33 replies to this topic

[Hundredxnails]

I was on another forum yesterday asking about bridge options for my mustang rebuild and was presented with the Mastery bridge. The cool thing about this is that it fits without any modification, and you can adjust the bridge radius!

They run for about 160ish dependin on what one you need (vintage or reissue).

I don't know if anyone on here has one, or have even heard about it but I figured it would be an interesting thing to share.

At the very least I am going to run up to the manufacture some time this week and see one installed on one of their in house guitars. These fit mustangs, jaguars, jag stangs, and teles equiped witha bigsby.

[Joey]

$160 plus shipping.... ouch!

http://www.masterybr...com/bridge.html

Let us know how it goes. Palm muting looks like it'd take a bit of getting used to.

[Hundredxnails]

The guys from Sonic Youth swear by them, considering they are slightly heavier players than the guitar was originally geared towards I imagine this would hold up pretty well.

But yeah, I will let you guys know. I think its a little out of my league price wise especially considering gotoh and replacement fender bridges are only $20-$40.

Either way, these guys seem to know their stuff concerning these types of guitars.

[Fran]

We've talked about these quite a lot. Of all the Fender forums OSG.com seems to be the only place that has embraced this bridge, which i think is a reflection of the user age group. Theres guys over there that clearly have well paid jobs and can afford the bridge, to most people it is a ridiculously expensive piece of kit.
Sonic Youth use them because they can afford them, they will also have some kind of endorsement deal no doubt- Sonic Youth use this bridge! is obviously gonna improve sales.
Btw, you can adjust the radius on a Jaguar/Jazzmaster bridge. Theres also the TOM option which would save you about $120.
Personally i think its too expensive for what it is, its not exactly got the workings of a Floyd Rose has it? Besides, the stock bridges work fine for me.

[Joey]

Well said Fran

***writes a letter to santa asking for a Mastery Bridge*** <---- only way I'd get one

[Mad-Mike]

I don't use them because I don't see what the benefit is. My well used Jaguar and Jazzmaster's bridge do just fine, and those are the only two guitars I can see having any sort of issues a Mastery might fix (in particular, string slippage).

I really don't see the point in installing a Mastery on a Mustang/Jag-Stang style guitar, sure it fits, but what problems does it cure? I've been using my Jag-Stang's Dynamic Vibrato for 10 years of that guitar's 13-14ish years of it's life, and the only problems I have are related to dirt in the saddles and mechanical bits wearing out due to being used super-hard a ####-ton. If I had a flatter radius, I'd just use a Jaguar/Jazzmaster bridge.

The only Issue i could see the Mastery curing is the bridge moving while you play, mine does that, and I have very little if any tuning issues with either of my *stangs, and they seem to hold in place fine under my super light strings so there's that one for me.

[NathanStang75]

Is it a case of easy option so i don't have to get used to the stock jazz/jag and stang bridge. although at that price i'm not sure it'd be an easy option.
I own neither of these guitars, only a jagstang and i'm perfectly at ease with the bridge on that guitar.
Surely if you are to purchase a jag/jazzy you would be familiar with the problems of the trem/bridge so you'd pay a visit to a site like this to improve it.
If you are not then i think buying a bridge for 160 big ones would go through you having already shelled out half your yearly wage for the guitar in the 1st place.(these prices annoy the hell out of me).

I've not got the experience of using these guitars like what Fran has but i'd be prepared to work with them. thats what makes them the guitars we know and love.

so i'm told...

[Earth]

Putting a mastery on a mustang is pointless cause the strings don't slip or buzz and the strings have a short and sharp break angle from bridge to vibrato,like a gibson LP does which results in no buzz etc.. The mastery was primarily designed for jazzmasters and jaguars.

And I agree with fran about them. To add to this, Sonic Youth probably get them for free or at least dirt cheap and just because SY use something doesn't make it perfect for everything. IMO the stock mustang bridge is perfect (well not perfect but close) for the mustang and a TOM is just as good if you like narrower string spacing like me.

