T-Style body with Jazzmaster bridge and tailpiece question

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Re: T-Style body with Jazzmaster bridge and tailpiece question

Post by Fiddy » Tue Aug 04, 2020 3:56 am

Not every guitar needs a Jag/Jazz trem. This is one of the ones that don't.

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Re: T-Style body with Jazzmaster bridge and tailpiece question

Post by mgeek » Tue Aug 04, 2020 6:02 am

Fender Addiction wrote:
Mon Aug 03, 2020 9:21 pm


What I would change is that I would have routed voids in the body before covering the back in epoxy... anything to remove weight.
it's never too late to go the smugglers tele route!

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Re: T-Style body with Jazzmaster bridge and tailpiece question

Post by Fender Addiction » Tue Aug 04, 2020 12:27 pm

mgeek wrote:
Tue Aug 04, 2020 6:02 am
Fender Addiction wrote:
Mon Aug 03, 2020 9:21 pm


What I would change is that I would have routed voids in the body before covering the back in epoxy... anything to remove weight.
it's never too late to go the smugglers tele route!
Hmmm... had to look that one up... definite possibility to get rid of some weight.
“Dewey Cox has to think about his whole life before he plays.” - Sam McPherson, Drummer for Dewey Cox

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Re: T-Style body with Jazzmaster bridge and tailpiece question

Post by Fender Addiction » Tue Aug 04, 2020 1:00 pm

andy_tchp wrote:
Mon Aug 03, 2020 9:41 pm
Fender Addiction wrote:
Mon Aug 03, 2020 8:57 pm
andy_tchp wrote:
Mon Aug 03, 2020 3:18 am
FYI the comments/thoughts on radius and bridge selection don't make sense.

The vintage type bridge you have on there is adjustable to any radius (or flat/'no radius').

The Mastery is not - its [2] saddles are each individually subtly curved (radiused), to allow the design to work with 'all common radius' (meaning 7.25" to about 10" in practice) with the 4 height adjustment fasteners. This is in fact less accommodating of a flatter neck like a 10-16 compound where you want the bridge/saddle radius to be almost flat, which can't be achieved (you can set the saddles as flat as you like, but the curve in each will create a shallow 'm' shape.)
At the price I am paying for the Mastery, if it doesn't do what I need, I will definitely be returning it. They have a 30-day unconditional return policy. I'm not big on buying things to "test them out," but there's no other way to know unless I buy one. Otherwise I am only speculating that it will/won't work.
*Shrug*

OK, don't take my word for it - It's literally documented there in the product literature and (IIRC) the patent applications.
I actually do take your word for it, and I appreciate your input. My apologies if my comment seemed to imply that your input was unimportant. On the website, they say 7.25" "and beyond" ... I didn't see the patent applications, as that didn't even cross my mind.
Last edited by Fender Addiction on Tue Aug 04, 2020 1:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: T-Style body with Jazzmaster bridge and tailpiece question

Post by Fender Addiction » Tue Aug 04, 2020 1:02 pm

tribi9 wrote:
Tue Aug 04, 2020 3:56 am
Not every guitar needs a Jag/Jazz trem. This is one of the ones that don't.
I have 2 other Telecasters that are pretty standard. My goal here was to try things out, not build what everyone else has.
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Re: T-Style body with Jazzmaster bridge and tailpiece question

Post by Fender Addiction » Tue Aug 04, 2020 1:48 pm

Ignore this comment... I was trying to edit my previous comment and instead, I replied... nothing to see here. :)
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Re: T-Style body with Jazzmaster bridge and tailpiece question

Post by BoringPostcards » Tue Aug 04, 2020 3:57 pm

I dig it. The vibrato does look a tad awkward on a Tele, but it is better than having the common Bigsby, which is way less stable.
Det er mig der holder traeerne sammen.

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Re: T-Style body with Jazzmaster bridge and tailpiece question

Post by mgeek » Wed Aug 05, 2020 1:56 am

ah - one more suggestion on that (sorry I know you're happy with the way it looks, but I can't help myself ;D )

I see Fender do a tele baseplate that surrounds a Jazzmaster bridge

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDWkowHFhyo/

Not saying this to criticise - I think it looks like an absolutely stunning guitar, but the sawn off plate lets down the finesse a bit imo.

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Re: T-Style body with Jazzmaster bridge and tailpiece question

Post by Fender Addiction » Wed Aug 05, 2020 5:37 am

mgeek wrote:
Wed Aug 05, 2020 1:56 am
ah - one more suggestion on that (sorry I know you're happy with the way it looks, but I can't help myself ;D )

I see Fender do a tele baseplate that surrounds a Jazzmaster bridge

https://www.instagram.com/p/CDWkowHFhyo/

Not saying this to criticise - I think it looks like an absolutely stunning guitar, but the sawn off plate lets down the finesse a bit imo.
I agree... wish I had seen that before I modified the other one. Although, I could still do it. There are only 2 screws holding the baseplate, and the one in the pic you shared would cover those holes.

Looks like I may have some other options.

If the bridge I ordered from Mastery works out, I will add this:
https://masterybridge.com/product/mbdc/

If the Mastery does not work out, I may have to rethink the bridge entirely.
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Re: T-Style body with Jazzmaster bridge and tailpiece question

Post by mgeek » Wed Aug 05, 2020 6:40 am

Good luck! It looks so cool, deffo worth a further spot of fiddling to absolutely nail it I think.

I'm in the middle of a build with a really heavy bit of wood, and currently trying *ALL* the things to get it down to an acceptable weight. Smuggler routing under the PG + deep belly and forearm carves should get it there ;D

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Re: T-Style body with Jazzmaster bridge and tailpiece question

Post by Fender Addiction » Wed Aug 05, 2020 8:00 am

The upside to making your own guitar body is if you want to make changes after the fact, you already know what you are facing by having built it in the first place. And, if you mess it up entirely, you can always build another one..
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Re: T-Style body with Jazzmaster bridge and tailpiece question

Post by Fender Addiction » Wed Aug 05, 2020 9:40 am

timtam wrote:
Sat Aug 01, 2020 9:05 pm
The bridge looks to be a decent height, with a good break angle. So shim unnecessary (although 0.5 degrees the other way could be a option, ie tilting the neck down).
I revisited this idea today. Putting the thicker end of the shim toward the headstock. This definitely lowered the bridge overall, and looks like it will take care of the issue.

I'm still having to do the dance to a degree, but it does seem to resolve the pinch points.

Moving forward, I am still going to look for more elegant solutions, and would prefer intonation screws that are not inline with the strings. Even if everything else were perfect from the start, I like being able to access the screws without moving the strings out of the way.

There are aftermarket Tele bridge assemblies marketed to work with Bigsby... looks like a possible solution in this case, too.

https://www.schroederguitarhardware.com ... tele-style
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Re: T-Style body with Jazzmaster bridge and tailpiece question

Post by Fender Addiction » Wed Aug 19, 2020 8:30 pm

Closing the loop on this one... the Mastery bridge came in today. I was a bit concerned that the flat radius of my neck would be a challenge for it, but I managed to get it to match pretty closely to the radius. At least as good as my other guitars.

No more bridge issues... in fact, other than possibly changing the bridge pickup holder to the one I showing here, also from Mastery, and a custom neck plate (currently using a Squire plate with mangled screws), I think I am through working on the guitar.

Future pickup holder:
https://masterybridge.com/product/mbdc/

Final view after setting string height and intonation:
Image
Image
Image
Image
Image
“Dewey Cox has to think about his whole life before he plays.” - Sam McPherson, Drummer for Dewey Cox

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