Food for thought - a couple of years back I ordered a bunch of the cheapest JM bridges (the ones with height-adjustable barrel saddles, not the threaded rod ones) I could find on AliExpress...because I couldn't find cheap thimbles in Europe, and they came with a set of those. Yup, I know, that's silly. But there was no way I'd spend 20 euros for a pair of thimbles. The bridges were 6 euros apiece. I was expecting cheap zinc alloy all over, yet after examination, both the frame and the saddles were chrome-plated steel. The sides of the saddles bore machining marks and the three threads were consistently well within what I'd call a good tolerance. One of them ended up on a gift guitar for my brother and although there are other factors involved, it's one of the nicest-sounding guitars I ever made.timtam wrote: ↑Tue Sep 15, 2020 8:12 pmAnd of course we are prone to simplistically think "cheap=bad" and "expensive=good", although no one has measured any of these bridges to determine tolerances on screw threads etc that might influence how prone to rattling/slipping they might be. But Fender, Mastery etc like us to think that way.
As for Emma Music, they are mostly pretty great to deal with now. A few years back they had a reputation for being unreliable, but apart from a few ambiguously labelled parts, they've improved a lot, to the point where they are the go-to solution for a lot of people in France and neighboring countries. I've had a few messed-up orders where I got stuff I hadn't ordered, but they always sent me replacement, no questions asked, and I got to keep the stray parts I'd received. I do want to email them about that Gotoh JM stuff at some point, though.