So that Mastery bridge...

[honeyiscool]

I put one on my white Mustang yesterday, and I like it a lot. I got something like 2/64" action without any buzz, but I raised it to 3/64" because I prefer medium action. Easy to radius. I'd imagine intonation issues with wound G string, but luckily I don't have that problem.

The bridge is nice, very well made. It's very well thought out. Radius is easy to set. Very solid, high quality. Good sustain. I feel like I could use 9s on this thing. Vibrato performance is slightly better than a well-lubricated standard Mustang bridge, still the tailpiece doesn't always return to zero and that's something that no bridge can ever fix. Definitely better than a taped up Mustang bridge. Overall, beats drilling for a Tune-O-Matic.

Overall very good bridge, won't win any beauty contests but it's nice never having to worry about that bridge again. Money well spent. My one minor issue is that I think the saddles could be cut a bit rounder on the non string contact portions.

They just make a Tele bridge. That looks nice, too. I'd like to put together a lightweight GFS Tele and slap one of thems on it.

My suggestion to these guys: Please make a good Tune-O-Matic bridge for once. Just make it a bit smaller for the spacing, and make it pretty much exactly like the Mastery bridge. For all the bitching about how shitty Jaguar bridges are, I actually think the average Tune-O-Matic bridge sucks far more balls. Fix that shit.

[foll]

how do you set radius with that thing? with radius gauges?

[Mages]

Vibrato performance is slightly better than a well-lubricated standard Mustang bridge, still the tailpiece doesn't always return to zero and that's something that no bridge can ever fix. Definitely better than a taped up Mustang bridge.

I thought the posts on the mastery bridge fit snuggly into the bridge cups so it can't move around. and I thought it tightened into place or something. how does it still move around?

EDIT: oh wait, you mean the tailpiece. ah ok.

[Mages]

does it diminish the bend range of the mustang trem at all? personally, I always found the range on the mustang trem to be a bit extreme.

[Fran]

I'd like to put together a lightweight GFS Tele and slap one of thems on it.

Wouldn't the bridge be worth more than the Tele though?
If these things weren't so expensive i may have tried one by now.

[Thom]

If these things weren't so expensive i may have tried one by now.

This.
And I don't see the point of their tele bridge, it's not like it has the jag bridge issues that need fixing.

[UlricvonCatalyst]

I bought one for my Jazzmaster cos I'd just sold my camper van and because from what I read it sounded like the solution to all the mithering I was hearing about the JM/Jag bridges.

My JM upgrade stalled for a long time, so I was using it in my Schecter Hellcat for quite a while. When I put a Mustang bridge in the Hellcat it was like the life had been sucked out of it. The Mastery is a substantial upgrade to the unplugged tone of any guitar. Pricey, but well worth it for a 'keeper' guitar (less so if you think you might sell or swap in a couple of months because you have a long history of doing that).

I've since bought one for my Mustang too and will probably buy a third for the Hellcat if a good deal comes up.

[johnnyseven]

I'd like to put together a lightweight GFS Tele and slap one of thems on it.

Wouldn't the bridge be worth more than the Tele though?
If these things weren't so expensive i may have tried one by now.

The Jazzmaster bridge is $175 = £110. The Graphtech TUSQ saddles I have on my Jazzmasters cost me £20, is it really worth paying out for the Mastery, does it really make that much of a different to the sound of your guitar?

[Dave]

I'd like to put together a lightweight GFS Tele and slap one of thems on it.

Wouldn't the bridge be worth more than the Tele though?
If these things weren't so expensive i may have tried one by now.

The Jazzmaster bridge is $175 = £110. The Graphtech TUSQ saddles I have on my Jazzmasters cost me £20, is it really worth paying out for the Mastery, does it really make that much of a different to the sound of your guitar?

you'll probably get stung for another 20% import tax plus £8 handling fee so budget for another 30 quid too!

[johnnyseven]

Wouldn't the bridge be worth more than the Tele though?
If these things weren't so expensive i may have tried one by now.

The Jazzmaster bridge is $175 = £110. The Graphtech TUSQ saddles I have on my Jazzmasters cost me £20, is it really worth paying out for the Mastery, does it really make that much of a different to the sound of your guitar?

you'll probably get stung for another 20% import tax plus £8 handling fee so budget for another 30 quid too!

I wasn't considering getting one, just wondering if the benefits were worth the extra £120.

[Dave]

The Jazzmaster bridge is $175 = £110. The Graphtech TUSQ saddles I have on my Jazzmasters cost me £20, is it really worth paying out for the Mastery, does it really make that much of a different to the sound of your guitar?

you'll probably get stung for another 20% import tax plus £8 handling fee so budget for another 30 quid too!

I wasn't considering getting one, just wondering if the benefits were worth the extra £120.

i think it depends on how disposable your cash, relatively speaking, right nor for me to spend that much on a bridge with some nice improvements but not ASTRONOMICALLY HUGE I'd expect it to felate me three time a day at least aside form a bit of sustain and no string pops

[Fran]

I wouldn't pay it. Some of my best guitars cost less than that bridge, i just cant get it to equate in my head.

Agreed on the Tele Mastery being pointless too.

[George]

Cannot imagine it's worth that much money. Maybe as a last resort when I have all my shit in one sock and notes to burn for no reason.

