Not happy with my Mastery >:-(

[DesmondWafers]

When I bought my first jag I bought a mastery soon after. 4 years, 5 offsets and 3 masterys later, I am confused why I ever thought the mastery was worth it. I have had significantly more problems with mastery than with mustang bridges. Just tape the thimbles (if you're fancy use some metal tape) and then its done. Maybe you have to cut a screw. No mastery I've ever had has been drop in and play. Haven't tried a staytrem but I doubt that I would notice any difference over a slightly modified mustang bridge. I have no doubt that a mastery is better in the long run, but you need a lot of tweaking and shit, that's not for me.

[furtherpale]

as promised http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... =8&t=85089

[furtherpale]

staytrem

staytrem staytrem staytrem staytrem

s t a y t r e m

staytrem

I am clearly sold

[slavemaster]

staytrem

staytrem staytrem staytrem staytrem

s t a y t r e m

staytrem

staytrem?

[Straight6DOHC]

I'd like to take this opportunity to recommend the Staytrem bridge.

[Jazzmaster_76]

I used a mustang bridge and tape around the bridge posts cause I'm cheap. Have had my eye on those Staytrem bridges however.

[parry]

At the time it was released, Mastery was THE upgrade. Some people got lucky and have had minimal problems with their bridges - (a lot of) others weren't so lucky. For the consumer on the fence it's a good chunk of money to take a gamble with. Which is unfortunate. Naturally, I would want to support a company that stepped up early in the game, to offer improvement to an oddball - at the time - guitar that nobody wanted to touch. I have nothing but respect for the fact that Woody did what he did and invested so much in to what he built. He very much opened the gate for those who followed after. It's just unfortunate that for those on the short end of the stick, it wasn't the silver bullet that they'd hoped it to be. That said, I'm VERY happy to see that it "seems" they've addressed some of the issues (tolerance-related?) with the current batch of production; and that they've branched-out. If you love your Mastery, and it works for you - cool.




If not, there's that other company that offers that other bridge.
Can't remember the name though...


I think it may have popped up once or twice, earlier on...

[slavemaster]

I feel somewhat lucky reading all of this. I mean, I got the mastery just for the kicks, and also knowing that I could flip it without any significant loss* if it did not do the trick. It appeared it did the trick.

Now, I don't know if it is due to the fact that I am not a very "heavy handed" player, or that I really do not play the mastery equipped JM that much, or maybe the fact that I prefer higher action, but so far I haven't had even a slightest problem with it (ok, I had some wound G intonation problem but it turned out to be a bad string).

But yeah, there are other options out there. Do explore those and I hope you get my luck with them Just bear in mind - moving parts plus vibration would inevitably produce problems, be it sooner or (preferably) later.

* IMO, the Mastery's greatest advantage

[Angry Jonny]

I was a fairly early adopter of the Mastery Bridge for my AVRI 62 Jazzmaster. I originally had a taped mustang bridge which worked fine, but the Mastery really improved the resonance and sustain of the guitar. I've never had any major issues with mine. A friend's Mastery slips a little every so often, but mine doesn't seem too.

BUZZING
One question I would have for the buzzing issues some people have is: are you sure it's the bridge or the trem? I noticed that if my action was any higher, my low E string buzzes against the dome screw directly in front of the ball end of that string. I read somewhere that you can flip the screw upside down (screw in from the bottom of the plate instead of the top) and alleviate that. I've found that as long as the string is resting on the screw I have no buzz. For my solution, if my action needed to be higher, I would need to add a washer under the screw to keep it in contact with the string, but probably at the expense of losing threading in the tremolo plate. Or I could buy Mastery's Trem.

THIMBLE POST SINKING
I would have also thought that lock-tite would do the trick on the thimble problem. Another alternative in that scenario is putting a small piece of copper shielding tape on each post so they are fairly snug in the thimbles. I had to as they didn't fit perfectly into my stock thimbles. Keeps it from moving (less rattling, less unscrewing) and is still conductive for keeping the bridge/strings grounded.

[jestes70]

Mine keeps sinking into the thimbles on the bass side. Gonna try the teflon tap on the threads.

[owen.c]

hadn't seen this many issues with mastery bridges.. I am very surprised. I know this thread is a bit old, but I've recently played a '69 jag with a mastery and a 2000s avri JM with a mastery. sustain and vibrato were great and the owner hasn't mentioned any problems.

I put a staytrem in my squier bass vi and absolutely love it. the bridge still rocks in the thimbles but not as well as the stock vm vi bridge did (due maybe to larger posts and fatter height screws with a slightly larger pivot point?) I have no issues with returning to pitch after heavy vibrato abuse. I felt stupid spending over $100 for a bridge on a squier but it was very much worth it for a beautifully machined piece of hardware.

that being said, easy access to a 9.5" radius mustang bridge would likely be my go to for any squiers in he future. I had to shim the neck a lot with the staytrem to get a jaguar mute to work with the instrument. the staytrem saddles are girthy.

[jestes70]

Teflon tape around the riser screws worked to stop mine from sinking in the thimbles. Easily removed if need be.

[ClipArtSongs]

Not at all surprised there's so much frustration and disagreement on this topic. It's annoying to feel like you HAVE to put in after-market money just to get a guitar to work its best, but we all bought fender offsets knowing what we were getting into (i hope).

My own experience--

Bought a VM JM and put a Staytrem on it. Couldn't stand the idea of spending Mastery money. Intonation was cool, and the strings didn't pop out, but it did not hold tune at all when I used the vibrato. Eventually I immobilized the bridge, and it worked pretty good after that. But by then, I'd decided I wanted to switch to a Jag.

Landed an MIJ jag for cheap from a friend and decided 1) that I didn't want to cheap out on the bridge again, 2) since I got the guitar for cheap I had some dough to spend on the bridge. Intonation is great. Keeps its tuning despite aggressive vibrato use.

Bottom line-- Yeah. Mastery is crazy expensive. Embarrassingly so for what should basically be standard on the instrument, but now my Jag works phenomenally in all respects. I'm glad that I threw down for a Mastery this time.

[jazzmasterlane]

I think it's rare that one product for a guitar can work for everyone. At the end of the day, it's all preference.

I got a master for my MIJ Jazzmaster and also upgraded the trem. It completely changed the guitar for the better. I set it up myself and have had no issues.

Any issues you have, email them. They have always been very responsive to my questions in the past.

[FightingPlankton]

I'm a cheapskate and dont like spending money on ANYTHING I can DIY... So my bass vi grub screws(height adjustment) were rattling quite badly, so i melted candle wax onto the bridge, let it seep into the threads, then wiped away the extra...no more rattle and didnt even cost the price of a bottle of lock tite.

edit: nice thing about candle wax as opposed to lock tite is, you can simply drop the bridge in boiling water and the wax will float to the top if you ever want it off.