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I'm a proud owner of a Johnny Marr Jaguar with Spitfire tort. I upgraded to a Mastery bridge since I loved it on my Jazzmaster. But when I try to intonate I have to move the saddles way to the back. Apart from not looking pretty It also causes the Mastery to rattle/buzz because the springs are so cramped up. Is there a solution to this or am I doing something stupid?

Maybe consider getting a shim in the neck?

Another thought is to drop the height of the bridge and raise the height of the saddles. Typically, I'd not suggest that, preferring to use the height adjustment of the saddles for the radius only.

But here it might be preferable to get a little extra height on the saddles which could translate into more break angle, and thus pressure, on the saddles themselves. This might alleviate your rattling problem.

The shim might do the same thing, but also might let you get the saddles moved forward a little bit also.

Did your old bridge require you to have the saddles so far back on it?

To be honest I haven’t tried to intonate it properly with the original bridge, I started that after I installed the mastery and made adjustments on the action and truss rod etc.

I read that the Johnny Marr supposedly has a angled neck pocket so a shim is not needed?

That may be true about the neck pocket. So, disregard that, apologies.

Hmm. I mean, you can try putting the saddles up, but you really should not have to do that. That's the whole reason there are three strings per saddle anyway, to really lock them down. It's the best feature of the bridge, really.

Am I right in noticing that your trem appears to leave a gap at the top? It makes me wonder how much care was put into your guitar at the factory.

Larry's advice is good, but if all else fails you can put shorter springs in there.

Check the scale length on the neck? - wouldn't be the first time we saw a mismatched offset neck/body combo.

We're clutching at straws here, but pickup magnets too close to the strings can disrupt intonation setting. What is the string clearance for both pickups when fretted ?

Also worth describing your technique, just to be sure. Open string or 12th fret harmonic versus fretted 12th fret, right ? And if fretted note is sharp, saddle moved back (towards the trem) ?

Were you able to get the intonation set? If not , something is misaligned.

When I used Mastery bridges I put short lengths of clear heatshrink over the springs to get rid of the rattles.

Seems strange that the springs would rattle when loaded up like that though?

On the stock bridge I stopped Rattle having the E string like that. Technically less movable as more spring tension and more break angle.

So what is it transferring the Rattle to?
Is it snug in the thimbles?

Intonation can be a bit mysterious. Old strings, detuning, string guage etc. Especially if they weren't fresh swapping bridges. The nut may be but that tends to be lowest frets.
The neck being straighter would help too.
Because the whole guitar can be visualised as a very thin triangle and various things changing height will change the string length.

Do flatwounds need more string length? No idea. The general premise is that no string is perfect and at the ends they aren't vibrating, and overtones aren't 100% like The hypothetical variable-removed physics equation. so must be compensated so that the vibrating length, not total length is correct. A flatwound is less flexible, so my theory is there's a longer portion not vibrating.

I do believe stretching and even pushing on strings around the bridge helps Intonation, but probably not buly enough.

The springs on mine are completely coiled up like that. I debated clipping the spring a little shorter, since the adjustment range of the spring is the issue not the saddle. But I'm able to intonate the guitar so I don't care that much.

Thanks guys, I still have to look into it (bit hectic here at home with a 1 year old during covid quarantine days). I can get the guitar pretty wel intonated at the 12th fret though, So It’s mainly the problem of the springs and the bridge looking weird. Maybe It’s worth mentioning that I use 0.10 - 0.52 d’addarios. Would It make a big difference to switch to 0.11 - 0.52 (hence only the g, b and e are different gauge). Actually I like the slinkier top strings

You can’t change the look without changing the relationship between the neck and bridge location, I don’t see an easy way .
It plays in tune so really a non issue. Determine what is actually buzzing, you do have overall height adjustments as well as the saddle adjustments, try different settings there, 10’s should work fine.

saddles look to be WAY too far to the rear... it looks like the thimbles holes were drilled to far forward. Unless you have the floating bridge posts pushed all the way forward... in which case using the trem a bit should center it...

Make sure the bridge is centered before intonating.

If the holes here drilled wrong at the factory I would see about a warranty repair, if you are the original owner. They can be doweled and redrilled.

Mmmmm, that sounds like a possibility and really sucks if that is the case. Is there a way to check this? I still have warranty but I would hate to miss my guitar for a few weeks/months to let it get repaired (since the corona virus and me living in Holland is not making things easier)