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Warning: long geeky guitar techno-babbling ahead.
I've had my American Vintage Reissue (AV RI) Jaguar for maybe 3 years now. I
really love it. But after playing it this long, I've noticed several of the
common problems many people report. In the past I have always been firmly in
the anti-mod, pro-stock setup camp. This is even after hearing/seeing Dave
Wronski (Slacktone) and Rick Mills (Volcanos) with a buzz-stop, and reading
about both The Phantom Surfers and Evan Foster (Boss Martians) using Mustang
bridges (Source: Cowabunga Gear FAQ). And hearing a very vocal Dano from the
Nebulas rail against the stock bridge on this list.
My main problem that started happening more and more was that the low E
string is just too damn fat for the grooves on the saddle. Every once in a
while, it would get situated just so on top of a groove edge, and just buzz
or sound "farty". I would have to pick it up and move it to fix it. I also
saw (just twice) saddle height adjustment screws getting loose and the
saddle height shrinking on me.
Rather than file the saddle groove deeper (yikes! rough edges break strings)
or use loctite on the screws, I put a half-hearted bid on a set of All-Parts
after market Mustang saddles on eBay. I didn't expect to win, but I did.
So I decided to try them. Well, I couldn't believe it, but the All-Parts
saddles are not as wide as the AV saddles!!! Must be some kind of metric
thing...? I had these big ugly gaps between the saddles, and worse, the
strings would wiggle with heavy strumming. I temporarily fixed the problem
by putting pieces of a thick rubber band in between them. It worked, but
wasn't all that pleasing to the eye. But the overall results were promising.
I did *not* have the problems I feared with the Mustang saddles: lack of
individual string height adjustment or string spacing problems.
(Note: the Graph-Tech replacement saddles are also not as wide as the stock
saddles...why??? For more info on this, see this link:)
So I decided to try and get a vintage Mustang bridge. I got one (again,
thank you eBay). (BTW - It is AMAZING what Turtle Wax Chrome Polish w/Rust
Remover will do... the damn thing looks brand new now. Wow.) Okay, now I can
see that the vintage Mustang bridge saddles are as wide as the AV RI
saddles, and the intonation screws are different sizes compared to the
All-Parts screws (All-Parts YOU SUCK).
I wasn't out of the woods yet though. I dropped the Mustang bridge on the
Jag, and even though the bridge was lower than the stock bridge, the saddles
are more massive, and the strings were touching the intonation screw heads
on their way back to the trem baseplate. WTF??? I suspect this is happening
because my neck is shimmed (from the factory). The solution was to lower the
bridge, but I couldn't do that anymore because I was getting fret buzz. So,
another trick was employed (I think I picked this up from photos of Dave
Wronski): I turned the bridge around so the intonation screws face the
pickups. That worked, but just barely. But no more buzzing.
And then finally, after some playing, I realized I did need some individual
string adjustment for the big fat low E. It was buzzing on the lower frets.
But the action on the rest of the strings was perfect, and I didn't want to
mess with them. So I grabbed one of the "medium" sized All-Parts Mustang
saddles and swapped it for the vintage (small) low E saddle. Ahhhh ---
finally --- no more buzzy-buzzy.
The verdict: my Jag has never sounded or played better. The action is the
best I've ever had it, and hopefully (?) this setup will be easier to
maintain than the stock saddles with their stupid little grooves and wiggly
height adjustment screws. I think that perhaps the Mustang saddles, having
more mass, and more contact with the bridge, make the guitar sound a bit
better.
However, I still had to do a fair amount of futzing and hair-pulling getting
the guitar set up right. I was hoping to avoid that with the Mustang bridge,
as the stock saddles introduce too many variables into the equation. We'll
see how easy it is to maintain in the future!!!
So in summary, this wasn't a silver bullet, but seems to have cured my ills,
once I got a vintage Mustang bridge. The Jaguar is still a big pain in the
ass to setup/maintain, but I love how it sounds and plays, and it plays even
better now.
BN
