Mastery Bridges

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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postpostrock
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Re: Mastery Bridges

Post by postpostrock » Wed Oct 10, 2018 6:04 am

I never had too many issues with the vintage style bridge. It did get annoying that my strings would slip over sometimes into another groove, but that probably could have been fixed with strings a tad heavier.

I have a TOM on one guitar and a Mastery on another. I love the mastery. It feels better to me and sustains better to my ears. Is it necessary? No, but for me it performs better. It responds better to tremolo use than the TOM IMO.

For me it was worth the $200.

The caveat is that I sometimes miss the extra noise I got from the vintage style bridge. Seemed to get more of the metallic overtones.

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Fuzzbuzz
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Re: Mastery Bridges

Post by Fuzzbuzz » Wed Oct 10, 2018 6:53 am

postpostrock wrote:
Wed Oct 10, 2018 6:04 am
The caveat is that I sometimes miss the extra noise I got from the vintage style bridge. Seemed to get more of the metallic overtones.
That’s a big reason why have gone back to the stock bridge. Whether those overtones were intended or not, it’s what makes my Jazzmaster stand out from my other guitars. I have never had problems with my strings slipping out of the grooves, but that’s probably more a technique thing than anything. I use 10-46’s. I also never found an increase with sustain or tone with Mastery or Staytrem’s. I have tried to like them, it’s just never worked out.
But then again I have my guitars properly setup so there’s a good chance I wouldn’t notice too much of a difference other than a lack of overtone and shelling out money I didn’t need to.

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Kinghat
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Re: Mastery Bridges

Post by Kinghat » Wed Oct 10, 2018 7:13 am

I love them, and have them on three guitars. The only drawback I can find is that the height adjustment threads are machined so well that they can back themselves down from string pressure, so a small dab of threadlocker is needed. They may have corrected that issue as a lot of builders were complaining of it. My newest one doesn't seem to have that issue.

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Debaser
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Re: Mastery Bridges

Post by Debaser » Wed Oct 10, 2018 7:15 am

Deed_Poll wrote:
Tue Oct 09, 2018 7:50 pm
My feeling is (and I might be crazy) is that you keep more of the power in the string and more energy potential behind the bridge when using the vibrato if the string is fixed at the saddle (high friction) and free to rock back and forth on the posts - instead of a miniscule section of the string sliding or rolling over the break angle of the saddle, maintaining a fixed speaking-length of the string. I just find the sound way more rubbery and wobbly, I don't know how to describe it, but it's what made me fall in love with Jazzmasters in the first place.

The Mastery bridges I've played have performed very well indeed, but to me the sound and feel is more like a Gretsch with a Bigsby. It feels like a roller bridge, not that there's anything in the world that's wrong with that. It's just not what I, personally, look for in a Jazzmaster. Hell I'm no purist - I can do completely without the rhythm circuit, the vibrato lock etc. It's just that one thing that I know I don't want to mess with!

A final reprise on the Maestro, it feels and sounds very much like a JM to me, it has that same quality to it albeit a bit more highly strung and with less range (I do quite admire the simplicity of the Maestro design though and I've been busy designing a vibrato of my own that uses a carbon steel tape spring inside a body cavity that should look and function a bit more like a JM and give a better range and break angle than the Maestro).
All bridges more or less move with use of the vibrato, even any low friction designs. A locked down Mastery still moves at the saddles and posts, so there is definitely friction at work. Modern Gretsch bridge camps are either about the rocking bar bridge or the flat base design, both solid bars of metal. In either case, I'd say these designs 'rock' at the floating bridge base, and older Gretsch designs tried to encourage this.
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