OffsetGuitars.com

Yes Staytrem is again shipping to the US, and are producing bridges to order. So their website says "on backorder" or something like that, but you just place your order as normal and they'll make it for you. I actually just bought one and the lead time was only like two days.

Also, I didn't know that CME made that model in Burgundy Mist... now I want one.

This is the best post that I ever seen

I don't know if this is the best place to post or start a new thread.

I am after some set radius bridges with 2-1/16" (52mm) spacing, one in 7.25" and one in 9.5"

I don't want to spend Mastery or StayTrem money so I think the Fender ones are my best bet, no?

https://www.fender.com/en-US/parts/brid ... 71049.html
https://www.solomusicgear.com/product/f ... -assembly/

It seems a lot of the other ones have the wider spacing, which seems dumb btw. All of these guitars seem to have pickups and vibratos that would benefit from narrower spacing and we have a dozen off-brand bridges but all wrong. I have two bridges and 3 sets of saddles in a box, all not helpful to my two current projects.

Thoughts? Who else makes these?

jazz&tele22 wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 13, 2023 10:00 am

I don't know if this is the best place to post or start a new thread.

I am after some set radius bridges with 2-1/16" (52mm) spacing, one in 7.25" and one in 9.5"

I don't want to spend Mastery or StayTrem money so I think the Fender ones are my best bet, no?

https://www.fender.com/en-US/parts/brid ... 71049.html
https://www.solomusicgear.com/product/f ... -assembly/

It seems a lot of the other ones have the wider spacing, which seems dumb btw. All of these guitars seem to have pickups and vibratos that would benefit from narrower spacing and we have a dozen off-brand bridges but all wrong. I have two bridges and 3 sets of saddles in a box, all not helpful to my two current projects.

Thoughts? Who else makes these?

That first listing from Fender is confusing. That's the first time I've noticed them call that 7.25" Mustang-style bridge from the Marr jaguar an "American Professional" bridge. All Mustang-style bridges on the American Professional series are 9.5" radius. That 7.25" bridge is not on any American Professional guitar. So I would call the title a mistake.

See Riley's listings for more parts, more detail (incl. more part numbers), and more accuracy. These are the Fender 52mm E-E spaced Mustang-style bridges with 7.25" and 9.5" radii. As you can see, the description "American Pro" is reserved for the 9.5" variant.
https://darrenriley.com/homepage/fender ... 712971049/
https://darrenriley.com/homepage/fender ... 709942000/

timtam wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 13, 2023 5:11 pm

jazz&tele22 wrote: ↑

Fri Jan 13, 2023 10:00 am

I don't know if this is the best place to post or start a new thread.

I am after some set radius bridges with 2-1/16" (52mm) spacing, one in 7.25" and one in 9.5"

I don't want to spend Mastery or StayTrem money so I think the Fender ones are my best bet, no?

https://www.fender.com/en-US/parts/brid ... 71049.html
https://www.solomusicgear.com/product/f ... -assembly/

It seems a lot of the other ones have the wider spacing, which seems dumb btw. All of these guitars seem to have pickups and vibratos that would benefit from narrower spacing and we have a dozen off-brand bridges but all wrong. I have two bridges and 3 sets of saddles in a box, all not helpful to my two current projects.

Thoughts? Who else makes these?

That first listing from Fender is confusing. That's the first time I've noticed them call that 7.25" Mustang-style bridge from the Marr jaguar an "American Professional" bridge. All Mustang-style bridges on the American Professional series are 9.5" radius. That 7.25" bridge is not on any American Professional guitar. So I would call the title a mistake.

See Riley's listings for more parts, more detail (incl. more part numbers), and more accuracy. These are the Fender 52mm E-E spaced Mustang-style bridges with 7.25" and 9.5" radii. As you can see, the description "American Pro" is reserved for the 9.5" variant.
https://darrenriley.com/homepage/fender ... 712971049/
https://darrenriley.com/homepage/fender ... 709942000/

Thanks very much. I saw your post on the other site too. I'm not all that up on the details but I appreciate the info, good to be educated. You got me worried for a second I bought the wrong things and should have waited but I think I'm ok. Narrow string spacing on both, two different radii for two different guitars.