The mastery has been classed as "the perfect bridge" by a lot of rich folk but it has at least one design flaw, you
CANNOT innonate some (a sht load of) alternate tunings, its actually physically impossible to intonate my tunings on a mastery (and I dont need to buy one to know this,its an obvious observation) as mastery's only have two pivoting saddles. I can guarantee you that at least half of SY's guitars aren't intonated properly either, the ones with mastery's I mean. SY's guitars would have at least 1-2 strings that the intonation is way out because you cant move JUST THAT STRINGS saddle back or forth on a mastery like you can on a mustang and TOM bridge.
Its almost as bad as them PRS wraparound bridges,if you dont play 9-42 strings in EADGBE they wont intonate 100%.

To me its an over priced bridge with flaws. Just like the fender ones, they are all slightly flawed. If you want to stop the mustang bridge rocking just wrap tape or aluminum foil around it, problem solved. Or use a Gotoh TOM for $30. IMO the Mustang bridge has less flaws than the mastery because you can intonate ANY tuning ona mustang bridge, where as mastery's are really only good for standard tunings.

If this thread was about a jazzmaster or jaguar it would make some sense but a mastery on a mustang makes no sense whatsoever.

[Doug]

This is why I stick with this web-group. Through this discussion of bridges, I just learned a shytload. Thanks, guys!

Doug

[Fran]

I just did my monthly visit of OSG classifieds and noticed a few Mastery Bridges surfacing in there. One guy wrote he is going back to the Mustang bridge because he prefers the feel of it and it functions just as good.

[theunknown22]

When I get the money I will get one and tell you all how it sounds.

[Fran]

We already know... It sounds like Sonic Youth and Kevin Shields of course

[Earth]

I just did my monthly visit of OSG classifieds and noticed a few Mastery Bridges surfacing in there. One guy wrote he is going back to the Mustang bridge because he prefers the feel of it and it functions just as good.

Yep, after the initial hype dies down you'll see a lot more for sale too.
People jumped on them and took the bait that it was the "best" bridge around, without even thinking about it and handed over $160 for it.

I see more and more complaints and sales as time goes by.

I told people it had a design flaw from the first time it hit the web but people didn't believe me, they said you can intonate ANY tuning with it which of course you would know is physically impossible unless the mastery doesn't operate under the laws of physics!!!

BTW,OSG is the best place for hyped up products IMO if that's what you're after. Best place for gear snobbery too!

[theunknown22]

It seems either you are for or against it. I think people shouldn't knock it until they try it however.

[Earth]

Why try a bridge that i know wont intonate on my guitars tunings? So it wont play properly? That would be pretty stupid!!!

[theunknown22]

You have no evidence to back up what your saying... I'm going to actually buy the product then review it.

[Earth]

I do have evidence, KNOWLEDGE about saddle positions (and knowledge about the mastery and how it works) when my guitars are in tune and the fact that the mastery is a two saddle system and each saddle pivots from the center point back and forth not independently.


Tell me, how do you intonate the bottom three strings on a mastery when the 1st saddle is supposed to be (to be intonated) back,the 2nd forward and the 3rd back? answer,YOU CANT! IT IS PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE!!!!!!!

If you cant see that then you are blind!

I know what the hell I'm talking about dude and am no teenage novice!

[theunknown22]

I find it silly that people are so against it and haven't even played it. This seems to be a lot better than screwing up your guitar trying to use the TOM. I'm done arguing and am not going to respond to this thread again unless it's a review. I would suggest the same.

[Fran]

I dont think people are particularly against it, just not for it. It's a waste of money for a lot of folk when their stock bridges already work fine, me included.
Also, in this day and age of endless pickup options, clean boost and sustain pedals you can throw the "it improves sustain" argument right out of the window. These guitars are what they are, its part of their charm. If you want something that sustains like a bitch go and buy a Les Paul.

[Earth]

I'm not against it at all. It does have the intonation design flaw though and is pretty expensive, they are my only complaints about it. If I played in EADGBE i would consider one possibly,they look cool at least.

BTW,to install a TOM you don't wreck anything if you use the Gotoh Nashville type, installation requires zero permanent modification to the guitar.