Members honeyiscool Posted September 24, 2012 Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 I have a few electrics right now. Of all my guitars, though, my tiny 6 pound basswood shortscale Mustang gets the loudest and the best unplugged tone of all of them and gets awesome sustain, too. And two of my other guitars are semi-hollowbody, but none of them get unplugged volume like my Mustang. I have no clue if the Mastery Bridge has anything to do with it but I do know that I had some minor issues with the guitar with the stock bridge and have none now. So yeah, they're worth the money. My only wish is that they made a Tune-O-Matic, too. I get sick of Tune-O-Matics and their built-in radii and overall crapola quality. I use the aluminu GraphTech Tune-O-Matic bridges and they're pretty good but I'd spend $150 for a Mastery Tune-O-Matic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Help!I'maRock! Posted September 24, 2012 Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 there's supposed to be a Ric version coming out. will likely hit it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members honeyiscool Posted September 24, 2012 Author Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 What's wrong with Ric bridges? I'm curious. I've never had a Ric. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Help!I'maRock! Posted September 24, 2012 Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 What's wrong with Ric bridges? I'm curious. I've never had a Ric. they're made from pot metal and they tend to rock back and forth on the 4 set screws. the Mastery is less about the saddle design, and more about locking in those screws for better stability and intonation, with less rattle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members honeyiscool Posted September 24, 2012 Author Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 Ah. Tune-O-Matics are also usually made from pot metal and usually rattle badly too and usually move on the posts when combined with a tremolo tailpiece. In my perfect world, everything would be Tele bridges. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bsman Posted September 24, 2012 Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 I've never even heard of Mastery bridges and there's haters??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members honeyiscool Posted September 24, 2012 Author Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 I've never even heard of Mastery bridges and there's haters??? They're high-end bridges ($150+ each) for offsets and more recently Teles. If you're not normally into offsets, you probably haven't heard of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kayd_mon Posted September 24, 2012 Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 I've never even heard of Mastery bridges and there's haters??? There will be haters of anything that's expensive. So these don't have individual intonation adjustments, then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members bsman Posted September 24, 2012 Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 That tele bridge is pretty cool looking, but frankly I've never had a lick of trouble with the bridges on either of my teles, so I guess I'm not sure why I'd necessarily need to upgrade. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members honeyiscool Posted September 24, 2012 Author Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 That tele bridge is pretty cool looking, but frankly I've never had a lick of trouble with the bridges on either of my teles, so I guess I'm not sure why I'd necessarily need to upgrade.I think the Tele bridge only really makes sense if you want to Bigsby it. I have a 3-saddle compensated Wilkinson bridge on my Tele Thinline and it is a wonderful bridge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kayd_mon Posted September 24, 2012 Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 The only bridge upgrade I've ever done is to replace stock tune-o-matic saddles with Graphtec ones. My Faded LP was breaking strings, and the Graphtecs made the problem go away. I suppose that if I had a guitar and the bridge broke, I'd possibly be interested in something fancy. I do have a Jazzmaster, but it's the Classic Player with a tune-o-matic bridge. I guess a Mastery wouldn't fit my guitar anyway. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kayd_mon Posted September 24, 2012 Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 No, it's two saddles so as long as you don't have a wound G, you get pretty good intonation, though. As good as a 3-saddle Tele, I would think. Ah well. I always use a wound G. But if an acoustic will intonate, couldn't you get one of these to do it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members honeyiscool Posted September 24, 2012 Author Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 The only bridge upgrade I've ever done is to replace stock tune-o-matic saddles with Graphtec ones. My Faded LP was breaking strings, and the Graphtecs made the problem go away. I suppose that if I had a guitar and the bridge broke, I'd possibly be interested in something fancy. I do have a Jazzmaster, but it's the Classic Player with a tune-o-matic bridge. I guess a Mastery wouldn't fit my guitar anyway.I did a write-up about upgrading the bridge on a Tune-O-Matic equipped offset here: http://www.shortscale.