In a word: don’t.

I recently bought a MIA Jazzmaster from a kid who’d swapped out the original bridge for a Mustang bridge, because, you know, that’s what everyone tells you to do on the forums.

The need to swap out the original bridge, however, is a (very persistent) myth. Even guitarists who have never even played a Jaguar or a Jazzmaster will know that, for some reason, it’s impossible to play these types of guitar with the stock bridge.

Before explaining why it’s a bad idea to replace it with a Mustang bridge, first let’s take a look at the three main reasons why people don’t like the Jaguar/Jazzmaster bridge:

1. It rattles.

True, a lot of models – even the higher end MIA ones – have noise problems (rattles and buzzes). However, doing a proper setup usually will get rid of these problems. It’s important to note here that a proper setup includes the Trem-lock system.

Many people find this feature completely useless so they don’t bother to set it up properly, but guess what? If you don’t set it up, its parts will rattle. So even if you’re never ever going use it, take the 15 minutes’ time to set it up anyway. At the least it will eliminate a potential noise source.

2. People knock the strings out off the saddles.

If this is a problem for you, simply deepen the center groove of the problematic saddle with a nail file. It’s a lot cheaper and a lot less work than buying and installing a Mustang bridge.

3. It’s too complicated.

The Jaguar/Jazzmaster is indeed less straightforward than your average Strat, Tele or Mustang bridge. It is also a lot more versatile and allows you to perfectly set up a Jaguar/Jazzmaster without much hassle, if only you’d sit down and RTFM for 5 minutes.

If there's one reason against installing a stock Mustang bridge on a Jaguar/Jazzmaster, it's that the Mustang's saddles cannot be individually lowered or raised, which impedes a proper setup.

In conclusion, I hope you'll see why most experts advise against replacing the bridge and you'll understand why you should only do this if all else has failed.

I’m not going to give you a detailed editorial on how to set up a Jaguar or Jazzmaster guitar, but make sure to check out Webrocker’s excellent website on the subject (consult the Goodies section). Pretty much everything you need to know is there.

Take it easy.

Excuse me...

I recently baught a Jag with the very much hated bridge:

http://www.jag-stang.com/wp-content/...idge_stock.jpg

And I am surprised Fender even places them in their guitars. Cause I wouldn't. The screws that regulate the string height are too small for the winding, so they rattle like hell. "Put 'buzzstop' in there", somebody told me. I went to the shop got that stuff and it did the job. but the hing is that with that bridge the strings jump from one concavity to the next and if that was not enough, once you have the strings on that bridge, the "funny" thing is that they don't all sit at the same place (=so that the sound is even throughout the 6 strings...) nooooo, if you own that bridge placed on your Jag, you'll know that the strings sit on different places and the slit where the screw is that loweres or hightens each string is different to the other ones, providing a different sound. Now the 6th string will have to sit on one of those funny slits, otherwise you'll have the damn string jumping off the fretboard all the fu**ing time.
Besides that, they sell that guitar with the custom machine heads... and they are a fine piece of junk too. I am just waiting to get some money ini to be able to replace them, cause I have to tune each string after every 3 bends, and I'm not kidding. I've tha guitar with those strings for more than 6 months now, and I really gave it a chance, but...

I have friends who put a differenet bridge on that guitar and it is exactly what you should do of you want some precision on those guitars. I'm sorry I absolutely love Fenders, I would never raise a wrd against that company, I completely love strats and I love jags' bodydesign, but the hardware sucks. Probably unless you buy a 1000$ up Jag. But I didn't have that cash...

Now check this out and then tell me that there are no better options to tthe original bridge... you don't even have to sustitute the metalpieces where th bridge sits in the body.

https://www.darrenriley.com/shop/ima...ducts/6206.jpg

Rock&Roll and don't let them fool ya! Use your common sense!

TheRunner

Oh!! And I even forgot to mention that the original bridge even had one more funny thing! The screws that are needed to adjust the precise pitch, the ones that go in the same direction as the strings, they where too long(!!!!!) So they would fccccckn touch the string at one point(!!!) So I had to visit a few shops in town to find the screws I needed in the precise lengh I needed them in (i.e. a bit shorter) so I could properly tune the highest frets on that guitar! Now if that's not an unfortunate bridge, then you tell me what is...

TheRunner

I don't agree with the screws being necessary for a proper adjustment with the saddles. That's a weak spot... there's no reason for the saddles to not be hard set for the radius of the neck, like the Mustang bridge has. It's easy for the saddles to be out of whack on a stock Jazzmaster bridge, even a very slight difference in height with the two of them can result in rattling and tone dampening.

