Mastery Bridge -- review and comparison

Aeon · Post by **Aeon** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 10:58 pm

Well I received my bridge today. Quick rundown:

1. It is easy to install. There is none of the headache-inducing counterbalancing that's involved with the AVRI bridge.
2. It immediately made the guitar play better, and subtle-ly made it sound better .
3. The Jazzmaster character is still all there, just better.
4. The guitar now feels a lot more stable.
5. The tremolo still works and sounds fine, and returns to pitch just as well, if not better than stock.

Is it worth $165? That's a personal thing. I think its cost is justified, given the tooling and materials that go into its production. When you consider how much other replacement options cost (Mustang saddles, other alternative saddles, buzzstop, tune-o-matic installation, etc.) and then see how they don't really solve all of the issues, the Mastery I think is clearly a better option.

I play .11 gauge strings and don't have a super heavy attack, so I've never had too many issues with the stock bridge (at least strings popping off, or the bridge lowering). But I did hate how it was impossible to get really low action without having the strings hit the back of the bridge or the intonation screws getting in the way (yes I know they can be cut, and I had to do that on the G string's screw to get a decent setup). But the Mastery nullifies this issue completely and now I can set up the guitar up perfectly.

If you have a Jaguar or Jazzmaster, I highly recommend this product. The only downfall that it is rather pricey.

Now onto the audio comparisons...

I ran my guitar into a Firepod, which went into my iMac. I used ghetto-tastic Garage Band (Apples, ugh, I know) and Guitar Rig 3 plugin. The settings I used were as above.

These files will be available for a week as of January 4. If someone wants to host them elsewhere, that'd be great.

http://www.yousendit.com/download/WnBUR ... VGFGa1E9PQ
http://www.yousendit.com/download/WnBUR ... aWFGa1E9PQ

Post by **Hurb** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 11:09 pm

I hear a little more bass in the mastery bridge and less sound behind the bridge when you are playing there. glad your happy with it. But it's not for me. great idea for a compare though.

Aeon · Post by **Aeon** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 11:19 pm

Regarding the behind the bridge noise... I think I actually was hitting the strings a lot harder on the stock recording. They both have about the same volume if all things were equal.

The main thing this bridge does is make the guitar much more stable. The change in sound is pretty subtle, and the sustain might be a bit better but it's not like it changes the whole feel of the guitar. So if you like how offsets sound, don't worry about it taking away the character of the guitar.

Post by **Hurb** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 11:25 pm

Aeon wrote:Regarding the behind the bridge noise... I think I actually was hitting the strings a lot harder on the stock recording. They both have about the same volume if all things were equal.

The main thing this bridge does is make the guitar much more stable. The change in sound is pretty subtle, and the sustain might be a bit better but it's not like it changes the whole feel of the guitar. So if you like how offsets sound, don't worry about it taking away the character of the guitar.

It definitely changes the sound of the guitar.
regardless of how hard you were hitting the strings. The(I wanna say reverb) effect of the sustain of behind the bridge playing is different. with stock there is a more reverby after effect. where with the mastery its more straight forward sounding...if that makes sense. like more energy is flapping about with the stock or something.

kim · Post by **kim** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 11:39 pm

yeah the biggest difference i noticed (aside from the bass boost) was that the mastery bridge makes the sound more balanced, heard less dynamics in it tbh

Aeon · Post by **Aeon** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 11:42 pm

Hurb wrote: It definitely changes the sound of the guitar.
regardless of how hard you were hitting the strings. The(I wanna say reverb) effect of the sustain of behind the bridge playing is different. with stock there is a more reverby after effect. where with the mastery its more straight forward sounding...if that makes sense. like more energy is flapping about with the stock or something.

I agree to an extent, but once you start layering on gain, that effect is pretty much gone anyways. It's kinda like how a Stratocaster sounds with a blocked vs. non-blocked tremolo -- there's a slight difference, and some may actually prefer the "springy" sound that comes with a floating trem.

Post by **Hurb** » Sun Jan 04, 2009 11:45 pm

Aeon wrote:
I agree to an extent, but once you start layering on gain, that effect is pretty much gone anyways.

No it isn't. It's just distorted.

Aeon · Post by **Aeon** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:00 am

Hurb wrote:
Aeon wrote:
I agree to an extent, but once you start layering on gain, that effect is pretty much gone anyways.
No it isn't. It's just distorted.

Are you referring to actually playing the strings behind the bridge (in which case I agree), or the subtle "ghost shimmer" you get when playing normally? Because if it's the latter, I do think that particular aspect gets lost when you throw on fuzz or disortion.

Post by **Hurb** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:10 am

Aeon wrote:
Hurb wrote:
Aeon wrote:
I agree to an extent, but once you start layering on gain, that effect is pretty much gone anyways.
No it isn't. It's just distorted.
Are you referring to actually playing the strings behind the bridge (in which case I agree), or the subtle "ghost shimmer" you get when playing normally? Because if it's the latter, I do think that particular aspect gets lost when you throw on fuzz or disortion.

the first one. Although you can here behind the bridge anyway when distorted. particularly if you are muting the strings, you mute the strings, and the strings behind the bridge vibrate on.

jcyphe · Post by **jcyphe** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:21 am

Can you move this thread to offsetguitars.com.

