-= Bridge FAQ =-

[BeardedRainbow]

Would having low friction saddles eliminate the need for a rocking bridge? My other guitars with Bigsby trems and regular saddles seem to have pretty good tuning and bridge stability. Would it allow the use of lighter gauge strings too?

I get that it is a design feature, but sometimes it just becomes another thing to be careful about. Thoughts?

[skelt101]

Would having low friction saddles eliminate the need for a rocking bridge? My other guitars with Bigsby trems and regular saddles seem to have pretty good tuning and bridge stability. Would it allow the use of lighter gauge strings too?

I get that it is a design feature, but sometimes it just becomes another thing to be careful about. Thoughts?

I believe low friction saddles and not rocking are part of the premise behind the Mastery bridge.

[Matthias]

I’m having some success recently using a vintage Jag bridge with .10s.

- 1 degree full-pocket shim
- Saddles fairly high
- Sturdy, vintage-style springs
- Tiny sections of 2mm inner diameter PVC tube screwed on to the height screws and made snug to the bottom of the posts to prevent sinking
- Making sure the saddles are level. Vintage-style saddles seem to have a tendency to sink to one side if they aren’t level I find - Strats do it too

No problems and no major rattles, although not quite as solid as my StayTrem, plus the bridge floats well. The action is good and no strings popping out on big bends. I tend to play a little heavy-handed too.

[Diamond Dave]

I didn’t see a Squier Classic Vibe Jaguar specifically mentioned. They come with a Mustang bridge stock. I was experiencing the bridging rocking forward and not returning to center after using the trem several times. Could be the nut; haven’t looked at the nut closely yet. But, I did find these nylon bushings at the local mom and pop Ace hardware store. They are just a few thousandths smaller than what Darren Riley sells, but they fit well and restrict, but don’t prevent, bridge movement. 65¢ each vs. $10 plus shipping, so it’s a no-brainer. So far so good.



EDIT: I did slide some fine sandpaper through the nut slots and added a little graphite for kicks.

[timtam]

I didn’t see a Squier Classic Vibe Jaguar specifically mentioned. They come with a Mustang bridge stock. I was experiencing the bridging rocking forward and not returning to center after using the trem several times. Could be the nut; haven’t looked at the nut closely yet.

The rocking bridge not returning to the neutral position after trem use is normally due to inadequate string downforce on the saddles (or mistakenly lubricating the string-saddle contact points). The strings must maintain their 'grip' on the strings at all times - that requires high string-saddle friction, which is largely due to that downforce. If that friction gets too low, the strings lose grip on the saddles, and the bridge cannot be returned to where it started. Sufficient string-saddle downforce is achieved with a sufficient combination of string break angle over the bridge and string tension (gauge). That is, if one of those two is high enough, the other need not be as high.

[MrSparkle]

Sufficient string-saddle downforce is achieved with a sufficient combination of string break angle over the bridge and string tension (gauge). That is, if one of those two is high enough, the other need not be as high.

Right! I have my bridge mid-high like an archtop, but it allows me to have 10 gauge flatwounds. At work, the Jaguar there is running 10 rounds, so I pushed the bridge a little higher still (and obviously, shimmed the neck to match) to give good downforce with those. If I was running 12 flats on both, I could almost deck the bridge and it would still work fine because the string tension would be so high.

The only real-world downside of having a high bridge is that you then need high pickups. On the work Jaguar (a 2013), the pickup foam had been compressed to hardtack from 10 years of excessive pressure; and the screws were stripped to boot. When I "arched" it, I had to replace both the screws and foam - and the bridge pickup needed the foam double-stacked to give perfect height without the pickup being to easy to press in. It's definitely at the upper end of what's acceptable, but the result is a really really playable guitar with great action, great sound and really stable tuning - while having light strings.

[Diamond Dave]

.Sufficient string-saddle downforce is achieved with a sufficient combination of string break angle over the bridge and string tension (gauge). That is, if one of those two is high enough, the other need not be as high.

Thanks. I do have a 0.5 degree shim in the neck pocket and I’m running 11s on it. I really don’t want to go to 12s. But, I think encouraging the bridge to stay upright with the bushings, along with fine-tuning the nut slots, has helped a lot. I appreciate the feedback.

[timtam]

.Sufficient string-saddle downforce is achieved with a sufficient combination of string break angle over the bridge and string tension (gauge). That is, if one of those two is high enough, the other need not be as high.

Thanks. I do have a 0.5 degree shim in the neck pocket and I’m running 11s on it. I really don’t want to go to 12s. But, I think encouraging the bridge to stay upright with the bushings, along with fine-tuning the nut slots, has helped a lot. I appreciate the feedback.

If it's working for you, stick with it. The alternative would be to try a 1deg shim to achieve greater downforce (greater shim angle->higher bridge->greater string break angle->greater string-saddle downforce). But do also look at the nut as you suggested - that's of course often implicated in tuning problems.

As far as the nylon bushings are concerned, I have in the past - perhaps somewhat cynically - described them as making a problem worse ... and then attempting to fix it. That is, they force the strings to lose grip on the saddles by blocking full bridge movement, and then prevent the outcome that usually results - unstable bridge position - by preventing the bridge from moving much at all. They are reminiscent of how some guitar techs used to "solve" the rocking bridge's "problems" - by wrapping the posts with tape to stop the bridge rocking at all (which unfortunately one still sees suggested from time to time on Facebook offset groups, generally a very low quality source of offset information).

[Diamond Dave]

Thanks. I think it’s working for me. I hate to go up to a 1 degree shim as that would introduce too much break angle and make positioning pickups and adjusting the action difficult, or at least put those adjustments on the outer edge of usability.

That said, the bushings are NOT a tight fit. They basically gently resist at the extremes of bridge movement, i.e., dive bombs. And I’m not a dive bomber; just need a little surf warble from time to time. Refining the nut slots also helped.

I think I’m going to leave well enough alone at this point. Thanks for the advice and guidance. Much appreciated!

[longtortoise]

I followed Puisheen's CV Jag setup guide (on YouTube) and it worked great. My CV has a traditional non-Mustang bridge for some reason and I don't have any issues with strings jumping after shimming the neck. The vibrato works great with no issues with tuning stability.

It's a bummer that many offsets come from the factory so poorly set up and that there's so much misinformation out there.