UPDATE I bought the Staytrem (not a Mastery)

Simon_M

I've got a Jazzmaster with two humbuckers which I love the look of and the sound. It's a rock machine.

Only issue which I've found is that the saddles on the bridge tend to 'wiggle' during play. The grub screws seem to work loose and then the saddles rock. The strings then work further apart, the intonation goes to shit and the whole thing goes out of tune. Pretty annoying.

I play a lot of palm muted, hard and fast power chord bashing and it just seems to mess up the bridge. I looked at old posts and a lot of people seem to rate mastery bridges. Bit pricy but might work to solve my problems. Any other less expensive options that may help? It's a Mexican JM so I assume the bridge will need to fit those measurements.


I don't use the vibrato but like the look of the tail piece so I'll be keeping that. Might screw it down with a block of wood under it at some point. I might get some locking tuners too.

Simon_M

I suppose while we are at it:

Any recommendations on locking tuners? I've seen the Fender Schaller ones at around £70 but there seems to be other brands like Gotoh and D'Addario which might be just as good or even better.

Philtre

Just get a Staytrem bridge and enjoy the rest of your life with your JM.

http://staytrem.com/epages/950002362.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/950002362/Categories/Page__Category1

antonyiv

Mastery fixed the same problem (and many others) on my Jaguar.

Simon_M

Philtre said:

Just get a Staytrem bridge and enjoy the rest of your life with your JM.

http://staytrem.com/epages/950002362.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/950002362/Categories/Page__Category1

Thanks for this. At half the price and with a fixed radius this seems like a good choice. A large part of my problem is the height adjustment screws working loose and the bridge saddles moving so a fixed radius seems like a great idea.

Philtre

Read my story here:

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/125530/my-jazzmaster-bridge-is-doing-my-head-in-advice-needed/p1

Simon_M

Philtre said:

Read my story here:

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/125530/my-jazzmaster-bridge-is-doing-my-head-in-advice-needed/p1

Interesting read. Sounds like you persisted with the plumbers tape for far too long! Haha.

punchesjudy

Came here to say Staytrem to see you've already been recommended them. It's honestly the best bridge available. 
As you don't use the vibrato you could get the non rocking version, set it and then forget it. 

Philtre

Simon_M said:

Philtre said:

Read my story here:

http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/125530/my-jazzmaster-bridge-is-doing-my-head-in-advice-needed/p1

Interesting read. Sounds like you persisted with the plumbers tape for far too long! Haha.

Yep. Seemed a good idea, but in the end the saddle screws still worked loose. I now prefer not to have individual height saddles, too much to think about. As long as the bridge radius matches the neck radius just set the overall height.

meltedbuzzbox

Staytrem are more consistent. They are solid and do what they do so well. 

Mastery bridges sound better, sustain more, sparkle and are adjustable to any radius.
But they are not created equal. Some are bomb proof. Some creak with vibrato use, rattle and the saddles can suffer lateral movement. Some are even known to drop height.

I've owned a lot of offsets and used staytrem and mastery equally. I've kept two offsets after years of owning many, both have masterys.

Playing with at least 11s and applying liberal amounts of loctite/clear nail varnish can take a stock bridge but it can be tedious.

11s are a must for me, regardless of the bridge

Whitecat

 If you’re doing Staytrem do it now... they are on the cusp of packing it all in...

Philtre

Whitecat said:

 If you’re doing Staytrem do it now... they are on the cusp of packing it all in...

Why?

Whitecat

Philtre said:

Whitecat said:

 If you’re doing Staytrem do it now... they are on the cusp of packing it all in...

Why?

Imminent retirement apparently. They have already suspended international shipments and apparently John is only willing to work a couple days a week at most at the moment. 

Philtre

Whitecat said:

Philtre said:

Whitecat said:

 If you’re doing Staytrem do it now... they are on the cusp of packing it all in...

Why?

Imminent retirement apparently. They have already suspended international shipments and apparently John is only willing to work a couple days a week at most at the moment. 

Understandable, but that's a shame. Glad I got mine when I did.

Whitecat

Indeed, same here. I‘m hoping that he might be able to sell or license his designs to someone else before his retirement becomes full time. 

thermionic

It would be a shame to see them go, and I'm keeping hold of mine now!

Who makes the Johnny Marr Jaguar bridges then, for some reason I thought there was some connection (along with the trem collet)? I suppose the JM bridge could just be a Mustang bridge with nylon bushings on the height adjustment screws, and "normal" saddle length adjustment (springs instead of Straytrem's nylon washers).

meltedbuzzbox

The fender ones have the staytrem posts but the rest is a stock mustang bridge (bad string spacing)

Simon_M

I ordered a Staytrem bridge. Should be arriving in the next day or two.

Simon_M

UPDATE

Staytrem Bridge arrived in the post last week. At the same time I ordered some Sperzel locking tuners and, because my toggle switch felt like crap and one of my pots was noisy, I picked up a Switchcraft toggle and jack socket and a couple of CTS pots while I was at it.

Firstly, the bridge is really great quality. Seems durable and solidly made and, with 12 less points of adjustment than the old bridge I'm much more confident in its stability. The intonation adjustment screws seem very solid and require a little more torque on the hex key than the old bridge so they should be staying in place much better. I'm expecting the nylon sleeves on the posts to stop the bridge from dropping but will need a lot more playing to see if they are working.

Secondly, the Sperzel locking tuners are superb. Installation did require drilling of a small hole into the headstock behind each machine head as they are not a direct replacement for the Fender ones I already had installed. The tuners came with a cardboard guide which made this very easy. A 2.5mm drill bit gave a nice snug fit. Having bashed away for nearly an hour now there's only slight detuning on the G string which is amazing really. Before, I was tuning up after every song! Highly recommended.

The electronics have made a huge difference. Essentially I have rewired everything in the guitar. I have two Iron Gear Rolling Mill humbuckers in this guitar, the bridge is slightly overwound. The Switchcraft toggle feels much more durable than what was in there before. I ordered an angled toggle switch which fits in the cavity better than the straight one I had before. Two 500K logarithmic CTS pots and a 0.22uF capacitor on the tone pot. The pots are silent and feel really durable and, as they have a slightly longer stem, the knob is lifted off the pickguard more and makes control easier.

In addition to this I have added extra screening to the cavity with conductive paint and foil to the pickguard.

All these mods have really contributed to making this an excellent guitar and I'm very pleased with it.

Thanks for everyone's advice on the Staytrem - superb piece of kit.

Philtre

Hurrah for the Staytrem!

meltedbuzzbox

Haven't you noticed an improvement with the string spacing?