I will agree that the Jazzmaster bridge isn't as bad as you'll usually hear, and what is really most needed with using it is a proper shim. But there's a lot of room for improvement.

The Mastery bridge I have on my Japanese made model really does offer a great deal of improvement over a Jazzmaster or a Mustang bridge. You can hear the difference both unplugged and plugged.

surfguitar101.com has a lot of users who have modded their Jazzmaster bridges, from tweaks to replacement. worth checking out for more info.

Geez, and all I did was drop a Les Paul bridge right in to my '65 Jazzmaster and turn it into a player's piece.

Paj
8^)

An even worse idea. Gibson bridges have no place on a Jazzmaster.

My 1976 Jazzmaster has its original bridge. I haven't needed to change it. It plays well and sounds good.

I tried the Mustang saddles, but the dirty little secret that nobody wants to recognize is that the intonation holes in the bridge are spread too far across, so if you want the E strings to be anywhere near the pole pieces and the neck, you have to run the strings inward on the saddles almost over the height screws. The Mustang saddles, of course, center their single string slot, so the strings are doomed to missing the pickup pole pieces and sliding off the edges of the neck.

Plus the Mustang saddles subtract from the Jazzmaster sound. I can only imagine the damage that the Mastery bridge does. But I don't want to.

The Jazzmaster is like a pretty girl that makes you put up with a lot of crap. But if you change it, it ain't so pretty any more.

It's really a horrible guitar. I've loved mine since 1978.

No damage from Mastery bridge whatsoever. Plus is improves the sound (especially with the roll bar). Have them on all my jazz's. Work great

In order to "improve" the sound, you have to change it.
If you change the sound of a Jazzmaster, you're not improving it.

I don't like the sound of Stratocasters. Maybe somebody could go bother them.

When you get a more vibrant sound, with more overtones and better responce you are improving it. By getting a better setup which suits your playing style you are improving things. When you compare 2 guitars and choose a BETTER sounding one you are improving things.
If you are happy with what you got and it does everything you want it to then world is your oyster. I, and most of our clients , prefer the guitars after they have been modded with better components. Fender componnts are just rebadged cheap chinese crap.

Not mine they ain't.

I guess Fender makes them especially for you :-)
Besides no two Jazzmasters sound alike, so which changes were you referring to as redundant?

Oh, now you're just picking a fight.

I'm out. Love ya baby

Apparently no one told J. Mascis that?

I don't care who told what that. It was never a good option, and now, with the plethora of third party alternatives that will do the job a lot better than a Tune-O-Matic bridge ever could, I can't see why anybody would want to go that route. I don't see why anybody ever did, really.

I don't like the Nashville Tune-O-Matic much on my Gibsons, where at least they are in their native habitat. On a Jazzmaster or Jaguar, they are just ugly bricks on there that are completely out of their element. For one, they are set to a 12" radius and a Jazzmaster neck is 7.25". Do the math there. How will that work?

Sure, you could file the saddle grooves down, after you drill into the guitar for now accommodating a cheap Nashville bridge, I guess, but wouldn't you rather just buy a Mastery, or a Staytrem, and have a solid and great working bridge that is actually designed to work with the guitar you are using it on? The Mastery people and the Staytrem people at least like the Jazzmaster and the Jaguar enough to work on bridges that they hope will bring out the best of a guitar that they really love.

J Mascis just bought a Jazzmaster because they were cheap, and he slapped a Tune-O-Matic on there because he wanted it to be more like the Stratocaster or the Les Paul that he couldn't afford. Same with Kurt Cobain, same with a lot of people. But the Jazzmaster isn't cheap anymore, so if you want a Jazzmaster for what it is and sounds like, then get that. If you want a cheap platform to modify, to slap on cheap Gibson bridges, why not just buy a guitar that is designed to have a cheap Gibson bridge on it? If you like the cheap Gibson bridge scene so much.

I haven't agreed with the original poster's claim about the bridges on here, but I think we would agree that a Nashville Tune-O-Matic bridge is not even to be considered on a Jazzmaster. No matter what J Mascis or anyone says about it.

Do you know what Leo Fender said about it?

Agree with Yuri

I'm down to one JM right now, and it's sporting a Mastery. I love the thing. Pricey, but stable and much better tone stability and sustain than the stock bridge, IMO. Beautifully made, machined aluminum. All adjustments work perfectly. It is what original equipment should be. Larry's dead on; it "brings out the best."
I've also used Mustang bridges. Much improved over stock. JM has maybe the worst "high quality" bridge out there, IMO.