I haven't ordered from Darren in a long time, forgot completely actually, but could have saved shipping as I bought those other bridges from two different sources so paid shipping twice. (my usual place only had one in stock)

I may start with some shielding using copper tape on the Jazzmaster today, it came with one of those plates under the pickguard but I don't want to use it, very bulky feeling.

Probably a dumb question but just want to be sure. I replaced the bridge on my jazzmaster with a cheap mustang bridge I bought from overseas. The reason was to get rid of the buzz coming from the bridge. It was supposed to be a 9.5” radius bridge to match the neck, but I think I received a 7.25” one. I put it on my guitar anyway to try it out, and it turns out it took care of the buzz issue and feels just fine.

The neck on my guitar is 9.5”. If the new bridge is 7.25, would there be any harm in having that on my guitar? Any potential issues with neck? I’m guessing the answer is no, but just to confirm.

frank grimez wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 20, 2023 8:18 pm

Probably a dumb question but just want to be sure. I replaced the bridge on my jazzmaster with a cheap mustang bridge I bought from overseas. The reason was to get rid of the buzz coming from the bridge. It was supposed to be a 9.5” radius bridge to match the neck, but I think I received a 7.25” one. I put it on my guitar anyway to try it out, and it turns out it took care of the buzz issue and feels just fine.

The neck on my guitar is 9.5”. If the new bridge is 7.25, would there be any harm in having that on my guitar? Any potential issues with neck? I’m guessing the answer is no, but just to confirm.

Don't think it will harm anything but the actions of the strings 1 and 6 vs 3-5 will be quite off. Easy to shim with some tape- a good few layers of shielding tape squares is pretty handy for that, at least is metal like the bridge.

You'd think 3 and 5 would be off too, but i see no difference when i measured those so didn't shim. Makes me wonder if it would be exact if it did suit the radius, but it seems like whatever math's of comparing circles would say its going to be very minute imperceptable difference on those.

Thanks.
The action on all my strings seem ok. Nothing that I can feel or notice off while playing. Idk.. it’s possible I did receive the correct 9.5” radius bridge, but I thought otherwise because the mustang bridge appears to be a slightly less in length and a bit more curved.

Just a big thumbs up for Staytrem. I have a heavily modded Squier Jazzmaster but I couldn't get it stable. I loved the bridge for having the nicer saddles but as a whole it didn't work . The height adjustment kept dropping on one side. I could glue that but the bridge would tilt over in one direction all the time. Plenty of string pressure so it was the contact points. They were very pointy so I suspected that to be the problem but I wasn't comfortable with sanding them down a bit. Bummer because I lived the guitar but couldn't take it out to gigs because it wasn't stable enough.
So when I read here Staytrem was taking orders from outside the UK, I got on the waiting list. Came in this week, installed it two days ago and had a gig with it yesterday. Wow, what a difference!
No more tilting, height is as stable as can be and because of the better stability bend have a better feel as well.
I've used a Mastery in the past as well but like this one better, to be honest. Intonation adjustability is absolutely perfect as well.

Staytrem installed, Squier behind it. Deceivingly similar looks

I guess there is no need for a separate thread, so...

Anyone tried this?

https://www.guitarfetish.com/Vintage-St ... 17898.html

Not that I'm too interested in it, but it's dirt cheap and I've had only good experiences with GFS products so far.

A great thread - loads of great info!

I’ve been binge reading everything I can about the Jazzmaster since I got my Squier 60’s CV a couple of weeks ago. I’ve taken it apart, sorted out all the rough frets, levelled and crowned and polished. It’s now been reassembled with a 1-degree shim in the neck pocket to sort out the break angle. I totally get where Leo was coming from with the rocking bridge, so I’d like to stick with that principle.

I think the instrument can be improved, so my initial view was that I’d keep the stock bridge and upgrade the trem to a Descendant to get the strings to sit a bit lower and give me a bit extra break angle. The issue I can see here is that the strings will sit on the back of the bridge as the back edge is too high for them to pass over unimpeded, so I won’t be gaining very much.

