I'm having an issue trying to install a Mastery Bridge in a Johnny Marr Jaguar body and I was wondering if anyone else here has run up against this.
I bought a Mastery M1 kit today from a local shop, with the understanding that depending on the year my Jag was made the thimbles might not fit the Mastery, and in that case I'd have to pull them & install the set of Mastery thimbles - simple enough! I tried it when I got home and the Mastery didn't drop in, and I noticed that it seemed like the Mastery was too wide to fit the stock thimbles. strange, but I figured maybe the diameter of the Mastery thimbles was slightly larger to accommodate for the difference; so, I pulled the stock thimbles out using the soldering iron method and was surprised to see that they both fit the posts of the Mastery when I tried it out - also strange. next I stuck the Mastery thimbles halfway into the body (as shown in the photo below) so that I wouldn't have to heat them up as well to get them back out, and tried it with those - sure enough, the Mastery's post spacing was still too wide. you can see in the photo that when one post sits inside the thimble, the other one is off-center and catches on the lip.
so my question - what's going on here? my understanding was that the M1 would be a drop-in replacement for any American Jaguar, either with the stock thimbles, or with the Mastery thimbles. did I somehow end up with the wrong size bridge in an M1 tin? I'm assuming there's nothing wrong with the body itself - it's definitely a Marr body, and the bridge I'd been using (the 52mm American Pro bridge w/ Mustang saddles) sat in the stock thimbles just fine.
using a set of calipers, the Mastery's outer post width is 81.4mm, where the American Pro is 79.5mm - so there's clearly a difference there.
thanks in advance for your help!
thanks for the heads up!