Jazzmaster Bridge Woes....

[skullservant]

So, I've tried a lot of things to get my Jazzmaster happy with me and not have strings popping out of the saddles.

I first put heat shrink tubing on the original stock bridge to add stability to it, which didn't work very well. The strings liked to jump out of the stock jazzmaster saddles and move around when I bent.

So I got a CIJ Mustang Bridge. It was a major step up, BUT both E string's spacing is off, creating an approximately 5-10 degree angle on the strings from sitting straight. A-D-G-B are all fine. But both E strings still pop out of the saddles.

I tried flipping the saddles of both E strings to the underside of the saddle, which improved it a little bit more, but still, there is string popping and it's getting in the way of my playing.

I feel like if I was to add a buzz-stop to either the stock JM bridge or the Mustang bridge, with the baritone strings it would create too much tension.

I know that Jazzmaster's are prissy bridge-bitches, but I'm looking for a solution that will allow me to stop spending money on it.

So I'm asking you, faithful offset brotheren, what you would do.

Here are the possible options I was looking at:

Adjust-O-Matic/Tune-O-Matic bridge. + string stability, cheap -12" radius (Although I heard Gotoh makes an adjustable one that might work better), have to pull out bridge thimbles, possibly have to file for baritone strings

Mastery Bridge. +string stability, plenty of room for baritone strings (says up to Bass VI strings could fit) -Expensive, could possibly have to replace thimbles.

What would you suggest?

[theavondon]

I have a TOM on my J Mascis, and it works alright but strings pop out every so often. Really only the low E. And really only when I'm acting an ass.

[skullservant]

I must act an ass all the time cause it pops out about every 10-15 minutes of playing. I guess I just strum a lot harder than I should. BUT I JUST FEEEL it man FEEEL it.

[theavondon]

I think a lot of it is the bridge though. On my bass VI it has a roller bridge and I can't play it live at all, because the E won't stay in. Whereas, I have not run into that problem near as much with the tune-O-matic.

[skullservant]

Hmmm. I know FancyMike has a Mastery and he said it takes his baritone strings just fine, its just A LOT of money to spend on a stupid bridge

The only reason I'm cautious of the TOM is because of the radius mismatch. I do know that there are two bridges available, the CP version and then the Mascis. I guess I just need to measure string spacing...

My Jaguar has a TOM and the strings don't pop out of it. But I'm not sure if it would need any more work after install to get the baritone strings on there... Hmm

[MEC]

Have you tried putting the Mustang saddles on the Jazzmaster bridge?
That may fix the spacing issue but you still may need to file the slots to keep the
strings from popping out.

You could also adjust the neck angle so you could raise the bridge and keep the action low but create
more tension on the bridge.
Here is some more info on that: http://www.nashguitars.com/JMaster.htm

[skullservant]

Hmmm. I hadn't thought of putting the Mustang saddles on the JM bridge. I'll give that a go tonight and report back!

[amorphous]

Mustang saddles or Tusq/Graphtech saddles should fix your ish.

I run Tusq saddles on one JM and graphtech saddles on the other - i love ém, the work wonders for me.

Just so i can be of more ass-is-tance....what tuning are you using? stock 25.5 scale? 7.25 radius?

[amorphous]

oh, also - any shims in your neck pocket?

[skullservant]

It's a 28 5/8" baritone now, running B standard tuning. It's got a Mustang Bridge on it now and the E strings are popping

No shims right now. Me and Ancient set it up with a slight bow

[amorphous]

hmm....ok, my first thought would be do one shim, it will increase your bridge height and break angle over the bridge. You might need a bit more relief in your neck after adding a shim. Maybe...necks and this time of the year are always funny.

I tune both of mine to D standard or drop C and have no string popping issues with one shim. i'm at standard 25.5" scale.

how high is your action?

[skullservant]

I think it's more the angle of the strings in the Mustang bridge, like they aren't sitting parallel to the others. It kind of looks like this:



I would think that that tension during my strumming would lead to it popping as opposed to if they were sitting parallel...

If I took the neck off I think I'd do it at Ancient's house just cause he could oversee things and make sure I don't fuck it up haha

[skullservant]

I think what I might do is take the TOM off my Jaguar, loosen the strings on my Jazzmaster, pop the Mustang bridge out, and just hold the TOM in place to see if the Baritone strings would be spaced to fit it. If so, I'll go ahead and order a Fender or Gotoh TOM. If not, I'll put the Mustang saddles on the Jazzmaster bridge.

The more I think about that one though, I remember how the Jazzmaster's bridge saddles were spot on for some strings, and the strings were almost falling off of some with how they were spaced. So I'm not sure it will work 100% but I can try.

[amorphous]

I personally go with the stock JM saddles vs the mustang bridges b/c you can adjust the height individually. And move them out or in to fit the width

your diagram really did confuse me, however! Angle from above or from the side? is your neck wider than a standard JM neck at the nut?

Don't be scared, you can do it, go slow....

[skullservant]

Stock saddles provided the most buzz and worry, every time I would strum, even with the 14's on it, the strings would jump up and down and wouldn't intonate worth shit... I tried for a good hour and a half a few days ago before I gave up.

And that is the angle from above looking down on it. There is about a 5-10 degree bend in both E strings from the tailpiece to the saddle before going parallel to the other strings from the saddle to the nut. It's ONLY the E strings, the others A-D-G-B are totally parallel.