Stew Mac Golden Age Offset Bridge/Trem

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Drewbertca
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Re: Stew Mac Golden Age Offset Bridge/Trem

Post by Drewbertca » Tue Mar 03, 2015 3:18 pm

I actually like the one on my MIM Pawnshop VI. I like the screw in arm, Wish I could get a deal on that in Canada. My local store has great prices on in stock items, but the mark-up on "special orders" is crazy.....

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Re: Stew Mac Golden Age Offset Bridge/Trem

Post by empyrean » Tue Mar 03, 2015 5:01 pm

mackerelmint wrote:
Johnny Alien wrote:You can get a Japanese tremolo for only $5 more at Angelas. The lock will work and it will have the Fender logo. This one doesn't seem cheap enough or any kind of an improvement to make it a better choice.
Yeah, but then you have to give your money to Angela's.

drewbertca wrote:Isn't the shipping to Canada horrible from Angela's? I seem to remember it being bad when I was going to order something. Stew Mac's shipping isn't great either but I remember it being better. I have looked for Canadian parts sources and can't find anything decent.
Yeah, for any international orders they absolutely ream the customer on shipping. What they charge is so far out of line with their costs to ship that I can't consider them honest so I'll never give them any business even though I live in the states.
+1 on this whole statement. I don't know how some companies get away with this kind of thing in this day and age. I tried to order 2ft of cloth wire from them a few years ago for something like $1.50 total, hardly any weight, the shipping was $30. That's not even just high that's flat out insulting and criminal. It's too bad for them, I'd be buying from them all the time if they didn't do business like that.

I just checked back after reading this, and while it's not $30 to ship that much wire anymore, it's still $17 which is still ridiculous. I've shipped pedals and guitars for that much.

To put that into a competitor perspective, I could order a wiring kit from stew mac that came with twice as much wire and capacitors and the shipping is half price.

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Re: Stew Mac Golden Age Offset Bridge/Trem

Post by kdanie » Tue Mar 03, 2015 7:45 pm

And I don't want the F logo on my guitars!!

Ken
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Re: Stew Mac Golden Age Offset Bridge/Trem

Post by dren68 » Wed Mar 04, 2015 7:22 am

kdanie wrote:And I don't want the F logo on my guitars!!

Ken
That was why I got mine, too. It was for a non-Fender-ish build. And it had the lock, so I thought I'd try it.
Drewbertca wrote:OK, so the lock doesn't engage... Has anyone figured out the reason? Can it be fixed? At this price I would love to try and mod it.
I haven't had a chance to take a look at it, so I'm not sure why it doesn't work correctly. Hopefully, I'll have some time to see if I can get it working one day soon.

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Re: Stew Mac Golden Age Offset Bridge/Trem

Post by kdanie » Wed Mar 04, 2015 9:20 am

I took a quick look at mine and it appears the button doesn't move far enough aft. A small round file to lengthen the slot may do the trick.

ken
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Re: Stew Mac Golden Age Offset Bridge/Trem

Post by Johnny Alien » Thu Mar 05, 2015 4:31 am

Angela's was an example. You can get them numerous places and they are even cheaper on ebay. People yank them from their CIJ offsets and put US models on. My point is that you can get a Japanese Fender trem for the same or less depending on where you go.

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Post by vandahm » Mon Mar 09, 2015 4:04 pm

kdanie wrote:I took a quick look at mine and it appears the button doesn't move far enough aft. A small round file to lengthen the slot may do the trick.

ken
That worked! Mine arrived a couple of days ago, and the trem lock didn't engage for exactly this reason. After taking apart the tremolo, I used a dremel tool and a small, cone-shaped grinding wheel to lengthen the slot a bit. Everything is fine now!

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Re: Stew Mac Golden Age Offset Bridge/Trem

Post by jvmusic » Mon Mar 09, 2015 6:36 pm

I just got mine and filed it down. It locks now, but I was curious how far in should it go to block the plate? I don't know if it matters, but I'd like to get it close to how it is on factory Fender trems.