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=45554 It worked great, btw. Like you, I use GraphTech most of the time on my Tune-O-Matic equipped guitars. Those saddles are great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Help!I'maRock! Posted September 24, 2012 Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 Ah. Tune-O-Matics are also usually made from pot metal and usually rattle badly too and usually move on the posts when combined with a tremolo tailpiece. In my perfect world, everything would be Tele bridges. Ric bridges rattle less than Gibson because they don't have the retainer wire. they also have much further travel. if/when there's rattle, it comes from the post springs. my hope for the Mastery is that by locking the posts down, it removes the rattle, and the need to adjust the posts with every string change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members honeyiscool Posted September 24, 2012 Author Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 Good luck with that. Have you tried Mastery before? Before I did, I always thought it was a bit of snake oil but ever since I've started getting higher end bridges for my guitars, I've started to notice just how poor some of the stock hardware is on pretty well regarded manufacturers. Fender's about the only company that did it right, but they started cutting corners early on, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Help!I'maRock! Posted September 24, 2012 Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 Good luck with that. Have you tried Mastery before? Before I did, I always thought it was a bit of snake oil but ever since I've started getting higher end bridges for my guitars, I've started to notice just how poor some of the stock hardware is on pretty well regarded manufacturers. Fender's about the only company that did it right, but they started cutting corners early on, too. part of the reason i don't own a Gibson is because when i was in the market for one, the models i liked didn't have the Nashville bridge, which i feel is an upgrade. they felt historical accuracy was more important, and i'm not really one of those people. i ended up with a PRS with excellent hardware. it's important to me and i have no problem upgrading if i feel it's an actual upgrade. so while i won't be the earliest adopter, i will pay attention to those early reviews and decide from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members poolshark Posted September 24, 2012 Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 Pretty sure I'm the only Mastery hater - everybody else seems to love them! Not to say they aren't nice pieces of equipment, but I tend to think of them as a solution without a problem and, therefore, way overpriced. Jag/JM/Mustang-style rocking bridges can be made to work beautifully with minimal effort, and in my opinion, they're the heart of the legendarily smooth offset tremolo systems. All it takes is a little know-how. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members honeyiscool Posted September 24, 2012 Author Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 Pretty sure I'm the only Mastery hater - everybody else seems to love them! Not to say they aren't nice pieces of equipment, but I tend to think of them as a solution without a problem and, therefore, way overpriced. Jag/JM/Mustang-style rocking bridges can be made to work beautifully with minimal effort, and in my opinion, they're the heart of the legendarily smooth offset tremolo systems. All it takes is a little know-how.There's a lot of hating on the forums for them. Most of it involves people who have never tried them, though, so there's that. When people say they used it and didn't like it because of specific reasons, then I pay more attention to their concerns. Honestly, there's nothing inherently flawed about a Mustang bridge. It works great. I do wish, though, that it didn't rock back and forth. I think it's an unnecessary axis of movement. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members kayd_mon Posted September 24, 2012 Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 Yeah but acoustic saddles usually have a 4+2 design. These have a 3+3 design. It's a point of weakness, I suppose.I did a write-up about upgrading the bridge on a Tune-O-Matic equipped offset here:http://www.shortscale.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=45554It worked great, btw. Like you, I use GraphTech most of the time on my Tune-O-Matic equipped guitars. Those saddles are great. Nice! I'll check that out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Ancient Mariner Posted September 24, 2012 Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 I'm not a hater, but in those images they do not look aesthetically pleasing for a $150 bridge. Now it might be that they are brilliant, in which case no worries, but they do seem to be a solution for a problem most of us don't have. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members honeyiscool Posted September 24, 2012 Author Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 I'm not sure most people don't have problems with offset bridges... "Use 12 gauge flatwounds" is one of the many solutions people sometimes come up with, but I don't know too many Jag/Jazz users who don't fuss with the bridge at least some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members cratz2 Posted September 24, 2012 Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 Seem kinda pricey but so is Callaham stuff. Some things, you can feel the quality before you even install and use it. Having said that, I doubt I'll buy another Callaham trem... or a Mastery bridge. Definitely no hate though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Pine Apple Slim Posted September 24, 2012 Members Share Posted September 24, 2012 Iv'e got 3 aftermarket bridges: On a parts tele, not very expensive, decent piece of equipment This replaced the tunomatic on a Bigsby equiped Epi Explorer. Dirt cheap but it works fine And this piece of artistry and engineering excellence on my 5120. If you got a floating bridge and a Bigsby, its required equipment in my opinion Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Doctor Morbius Posted September 25, 2012 Members Share Posted September 25, 2012 I don't see how one can adjust the intonation on these. The A and B strings are going to have a best guess and that's as good as it's ever going to get. If you use a wound 3rd like many people do with offsets, the B string will never be intonated properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members ugameus Posted September 25, 2012 Members Share Posted September 25, 2012 And this piece of artistry and engineering excellence on my 5120. If you got a floating bridge and a Bigsby, its required equipment in my opinion I need to know more about this bridge. Who made this? Are there others like it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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