Mastery bridge-- worth it?

[alexdm]

Question related to filing the saddle- isn't this going to alter the strings radius ? Technically, you are lowering the string, right? Not at the same ratio as the others.

I might be wrong and the gap is insignificant, though.

[Larry Mal]

I have one and one more on the way, and hopefully will be getting the coin together for the third one I need soon. Those bridges are the single factor that brings the guitars together in my opinion, that makes the offset guitar all it can be.

To me, it's the simple fact that they are great bridges in every way (and I replace the stock bridge on almost everything), but the greatest factor is that they sit flush in the thimbles which is not true with any other offset bridge that I am aware of. The only way they could be improved is if they were hard-set to the radius so they could have as few moving parts as possible, but I haven't had any problems with mine in that regard.

Basically, they do everything that they say they will do on the Mastery website. The sustain improves, the acoustic resonance. I hate the expense and really hate the wait, but have no complaints about the product.

If the StayTrem stuff would be flush in the saddles, I'd try that, still, though, the Mastery has three strings per saddle and this has advantages that a single string per saddle doesn't have.

[andy_tchp]

Question related to filing the saddle- isn't this going to alter the strings radius ? Technically, you are lowering the string, right?

No. Each saddle is height adjustable.

Bridge FAQ sticked at the top of this section: http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... f=7&t=3911

There's a >100 page thread on the Mastery in here somewhere too.

[Gav Haus]

I love mine. Went from a Staytrem to a Mastery on my jag, and whilst there's not much in it (I actually prefer the trem with a staytrem) I do prefer it. Took a bit of fiddling to get it bang on (if your neck is shimmed you'll probably need to remove or reduce) but now it's a thing of beauty. Let's not kid ourselves either; part of the appeal whether people admit it or not is that it's an elitist bit of kit. Yes it's expensive, yes you have to wait a while, but don't people like that about it? All that and the lovely packaging, great after sales service... It's all part of the prestige.

For what it's worth though, I've found it does everything it advertises, and I don't regret the purchase at all.

[alexdm]

Question related to filing the saddle- isn't this going to alter the strings radius ? Technically, you are lowering the string, right?

No. Each saddle is height adjustable.

Bridge FAQ sticked at the top of this section: http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... f=7&t=3911

There's a >100 page thread on the Mastery in here somewhere too.

I was talking about the stock bridge, not the Mastery one...why would anyone file a Mastery saddle?

[andy_tchp]

So was I. Each saddle is adjustable on the stock bridge.

Nobody has suggested filing a Mastery.

[alexdm]

Lol - "There's a >100 page thread on the Mastery in here somewhere too." - this made me think that somehow you referred to a Mastery.
My bad.

[Larry Mal]

Although waiting for a Mastery sucks. I don't understand it. I ordered one on the 6th, it is now the 20th, and even though I sent an email (yesterday) I haven't had any response yet.

But what I don't understand is, why I don't already have it. Either they are selling a product they don't actually have or they are just so lax about sending them out that it's pretty stunning. If I don't get something shipped out in a couple of days my eBay customers freak out. If Amazon doesn't get something out immediately they refund money without you asking for it even.

[slavemaster]

Dunno. I had some questions regarding an alternate means of payment (I wanted to use bank transfer since I did not have any other option at the time), and the Mastery guy (I forgot his name) responded the very next day. Then a friend of mine who is living in Denver ordered one for me and sent it by USPS and it took 3 months to get here. Not to self - never order anything just before Christmas

[mackerelmint]

If the StayTrem stuff would be flush in the saddles, I'd try that, still, though, the Mastery has three strings per saddle and this has advantages that a single string per saddle doesn't have.

But it's a potentially huge trade-off with intonation. I decided against a mastery personally, because it would never have intonated on my guitar. On a lot of guitars it's not going to be a big deal, but on mine it just happened that it was going to be a train wreck. So check that your intonation is going to play well with a mastery first.

FWIW, I got a staytrem and I think it's the cat's ass.

[Larry Mal]

Do you use a wound third? I'm not sure why the Mastery wouldn't intonate for you otherwise. I'm not saying it wouldn't, just that I'm not sure why. Mine was great right out of the box, I didn't even have to do anything to it.

I'm no fanatic about intonation, although I do set it to be as good as I can.

[mackerelmint]

Nope. It just intonates a lot farther back on the A than on the E or D strings. I've seen that on other guitars as well, from time to time. The least compromised the intonation could have been was if I'd sacrificed the A. I'm actually not sure that the saddle has the range of adjustability it would have taken in order to intonate the A and leave the E or D out of whack. The neck and nut are as they ought to be. It's just one of those odd things.

Anyway, that's the story of why I didn't buy a mastery bridge, and why I'm not comfortable with the idea of getting one in the future.

[Salome]

Nope. It just intonates a lot farther back on the A than on the E or D strings. I've seen that on other guitars as well, from time to time. The least compromised the intonation could have been was if I'd sacrificed the A. I'm actually not sure that the saddle has the range of adjustability it would have taken in order to intonate the A and leave the E or D out of whack. The neck and nut are as they ought to be. It's just one of those odd things.

Anyway, that's the story of why I didn't buy a mastery bridge, and why I'm not comfortable with the idea of getting one in the future.

Have you tried a Mastery on your guitar? I completely understand your point, but like you I had a guitar (in my case it was a Jag) that I thought for sure wouldn't intonate with a bridge like the Mastery because of how staggered I had to make the saddles. A friend of mine ordered a Mastery for his Jazzmaster and he let me try it out on my Jag before he installed it on his guitar. It actually intonated perfectly and sounded incredible. I'm not sure exactly why, but it must have something to do with the construction of the bridge. Just curious if you tried one and it didn't intonate on yours.

[Stereordinary]

I could be considered biased as I'm one of only a small handful of guitar makers who have been granted OEM status and co-branding on the Mastery vibrato, but yes, in my opinion the Mastery is totally worth it.

[mackerelmint]

Nope. It just intonates a lot farther back on the A than on the E or D strings. I've seen that on other guitars as well, from time to time. The least compromised the intonation could have been was if I'd sacrificed the A. I'm actually not sure that the saddle has the range of adjustability it would have taken in order to intonate the A and leave the E or D out of whack. The neck and nut are as they ought to be. It's just one of those odd things.

Anyway, that's the story of why I didn't buy a mastery bridge, and why I'm not comfortable with the idea of getting one in the future.

Have you tried a Mastery on your guitar? I completely understand your point, but like you I had a guitar (in my case it was a Jag) that I thought for sure wouldn't intonate with a bridge like the Mastery because of how staggered I had to make the saddles. A friend of mine ordered a Mastery for his Jazzmaster and he let me try it out on my Jag before he installed it on his guitar. It actually intonated perfectly and sounded incredible. I'm not sure exactly why, but it must have something to do with the construction of the bridge. Just curious if you tried one and it didn't intonate on yours.

I didn't. Just as one must bear in mind scale length when wanting to put a jag neck on a jazzmaster, I recalled my geometry lessons and decided it was a lost cause. What do you mean by "staggered"? Like zigzagged? Or just a very steep angle? There's nothing about the construction of any bridge with two saddles for six strings that I can imagine compensating for it. It's simply points on a line, and if one point doesn't fall on that line, then it simply doesn't fall on that line...