I see what you mean. You can intonate the mastery bridge well, though. I set the position of the two outer saddles, and if there is any variance in the intonation of the middle string, compensate by adjusting both screws, then check the outer ones again and adjust as needed. I can get all three strings closer than a person can hear.jorri wrote: ↑Fri Mar 05, 2021 7:57 amAside from the back plate, it is what was meant - you can "change the radius" on mastery.AztecGold wrote: ↑Fri Mar 05, 2021 7:39 amOk. So it would be if you feel the bridge rocking (and thus the scale length changing) is a good thing.jorri wrote: ↑Fri Mar 05, 2021 5:50 am
Having used neither, but the bridge:
-mastery has no rocking option.
-mastery changes radius.
-mastery seems like would be strange to adjust intonation on only two saddles.
-its weird overkill redesign but that said descendant is also expensive.
-no chance of strings resting on the back with descendant
And the trem, the descendant has the break angle thing as its main feature.
Some of the above bullets are incorrect, though. The mastery bridge does not change the radius, it can be set to any radius. It gives precise intonation, the saddles can be set to any required position. And the strings cannot touch the back of the bridge plate because there isn't a back.
The whole mastery concept is that the rocking bridge is a bad design that is the source of most of the offset guitars' problems, so if we stabilize the bridge and make it out of materials that allow the string to move freely, the vibrato works even better, sustain is increased, and the guitar will hold intonation. It sounds like descendent has settled on trying to do the rocking bridge design better and that it would be the choice if you like that design and want to try to make it functional.
-you can only put intonation into the general shape of three wound and three plain strings.
As for descendant's, no, it seems a lot of effort made for a non-rocking design which does this alignment thing the mastery wont do (if its needed?). Its just you can also decide to have rocking bridge.
I dont know about frictionless materials, which could be an advantage on mastery style non-rocking, and if you had it rocking, a disadvantage since that requires some friction to ensure the string just rolls and returns to the same position.
The actual saddle surface on a mastery is pretty small, and it stays where it is. I think this is a big advantage because the position can be measured precisely with a strobe tuner and it will remain there. The separated barrel-type saddles seem to shift laterally with tremolo use or harder strumming or even string changes, and they sometimes move forward with vibration over time. Adding to this the rocking bridge, you never know what the precise scale length will be - that is to say, where in space the saddle will be.
It's cool that more people are generating more upgrades for the offsets, and the more vintage oriented rocking bridge concept. I just don't see the intonation advantage so much.