Mastery bridge

[oigun]

For Johnny's guitar we are wondering wich bridge to use. The goal is: good sustain and stay in tune.
I know for mustangs and jags the mastery bridge is the way to go anyone has hands-on expierience with the mastery ??
http://www.masterybridge.com/home.html

[MWaldorf]

I've heard great things about them, but wouldn't the string spacing be off for Mosrite style pickups?

[raygun85]

Woody sent us a couple of samples and we tried them out. I wouldn't say it blew me away but it did what it was supposed to do. It seemed to stay in tune a little better overall when using the vibrato (vs. a standard Jazzmaster bridge that is.) We're still considering it on one of our prototypes.

[Massassauga]

I have a Mastery bridge that I've tried on a few different axes, with great success. They definitely do what they say they are meant to do, solving many of the "issues" commonly associated with that trem system...as well as improve overall clarity and sustain. I would highly recommend the product for someone looking for more "stability" in these guitars...that's the best way I can describe it. It seriously made my Jag feel like I was playing a Tele...it all felt more...solid. They allow for the use of lighter strings for the Jag which was fun, and removed the need for a Buzz-Stop, opening up the harmonics behind the bridge--a great deal of the character of a Jaguar (Or JM) has to do with that resonance in my opinion.

BUT....

In the end I no longer use it on my Jaguar. As my own experience setting up the floating trem system increased I'm comfortable with setting up the guitar the way Mother Nature (Father Fender?) intended...ie. Flatwound strings, fully rocking bridge to lovely result. I feel that while the Mastery Bridge is an amazing "upgrade" it does change the feel of the guitar so drastically that it does become a different axe. If that guitar was my main player I'd probably go back to the Mastery for sake of reliability, or if for some reason I ever find myself with 2 Jags, then sure but for now I like the Jag to act like, well, a Jag and appreciate the peculiarities of the little beast. If you are a heavy strummer (or a "String Puncher") or want the look and "some" of the specific oddities of the sound of the floating trem guitars (Harmonics!! Rhythm Circuits!!) but with a more stable "feel" and sustain then I would highly recommend the Mastery bridge. If you can't be bothered with the constant fussiness of the Floating Bridge (amazing idea but it's really not for everybody I know) the Fitted Posts of the Mastery Bridge do a great job locking the Bridge to the guitar in a way that surgical tubing or tape can ever do...those things are quick fixes but surely can't help but dampen vibrations.

I've never tried the thing on a Mustang or Bigsby'd Tele as I've never felt the same set-up trouble with those bridges, but I bet the Mastery would act in the least as a great upgrade to sustain and adjustability (and again stabilize the fickle "floatingness") of those guitars.

My Mastery bridge now resides on my Bass VI (90's MIJ R.I.) where I'm pretty sure it'll stay forever. This is the place where I've noticed the greatest benefit to it's use. If people feel like skipping saddles is an issue on Jaguars they should try putting giant bass strings in the same slots and see what happens. The Mastery easily conquers this troublesome aspect of the stock bridge. The increased sustain and rigidity is a great improvement to the use of the instrument as a "Bass" (it's still Tic-Tacky as all heck when it needs to be, don't worry) and it just rings so sweetly now when chording--the advanced adjustments offered by the design were greatly appreciated when it came time to set up the bridge. I was initially concerned that there would not be enough travel in the saddles to intonate (the MIJ R.I.'s come with a wider bridge plate bass than vintage I guess to accompany the apparent extra 1/3 inch scale length...??) but found there to be just enough room to get the job done. As an aside I should note that LaBella's custom set of Bass VI flatwounds are an awesome compliment to the instrument as well and find the Mastery Bridge helps retain a lot of the chime and clarity that I had feared may have been lost in going with the flatwounds. The two work great together and rightly a Bass VI just isn't a Bass VI 'til it's got flats on it (they sound so amazing drenched in reverb w/o all that excess string noise!!).

So...that's all that. Go Mastery Bridge.

As for use on a Mosrite style build...I guess it'd work great as a bridge out of the box (would the string spacing be right?) but I would wonder why use it specifically. As an adaptation to Fender's Floating Tremolo system that it was designed to improve I think it's worth the hefty price tag, but outside of curiosity's sake I'm not sure you'd "need" to fork over that much dough to use it for a Mosrite style trem system (and surely not if it was going to be a stop or hard tail guitar). In terms of addressing "issues" with the Mosrite Roller design I recently received a Hallmark Bridge from Bob Shade that retains the original feel but works to lock down each saddle post. I'm really stoked to try it out. It's so nicely chrome-y! While never specifcally having an issue with trem sensitivity with the Mastery I'm gonna guess that the Roller style bridge is a big part of what makes a Mosrite Trem feel so silky smooth. All said it was much cheaper than my Mastery AND came in the mail real pronto (I know Mastery has at points been back-logged with orders, and understandably so!). Also the specificity of the thimble cups installation of the Fender Floating Trem would mean that if you didn't like the Mastery Bridge you'd be pretty much stuck with a Jag or Mustang bridge as your only other option without pluggin' some holes!

Mind you, if anyone ever tries out a MasteryRite test I'd be sure interested to hear some thoughts (and even more interested to give'r a whirl!).