To do it properly I’d need to get the trem and the companion bridge, which is cut away at the back edge. That’s a lot of cash to stump up, so the question is would I see that much of a difference in replacing just the bridge? Or should I wait until I’ve got the cash to buy both?
Also, does anybody have any cheaper options? As far as a I can tell, the front runners (in descending price order) are Mastery, Descendant, Halon, Trent or Staytrem.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks to this thread I fixed most bridge issues on my CV Jaguar... except one and I could use some advice.

bridge was sinking into body - fixed after loctite
bridge was rattling - fixed after loctite on screws

remaining problem: bridge constantly tilts towards neck, with or without tremolo use.

Guitar is strung with 11-48s, bridge is raised fairly high i think and I shimmed the neck to compensate. I never lubricate contact points on the bridge but do lubricate the nut with graphite on string changes.



I thought all this would provide enough tension for the bridge to operate as designed but it doesn't. Any idea what might be the problem?

AndyHR wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 12, 2023 2:40 am

Thanks to this thread I fixed most bridge issues on my CV Jaguar... except one and I could use some advice.

bridge was sinking into body - fixed after loctite
bridge was rattling - fixed after loctite on screws

remaining problem: bridge constantly tilts towards neck, with or without tremolo use.

Guitar is strung with 11-48s, bridge is raised fairly high i think and I shimmed the neck to compensate. I never lubricate contact points on the bridge but do lubricate the nut with graphite on string changes.



I thought all this would provide enough tension for the bridge to operate as designed but it doesn't. Any idea what might be the problem?

I think the solution is to wrap a small amount of teflon or electrical tape around the bridge posts. This will secure it into place.

Wrapping the bridge posts is almost never a good solution to bridge issues, and more or less disables the way that the rocking bridge was designed to work. By blocking bridge movement, you force a change away from the string gripping the saddles and rocking the bridge consistently all the way back and forth with trem use, and holding it stable at all other times ... by blocking normal movement, you are forcing the strings to slide over the saddles at some times. That can encourage even more inconsistent bridge position, which then might require even more wrapping to basically lock the bridge in place. Also, making the bridge more like a fixed bridge would then require a different approach to bridge setup.

A normal, freely rocking bridge that is slowly moving away from the middle/neutral position over time is by definition a result of inconsistent movement of the bridge in the forward and the backward directions with trem use and/or inadvertent movement without trem use (unless being pushed away from neutral by your hand resting on the bridge).

@AndyHR you appear to have most of the conditions to ensure a consistent neutral/middle bridge position:
- no lubrication of string-saddle contact points
- a reasonable string gauge (11-48) for a (shorter scale, ie lower tension) jaguar
- a reasonable bridge height (maybe towards the lower end of that range)

Sufficiently high string-saddle downforce is required to achieve the high string-saddle friction that ensures consistent bridge rocking with trem use, as well as a stable bridge position at other times. High string-saddle downforce results from a suitably-high combination of string gauge (tension) and string break angle. Usually if one of those two is a little higher then the other need not be.

Your bridge height pic above suggests that your bridge height is within the normal limits for an "OK" height. The only thing suggesting it might not be completely OK is the fact that the bridge position is not as stable as you would like. Let's consider what moving it a little higher would do. Firstly, it will increase the break angle of the strings over the bridge - thus increasing string-saddle downforce (the greater the break angle, the more of the string's tension is 'seen' by the bridge as downforce acting on it). Secondly, there is a caveat - the break angles are never going to be equal over the back and front of the bridge; and increasing bright height will make break angle more unequal. The greater break angle over the back of the bridge means that downforce from the strings is always directed not only down but also slightly forward (NB the string tension is normally essentially equal for the main/scale length of the string and the shorter string section behind the bridge). If that small forward-pushing force is ever sufficient to make the string lose grip on the saddle for any length of time, then the bridge can gradually drift forward.

So TL;DR ... greater bridge height improves one thing that holds the bridge in place - string-saddle downforce - but also increases the possibility that uneven back/front string break angles might slowly push the bridge forward over time.

For most people, any break angle imbalance tending to push the bridge forward never overrides the string-saddle friction acting to hold it in place, so the bridge position remains stable. In rare cases, that 'sweet spot' is perhaps narrower and harder to find. So they just unluckily end up at a 'bad' bridge height position where the break angle imbalance is enough to very slowly push the bridge forward.