No way are you going to make a JM sound like a different guitar by replacing the bridge. Pup's, yeah. Bridge, no. But I put Loller orig style JM pups in mine, and it still sounds like a JM, only a bit louder and rounder. The P90 style really do change the sound to a pushier honky midrange that's outside the envelope of the JM signature tone.

I've had a number of JM's, and they all sounded a bit different from one another, but all sounded like JM's. A bridge change can't overpower that. It's a strong, signature sound as long as orig style pups are in there and the other electronics are left alone.

I loved my Jaguar with the stock bridge but I love it even more with a Mastery bridge.

I got my replacement Jazzmaster bridge from a company in the UK who has a precision machine shop and makes his own special variations on it. From time to time he sells them on ebay while in stock. It dropped right in, fits perfectly, did not modify the sound, and since installation, I have never had a string pop out-- (before, it was a nightmare).

I think this is it: Jaguar / Jazzmaster bridge - Staytrem

Looks nice...I dig that he approached the spacing problem.

You know, you might solve the string popping problem without wrecking the nature of the Jazzmaster simply by manipulating the threads on the barrels.

My 1960 JM has:

Lo E: Coarse thread
A: Coarse thread
D: Standard thread
G: Fine thread
B: Fine thread
E: Fine thread

If you somehow could pull off having the barrels Coarse, Coarse, Coarse, Standard, Standard, Standard, the problem would be significantly attenuated and you wouldn't be turning the guitar into an SG or something.

Hey Allparts. Are you reading this? Pick this up.

I was looking at these. Is that just a well made Mustang bridge? Or is there more udjustment on that. They look quite solid

Not an "idea"---it's a done deed. No drilling or filling. Just drop it in, adjust it your way and play with great action. I still have the original bridge if I sell it to someone who wants a looking' guitar---right now I'm more interested in a cooking' guitar. This little blasphemy's been good to me.

Paj
8^)

Yes, the Staytrem is very solid-- can't imagine anything better, and less expensive than the Mastery. It is a variation/update on the Mustang, which most people drop in. My tech has decades of experience with Jazzmasters and advised that I put in a Mustang bridge. I told him I wanted to try the Staytrem first. He was very, very impressed with it and said it was better than a Mustang bridge. And they have a money back guarantee-- at least they did when I bought mine on ebay. The guitar went from being a headache to play to a joy. And I play very percussively. Never had a string pop out since installation over a year ago.

Thank for that. Will try it on one of the jags

I also have a staytrem. I don't like the wobbly bridge aspect with regard to intonation issues but it is certainly a solid improvement on the original JM bridge. I don't think the Mastery wobbles at all but others may correct me on that. The Mastery looks like a piece of art...

Tony

Correct, the Mastery is completely flush in the body thimbles, the StayTrem has some play. That's what's kept me from the StayTrem, actually, I'd prefer it to be flush and if it was would have bought a couple.

I'm sure it's a great bridge... and I'm not saying I wouldn't buy one. Besides, having the bridge rock is the way it's supposed to work, that's the design of the guitar. The Mastery gets around that by basically being a "roller bridge", by having very little friction on the strings so that nothing holds them from returning to pitch (this is the theory).

The StayTrem works with the other theory, that the bridge and the string will move together, again, nothing grabbing on the string. I don't doubt that it works well, it's also machined to high specifications and can be considered something of a "roller bridge" also.

The original Jazzmaster bridge, with its many grooves, is always a little more suspect. Depending on the make of it, there's a lot of very possible little burrs on there that can grab a string.

Another reason I say the Mustang is better, even at its worst, there's only one fairly non intrusive channel for the string, always cut a little more broadly than the Jazzmaster's many small grooves and machined a little smoother.

The Tune-O-Matic still being beneath consideration, of course.

I put a Mustang bridge on my Jaguar about 10 years ago and it was a huge improvement over stock.

Then a set of flatwounds fixed the intonation issue on the first fret low E string and a Rangemaster fixed the loss of bite caused by the flatwounds.

Breathe dude, it's not like a JM bridge is a life important thing, it's a bridge on a guitar.

And no, what did Leo Fender say?

I'm totally with you on a lot og things, but I'm also thinking, that whatever works for you, may not work for other people, and yes you can do what you can, to make sure they know all their options, but at the end of the day, it's their choices, and their mistakes, and you can't really do a darn thing about it, and apparently a TOM works for J.Mascis.
So what we can agree on, is that considering putting a TOM on a JM, is pretty silly thing.

That said, I'm a Mastery guy myself, 2 JM's, 1 Jag and a Tele bridges.