JSett wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 10:03 am
Well, I don't know how your particular setup behaves but just ditching the MIJ vibrato for ANY alternative that actually has the string spacing correct you'll get improved tuning stability and a smoother, more reliable, action.
Yeah the CIJ vibrato was/sometimes still is a vibbitcho - in order to get it mostly stable the spring tension is set in a way that the little thumb thing to restore tuning after a string snaps is made useless. It was the only way I could get it not to go wildly out of tune every time the bar was used, that and keeping the spring well lubricated (come to think of it, that'll need doing again soon, it's been a while).
JSett wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 10:03 am
It's become a little common for a few people to badmouth Mastery - probably because they're expensive - but go back to 2008ish and they were almost unilaterally being hailed here (and other places) as heroes without capes.
Well having personally spoken to Woody a lot around the time Mastery came into being, they basically are heroes without capes. Sweet guy, amazing vision, answered a lot of questions. I don't find that the prices have raised that much ahead of inflation - I would love to find my original purchase order for the Mastery but I've no idea which email I used to order it. The point is I'm rocking my well over a decade old Mk. I bridge and it's basically never given me any issues. I think the only thing I did because I was paranoid about bridge sinkage was replace the little screws for it with the two VGA output screws from a dead GPU card, spring loaded, and the action has never dropped which is great. Just as well as the only way to adjust the action now is remove the bridge.
People can badmouth Mastery all they want but in my experience the results speak for themselves, and not having to micro-manage the Jag to keep it playable is part of how it became my main guitar. With any of the other bridges this could not have happened.
JSett wrote: ↑Sun Mar 24, 2024 10:03 am
We're spoilt now. I'm of the generation where I was buying 60s Offsets for £400-500 and routing for Super Distortions with a chisel and screwing in any bridge I could make fit. Having the options we have now is a gift
Omg you were one of the vintage butchers
still if you own the instrument it's yours to do as you choose with.
Me personally, I said to myself early on you can mod it, but you mustn't route it. Which is why it ended up with an SHR-1b in the bridge. I was going to keep it single coils (there was a QP for Jag set in there and had been for a long time) but I kept playing at places where the single coil hum made it unusuable, so compromises had to be made. Fortunately, the Hot Rails pickup has become one of my favourite 'buckers in general so it worked out fine. Now if I wanted full size hums I could just buy any regular Squier or Fender and retrofit something else with minimal fuss and not having to go at the pickup routes with a chisel.
We are totally spoilt now, even compared to the early 2000s which was still pretty decent in terms of effects, amps and guitars. Amp sims were still a bit shit back then though - it's only been since about 2014 they've sounded realistic enough for me to use on recordings and not bother mic'ing up really loud valve amps cranked to get the same kinds of tones. Garageband alone these days has about 3-4 amps that sound convincing in a mix so that works out well.
still if you own the instrument it's yours to do as you choose with.