HOW TO INSTALL A MASTERY BRIDGE: Installation Guide PLUS Setup Tips on a CME Jazzmaster 

I would ABSOLUTELY sign up for that!

HA!

This is great news!!!

I am very proud of my joke but also COME ON LOC TITE I HAD TO BUY SOME YESTERDAY

Brysen! You're the best, glad it helped

Mike made a video about vibrato position! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gwSRG4COM9M.html

I do enjoy the stock bridge, and if it's working you're good to go!

ive not drilled my guitars but have the mastery posts... im afraid of doing so. i dont experience any rattle issues currenetly... is that ok? lmao.

Some models don't need drilling, it really depends on the model

​@@Puisheen ive been able to pull the original thimble's out but its not the same size as the mastery thimbles. that being said i have no problems currently so why fix whats not broken? the Jag is positioned super high though... maybe removing the neck shim.. Once again, youre amazing and kee[p up the good work!

So is the Mastery

Michael is the best!

It is on US-made, vintage spec guitars. Certain other models like those mentioned will require some extra steps

@@Puisheen that's right. I watched it last night, commented this morning. Forgot about that.

I set my bridge at 3mm height and still feeling like my saddles are a little high. Certainly higher than Pancake's. I feel like this guitar could play better but not sure what more I can do. Neck relief looks on point and the neck is shimmed. It's a Troy Van Leeuwen JM. Any thoughts Mike?

Oh noooo did you ever get it corrected? The original Pros have a two degree tilted pocket which is way, way too much. I often have to 'reverse shim' them (I think I mentioned that in the video) to reduce that angle for Mastery Bridges

@@Puisheen Sort of. After weeks of going back and forth with him I finally had him install the reverse shim despite his protest. He actually thought the correct break angle was significantly higher than the neck angle would have even forced him to go. It doesn't really stay in tune very well, he blames the shim and the low break angle for that and says its my fault for making him lower the bridge. I think the tone might be a little bit muddied but that might just be my ears playing tricks on me. I honestly think he was so offended that I questioned his expertise that he probably just threw the shim in and didn't even bother finishing the setup. I need to take it to a new luthier that knows Jazzmasters. Wish you lived in NY lol.

I always heard they (mastery) stayed in tune but at the same time I’ve heard people can keep fender offset trems be it jazzmaster or mustang in tune too.

@@CW0123 So I bought the mastery thimbles and everything, but when I pulled up on my jaguar trem the tension would almost pull the whole bridge and everything would be a little sharp. I was using 11 - 52 strings. I started to have issues with the stock bridge too (not tuning issues, but rattling) and now have a staytrem which is great. I still have hopes I can get the Mastery working eventually, and assume I just need to get a set up by someone who knows what they are doing as far as offsets, which unfortunately is not the case with a lot of otherwise competent guitar techs.

BTW, I love the Jaguar. Best tremolo and the scale is perfect for me. I want to get a nice archtop next (probably a few years of saving), but after that all jags from here on out lol. Very versatile tonally.

I really want one of these bodies for exactly that purpose, but sadly no!

I have, I just use my forearms to bend them

@@Puisheen Ok! I watched a lot of your vids and didn't find it. Thanks Mike

This is such a weird response. People pay for things they like, but if they don't know how to properly install them, that's where complaints come from. That's who the video is for, of course. Do you understand that this kind of work may not be as intuitive for others as for yourself? Just because a bridge pops right in -- Staytrem included -- doesn't mean you'll never need to do any adjustments ever again, or that every aftermarket bridge will just pop on and play perfectly. I repair offset guitars for a living and I hear as many complaints about Staytrem as I do the Mastery, the RD, literally every other bridge out there. There are good and bad things for all options, but the idea that every guitar is the same, that you need zero knowledge to perform this task is, to use your own words, baffling. It's the exact same argument I hear all the time from people who can't understand why I'd play a Jazzmaster over some other guitar that doesn't require specialized setup techniques. Bonkers

@@Puisheen I don't expect people to be intuitive that is why I recommend a Staytrem because it is easier to set up and understand. The radius is already set. You set the height and then adjust the intonation for each string. As long as there are no other issues with the guitar, that is it. It is beautiful in its simplicity. There is no crazy having to work out the relationship between radius and intonation to get the intonation properly set. That kind of stuff takes a lot of experience (that you have, but that most people don't). Look, I am not against the Mastery. For some guitars (compound necks, etc...) absolutely need the radius to be adjustable. But when I spend more money I am hoping that it makes my life easier. Maybe other people want to pay for the challenge. I don't know. I don't have as much experience as you fixing guitars, but I have spent a lot of years helping people solve problems in a bunch of different groups. Issues with the Mastery (mysterious buzzing, saddles sliding, loose screws, etc...) happen frequently and I can only remember one Staytrem issue in the past three years. Maybe something else accounts for that disparity but even my friends on the boards with Mastery's would not say that there are equal complaints for both. Anyway, this is something we both feel passionate about and your experience is different than mine. I do really appreciate all your hard work on these videos. I frequently refer people to them to help solve issues. I do hope more people discover your channel. Peace.

Yeah, a really nice example too!

The Mastery is a fixed (non-rocking) bridge by design, so lubrication does help

Usually I do recommend the M1 Kit for modern Fenders as the body thimbles can vary a bit in size, but the Mastery fits tightly in mine. Do note that the Pro 2 has an angled pocket so you may need to reduce neck inclination for the Mastery to perform its best

@@Puisheen Thanks Mike, very helpful.

The stock bridge does require a healthy amount of neck pitch to work as designed. If your bridge is working, it probably has enough angle.

They're fine. Middle of the road parts, nothing fancy. Surely would have needed loc tite on the bridge screws, and the vibrato felt just alright and was relatively noise-free

The problem at that timestamp has nothing to do with the pickups. American Original Jazzmasters have a factory-angled neck pocket that in my opinion is pitched back a little too much, which is why the bridge had to be so high to achieve playable action.

I would go for the KIT!

@@Puisheen thanks a lot for your answer !

@@Puisheen I assume you meant the mastery kit right ? With the tremolo plate ? And which stewMac shims degree would you suggest please ? Thanks again and keep up the great work !

For fill-and-drill, you get some dowel the same diameter as the original holes, put them in the bridge holes with a bit of wood glue and cut them off flush with the top of the body. You now have wood to drill new holes into. This is common for converting from a tuneomatic style bridge. For CV Jag, the bridge specs are nominally the same/similar to American/vintage specs so a fill-and-drill shouldn't be required. At most, you may need to slightly enlarge the holes, but you can do a satisfactory job of that with a hand drill or drill press running in reverse.

CV, you shouldn't have to fill and drill.

I haven't, no. The distance from string to body isn't really my main concern during setup, it's really all about the neck angle and bridge height

The M2 has a second set of wider posts which should fit whichever thimbles your Jag happens to have. The interior diameters can vary a bit but you should not have to drill anything

@@Puisheen Great! Thank you for the reply and the information. Cheers!

First I'd take some neck relief measurements and see how much you've got in the neck. Lower the bridge via the screws embedded in the posts (loosen) and re-evaluate!