect. The MIJ trems are pure crap IMO.

PS: Yeah, the screws pop out on the Mastery (mine did at a gig...not fun). The 'fix' is to use blue loctite. Again, I shouldn't have to 'fix' a bridge that is supposed to be a fix. Still, I don't regret upgrading to the Mastery Bridge. It's an overall huge improvement.

www.apollo4.com

Last edited: May 24, 2013 16:37:36

JakeDobner wrote:

I thought the Marr bridge was a tone neutering monster. That is blowing it out of proportion, but I wasn't a huge fan. Mastery Bridge, it really is great because it fits so snug with the body and the aluminum transmits sound really well. The saddles on a mustang bridge/Marr bridge, just absorb vibration...

The mustang saddles were really just an old solution to an old problem. I think we're in agreement, because my reason for replacing it was due to the saddles rattling despite locktite application, indicating a problem with the otherwise great resonance of this guitar.

Anyway, new update from Mastery, actually looks really nice to me:

image

Comment from the post:

Noted over a dozen little changes and need to run some new parts. This is going to take some time... the original Offset bridge went through 8 months of product development to get it right before we ever offered it. We should have it available in August and I'm hoping to have an introductory offer (only) to current Mastery Bridge users as a thank you for five successful years. It's all of you who are really building this part. Anyways, here's about what it will look like... I'll post some different features, etc. over the next couple months!

Mike
http://www.youtube.com/morphballio

IMO.