Aeon · Post by **Aeon** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:23 am

But, but...

nothing compares... Nothing compares to you.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:23 am

How loosely does it sit in the thimbles? Does it rock like a stock bridge or do the strings slide on the saddles when you use the trem?
My new hang up with these bridge designs is distribution of sound and resonance to the body. I used a TOM on my JS build with a Jaguar trem, whilst you still get all the third harmonics sounds behind the bridge you also get much more sustain and resonance from the body due to the TOMs solid connection with the body. When you consider the stock Jag/Jazzy/'Stang bridge, the only connection is a very small pivot point (on the grub screw) and maybe one edge of the bridge post.
Theoretically you would imagine this makes a huge difference and imo i would say it does from my experience.

Personally, i dont think any guitar bridge is worth $165, not even the combined bridge/trem of the Floyd Rose which is a mechanical work of art by comparison. BUT, i am interested if this bridge does improve the connection to the body? If it does then it does swing favour a bit, for me, at least.

Post by **Hurb** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:25 am

It doesnt move fran.

Jagermeister · Post by **Jagermeister** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:29 am

...I just now read up on this, and have ultimately decided to be a snob, think that it's stupid, and pretend that it doesn't exist.

I don't quite see the point of having four saddles and compensating the intonation in the gap between two saddles to accommodate the A and B strings. Because, like, wtf.

What problem are they even TRYING to solve with that?

Apart from creating that problem, I guess I'm fine with the super-deep saddles, deeper than any other guitar ever made to counteract Jag stereotypes, and am also whatever on the itty bitty screws for the action, not that I had any problems with any of those things before, but like I said, whatever.

Not having it rock is the last straw

I tried taping the saddles on mine once, predictably it threw the guitar out of tune... I mean, you can see how much the strings would be rubbing against the bridge by how much it rocks, it has to be at least a couple mm of movement when using the trem's full range, and to take that from a smooth gliding motion to rubbing against the saddles...

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:34 am

Hurb wrote:It doesnt move fran.

Thats a step forward then... i suppose. But considering you can drop a TOM solidly in the existing thimbles for $100 less thats including a saddle upgrade it still seems a bit pointless to me. But then again, so did the mandatory Mustang bridge upgrade that everyone used to do. Half of it is laziness imo, but i suppose i better stfu... dont want to upset anyone.

Post by **Doog** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:39 am

[GVideo]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 8823&hl=en[/GVideo]

Veeery interesting post, nice one. I like how someone has finally addressed a lot of problems/niggles, but that seems an awful lot of cash for what it is.

I'm using currently using the Warmoth "Modified" Mustang bridge and while it can make for better action adjustability over a normal Stang or Jazz/Jag bridge, the intonation screws are still stupidly long and can get in the way of the perfect setup. May well hack 'em down one of these days.

Didn't notice 165 bucks worth of improvement on the mp3s, but I can appreciate it's more about the feel and such.

Jagermeister · Post by **Jagermeister** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:39 am

...If I was replacing with anything, it would have to be a roller bridge of some sort...

God, I must be the only person who's never had a problem with these bridges...

Aeon · Post by **Aeon** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:47 am

The part where the string lies is chromed, it allows the strings to move with very little interference. As I said, there is no issue with the trem coming back to tune with this bridge, if anything the guitar holds tune wayyy better now even with substantial trem usage.

The shape of this bridge makes it essentially become part of the thimbles, so there is a lot more sustain because of the way it's connecting to the guitar.

Intonation is not a problem if you use a normal set of strings.

I don't mind if people don't like it. I subjectively like it a lot better, but objectively you can just listen to the sound samples. (Which admittedly aren't necessarily the best way of comparing the two).

Jagermeister · Post by **Jagermeister** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:49 am

Aeon wrote:The part where the string lies is chromed, it allows the strings to move with very little interference. As I said, there is no issue with the trem coming back to tune with this bridge, if anything the guitar holds tune wayyy better now even with substantial trem usage.

The shape of this bridge makes it essentially become part of the thimbles, so there is a lot more sustain because of the way it's connecting to the guitar.

Intonation is not a problem if you use a normal set of strings.

I don't mind if people don't like it. I subjectively like it a lot better, but objectively you can just listen to the sound samples. (Which admittedly aren't necessarily the best way of comparing the two).

...k. Long as you're happy with it and I can keep my money

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 12:49 am

Jagermeister wrote:...If I was replacing with anything, it would have to be a roller bridge of some sort...

God, I must be the only person who's never had a problem with these bridges...

Exactly; TOM with roller saddles.
Other than the first few week of owning a Jaguar i've never had problems with the stock bridge either, its quite ingenious. But i do have issues with the connection of late.