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Re: Stew Mac Golden Age Offset Bridge/Trem

Post by tommycarlos » Mon Sep 12, 2016 11:21 pm

So... I got one of these for my Squier VM Jag all excited about the trem-lock. Then when it arrived it seemed like the trem-lock wouldn't actually engage. I googled a bit and came across this thread. I admit to panicking. :wtf:

I contacted Stew Mac and they asked if I had tried it in the guitar or just in my hand. They told me that string tension was required for the trem-lock to engage.

I installed it in my Jag, and sure enough it engaged once under tension *whew*. No filing needed.

Image

Maybe they have gotten better... My only complaint now is that the tremolo arm falls out of the collet a lot easier than the Squier one did. I guess I'll have to tape or bend it in some way.

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Re: Stew Mac Golden Age Offset Bridge/Trem

Post by ThePearDream » Wed Nov 29, 2017 8:01 pm

I recently bought one of these for an upcoming build. I don't want Fender branding on a non-Fender build if I can help it.
Anyway, I took a chance and ordered the 10mm Staytrem collet. It arrived today and it fits perfectly. Thought I'd share this info.
Doug
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Re: Stew Mac Golden Age Offset Bridge/Trem

Post by sirspens » Wed Nov 29, 2017 11:28 pm

I put one on a Schecter Ultra mod, and by the time I got the arm and tension balanced where I wanted it, the lock doesn't engage.

I admit I haven't tried fixing it, because I need to rewire the guitar and it gives me a headache to think about.

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Re: Stew Mac Golden Age Offset Bridge/Trem

Post by pscates » Thu Nov 30, 2017 4:18 am

For those who don’t want the Fender branding, Faction sells a blank plate that holds the guts/workings of the AVRI tremolo (he makes it a point to say that it’s only guaranteed to work with the US-made trems). For those who already have such a tremolo, but prefer a blank plate, that’s an option. A $50 option, but at least it’s a “best of both worlds” scenario, for those interested. Available in left and right hand versions, with four finish options.

https://store.factionguitars.com/collec ... rato-plate

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Re: Stew Mac Golden Age Offset Bridge/Trem

Post by Singlebladepickup » Fri Dec 01, 2017 8:55 am

"I took a chance and ordered the 10mm Staytrem collet."

How does this overall setup compare to an AVRI trem system? I don't know about what makes these things work, so assuming the lock feature works and the collet has been upgraded, how much better or worse could it be?

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Re: Stew Mac Golden Age Offset Bridge/Trem

Post by ThePearDream » Fri Dec 01, 2017 8:54 pm

Singlebladepickup wrote:
Fri Dec 01, 2017 8:55 am
"I took a chance and ordered the 10mm Staytrem collet."

How does this overall setup compare to an AVRI trem system? I don't know about what makes these things work, so assuming the lock feature works and the collet has been upgraded, how much better or worse could it be?
When I said that I took a chance, it was because I couldn't be sure that the staytrem collet would fit on the stewmac trem. I might have been spending 40-something bucks on a part that I couldn't use.
This isn't installed yet and I've never had an AVRI trem, so I can't compare. I have had Squier and MIJ trems though and never had any issues with them, so I'm confident that this will be at least as good as those.

The parts combined have run me $80 plus S/H, I could have spent the same on an AVRI, plus $90 for a blank faction plate and staytrem collet. As much as I like wasting money on guitars, I can think of a lot of better ways to spend $90. :D
Doug
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Re: Stew Mac Golden Age Offset Bridge/Trem

Post by Singlebladepickup » Sat Dec 02, 2017 3:52 am

I hear you. I have used AVRI and it's plenty good, but for a new project I don't want something that says Fender and I also don't want to spend the amount of avri in addition to the faction plate and statrem collet, or mastery trem. I've only tried AVRI trem at this point so I was trying to get an idea of whether golden age plus staytrem would get me close to what I'm used to already. Sounds like it will be close enough for me.

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