[honeyiscool]

I wasn't considering getting one, just wondering if the benefits were worth the extra £120.

Consider that Mustang/Jag/Jazzes with vintage style bridge don't come any cheaper than $939 new these days, $160 is a fair price to pay to fix the weak point of these guitars. Consider that Stratters will pay $140 for a Callaham bridge on a $500 MIM Strat whose bridge doesn't even suck that much.

$160 isn't that much. In the world of upgrades, what, a pair of Duncan Antiquity pickups is $130, new Switchcraft slide switches is $5 a piece, new CTS pots are like $5 a piece. What I'm trying to say is that a Mastery bridge is about the price of a full electronics upgrade, and I think what an electronics upgrade does for sound, the Mastery does for playability (hence sound, sanity, etc.). When I bought my Mustang, I didn't think twice about dropping $170 on a set of Lace Sensors that I wanted to put in there because I knew they'd give me the sound I want. When I buy another Mustang, I wouldn't hesitate to budget $160 for a bridge that will solve problems for me. Not to mention, when you flip your Mustang for a Jaguar or a Jaguar for a better Jaguar or a vintage Jaguar for a Mustang and an AVRI Jazzmaster, it's easy to lift the bridge out and take it to your next guitar.

[honeyiscool]

i think it depends on how disposable your cash, relatively speaking, right nor for me to spend that much on a bridge with some nice improvements but not ASTRONOMICALLY HUGE I'd expect it to felate me three time a day at least aside form a bit of sustain and no string pops

Maybe the market's inflated but that's pretty much the price of aftermarket hardware made in Europe/USA. OFR costs $200. A Callaham bridge is $140. A set of Duncan humbuckers costs you $150 (and they're not exactly "high-end"). A set of Waverly tuners will run you $150. Hipshot bass bridges can be above $100 (and really what do they do?). My Schaller M4 bass tuners usually run $160 a set.

Then when you consider Mastery Bridge doesn't have volume production of any of these guys and runs a small shop without their own machining (I'd assume)...

If you want to save money on aftermarket parts, you pretty much have to go Asian-made, or used. My Wilkinson Strat bridge cost me $90. If it was made in Germany instead of Korea, you can bet it would be a $180 part.

[benecol]

[SKC Willie]

I just have a problem w/ them because they don't cost 6x as much to make . . .

There charging ridiculous amount on the basis that if people pay a lot of money, they will perceive a lot of value when in reality, you're paying six times as much for a bridge that isn't 6 times as good.

[othomas2]

I was surprised how much better (subjective) a modified tunomatic sounded after gauging my ear to the Jaguar nuances...

I reckon the mastery would be just the same albeit the price tag .... and the lesser degree of intonation.

Swings and round-a-bouts...

I'm glad they built it, would love to try one at some point but I'm not going to pay that on an instrument nurtured around generalised subpar (but fantastic) components. Haaa....

I'm drunk.... tried to see how many wanky words I could fit in there... & still trying to make sense.

[Fran]

I wasn't considering getting one, just wondering if the benefits were worth the extra £120.

Consider that Mustang/Jag/Jazzes with vintage style bridge don't come any cheaper than $939 new these days, $160 is a fair price to pay to fix the weak point of these guitars. Consider that Stratters will pay $140 for a Callaham bridge on a $500 MIM Strat whose bridge doesn't even suck that much.

$160 isn't that much. In the world of upgrades, what, a pair of Duncan Antiquity pickups is $130, new Switchcraft slide switches is $5 a piece, new CTS pots are like $5 a piece. What I'm trying to say is that a Mastery bridge is about the price of a full electronics upgrade, and I think what an electronics upgrade does for sound, the Mastery does for playability (hence sound, sanity, etc.). When I bought my Mustang, I didn't think twice about dropping $170 on a set of Lace Sensors that I wanted to put in there because I knew they'd give me the sound I want. When I buy another Mustang, I wouldn't hesitate to budget $160 for a bridge that will solve problems for me. Not to mention, when you flip your Mustang for a Jaguar or a Jaguar for a better Jaguar or a vintage Jaguar for a Mustang and an AVRI Jazzmaster, it's easy to lift the bridge out and take it to your next guitar.

Aye, but people have been resolving the bridge issues for decades. Some dude designs a bridge forty years later, Thurston Moore uses one and half of OSG then its suddenly the bollocks at £120 a pop. I dont think so.
The mastery bridge epitomizes everything opposite to the reason offset guitars became popular again during the '80's. These guitars were affordable vintage Fenders that kids could rock out on, warts and all.

[honeyiscool]

I just have a problem w/ them because they don't cost 6x as much to make . . .

There charging ridiculous amount on the basis that if people pay a lot of money, they will perceive a lot of value when in reality, you're paying six times as much for a bridge that isn't 6 times as good.

I don't know. I think it might. I don't think they order more than a hundred bridges at a time from the machine shop. Getting steel machined at a small volume without your own shop? I remember looking up some figures for this kind of thing, and machinists often charge like $100 an hour plus cost of parts, etc. Steel costing more and taking longer to machine than pot metal, and I'd imagine stamped zinc is a lot cheaper to make than machined steel, especially in another country.