Where the bridge's neutral position is not stable, you want to get out of that 'bad' hole. Assuming you're doing everything else right (ie no sting-saddle lubrication*), your options are firstly to increase the bridge height a little more, aiming to get string-saddle friction up to the point where it holds the bridge stable (without making the break angle/forward-push effect too much worse). If that doesn't work, the next option would then be to go a little lower ... to reduce the forward-pushing break angle.

*there might also be a case for looking at other ways to ensure high string-saddle friction. Old bridges likely benefit from some saddle corrosion ! So a very smooth saddle groove might not be a totally good thing. Also, some coated strings might reduce string-saddle friction too much.

Only if all else fails to give stable bridge position might it be worth considering bridge blocking strategies, like the Am Pro's nylon thimble inserts.

timtam wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 12, 2023 7:23 pm

Wrapping the bridge posts is almost never a good solution to bridge issues, and more or less disables the way that the rocking bridge was designed to work. By blocking bridge movement, you force a change away from the string gripping the saddles and rocking the bridge consistently all the way back and forth with trem use, and holding it stable at all other times ... by blocking normal movement, you are forcing the strings to slide over the saddles at some times. That can encourage even more inconsistent bridge position, which then might require even more wrapping to basically lock the bridge in place. Also, making the bridge more like a fixed bridge would then require a different approach to bridge setup.

A normal, freely rocking bridge that is slowly moving away from the middle/neutral position over time is by definition a result of inconsistent movement of the bridge in the forward and the backward directions with trem use and/or inadvertent movement without trem use (unless being pushed away from neutral by your hand resting on the bridge).

@AndyHR you appear to have most of the conditions to ensure a consistent neutral/middle bridge position:
- no lubrication of string-saddle contact points
- a reasonable string gauge (11-48) for a (shorter scale, ie lower tension) jaguar
- a reasonable bridge height (maybe towards the lower end of that range)

So TL;DR ... greater bridge height improves one thing that holds the bridge in place - string-saddle downforce - but also increases the possibility that uneven back/front string break angles might slowly push the bridge forward over time.

For most people, any break angle imbalance tending to push the bridge forward never overrides the string-saddle friction acting to hold it in place, so the bridge position remains stable. In rare cases, that 'sweet spot' is perhaps narrower and harder to find. So they just unluckily end up at a 'bad' bridge height position where the break angle imbalance is enough to very slowly push the bridge forward.

Where the bridge's neutral position is not stable, you want to get out of that 'bad' hole. Assuming you're doing everything else right (ie no sting-saddle lubrication*), your options are firstly to increase the bridge height a little more, aiming to get string-saddle friction up to the point where it holds the bridge stable (without making the break angle/forward-push effect too much worse). If that doesn't work, the next option would then be to go a little lower ... to reduce the forward-pushing break angle.

*there might also be a case for looking at other ways to ensure high string-saddle friction. Old bridges likely benefit from some saddle corrosion ! So a very smooth saddle groove might not be a totally good thing. Also, some coated strings might reduce string-saddle friction too much.

Only if all else fails to give stable bridge position might it be worth considering bridge blocking strategies, like the Am Pro's nylon thimble inserts.

Thank you very much for the informative reply. @ soul1 I thank you for your post too but I would like to avoid wrapping the bridge if possible, if these are designed to stay in place without tape when not using the trem then there must be another problem here. My goal here is not a quick fix but to truly understand the system and to learn to set it up properly as it was designed.

I would just like to note - i don't think this is related to me inadvertently moving the bridge by resting my hand on it. Just by consistently strumming a chord (moderate strength, hand not touching bridge) I can watch the bridge tilt from center position towards neck in about 30 seconds to a minute.

Anyway what I will do is raise the bridge a bit and hopefully find the "sweet spot". And that spot is hopefully close because my bridge pickup is at max height already.

I would not even mind trying 12s on it just to test if even more tension fixed the problem, but I fear that could make bending too uncomfortable and 11s already barely fit the nut slots (I don't have the tools to file them).