On Fender Bridges

Take a look here: http://www2.fender.com/experience/artists/interesting-mods-lee-ranaldos-jazzblaster/

So, I had been doing some guitar research when I found this Lee Ranaldo signature guitar. More research and I end up here. Some good info, and then this:

"An additional mod tip was shared by another Sonic Youth guitar tech, Jim Vincent, who chose a Mustang bridge for Ranaldo’s Jazzmaster in order to improve functionality."

What!? How? Could someone please explain this?

The bridge on the mustang has much deeper grooves than the jaguar/jazzmaster bridge so your strings don't pop out when playing hard. I'll look at the link in a moment too, wont open on my phone

Liam is dead right about the stang versus jag/jazzie bridge... BUT the mustang bridge is still kinda jacked up though... you can mod to a Gibson bridge but it hurts the vibrato's functionality.... on offset guitars its all about the Mastery bridge if you are heavy handed and/or use the vibrato arm extensively

EDIT: the old style bridges are designed for the heavier gauge strings of the era, at least 11 gauge with a wound G back when these guitars were designed. They work great with flatwound 12 gauges, but with roundwound 10s they can be a mess. Also, playing styles have changes substantially since the 50s too! These bridges are not designed to handle the raw fury of a Billy Joe Armstrong down stroking powerchords all night. The design is actually fine for the needs of 50s and early 60s players. The more iconic models like teles, strats and most everything made by Gibson have some of their status because they have bridge assemblies thata dapted well to the new playing techniques and advances in strings that started to come in after the British Invasion. People can say that fender's offset guitars were for a long time unpopular because 2 of them have weird scales or that the Jazzmaster has odd sounding pickups and that all the wiring is weird and counterintuitive, but the number 1 reason is that the bridge designs are just not universally stable. I don't think when Leo was doing the Strat he said "now I have a guitar that will be able to work well even if people invent light gauge strings!" It was a fluke that happened to give the strat braod appeal and a lot of staying power even as music and playing styles changed. A stock Strat vibrato is less stable the lower your string gauge gets, we all know this... but the strings never pop out mid-riff if you overdo the whammy bar!

A mustang bridge... it sounds scary, especially because it looks so funky compared to the other Fender tremolos. If I got myself a Jazzmaster, I probably would be moving from 0.10 to either 0.11 or 0.12, definetely D'Addarios. So, I don't think a Mustang bridge would be necessary. I may not be Armstrong, but I do rip out power chords at times, so this worries me.

just put a mastery bridge on your Jazzy, they cost, but they are great

Either do what Jim said and use a mastery or go for a Shcaller bridge like Kurt Cobain did on his Jaguar. I highly recommend one but I think you do need to do a bit of modding to the bridge if I remember correctly. They are a direct fit to Les Paul style guitars though

http://www.thomann.de/gb/schaller_stmn_steg.htm

Sorry about the Thomann link Schaller have a crappy website and Thomann is just my go to place for looking at parts. Also by modding the bridge I mean filling in the holes for the bridge posts and drilling new ones so unless you are extremely good at measuring etc I recommend taking it to a luthier to get it done

I have owned many schaller products and while their m1 tuners are very nice, their bridges are not so special. I would not buy one unless there were no other options. For a little more money the mastery is just a better design that is a drop in replacement on jags and jazzies. You would be nuts to get anything else.

That is extremely true! I just love Schaller stuff though myself. I do need to get some Schaller tuners for my strat at some point, maybe when I just get a actual strat with fender on the headstock...

I am loathe to admit it, but Wilkinson makes really solid parts for the cost. Their tele saddles, strat bridges and even tuning keys are pretty nice. I would go Wilkinson over schaller in every department but tuners, but I am quite partial to schallers m1 tuners and minis too just because they were on my 1st grown-up guitar stock....

Wilkinson trems are made by Gotoh these days ain't they? I love their trems, I would put one on my strat but I'd rather get a new body first something made out of alder I think rather than basswood/plywood. Those trems are amazing though, their pick ups aren't too shabby either.

I quite like Grover rotomatics probably because they are the first high quality tuners I've ever used, they just don't seem to go out of tune! Just wish they was more precise! 14:1 isn't amazing these days haha, I wanna try those Gotoh delta 510s with the 21:1 ratio

dude, 14 to1? is fine! if you can't tune perfectly in 5 seconds with a set of rotomatics then you have issues. Tuners any more precise than 16 to 1 are so sensitive that it takes way too much torque to make big adjustments quickly when you get really sharp or flat. If you need to move a 1/4 step real fest on stage? 21:1 is going to take forever. You will lose the audience while you do it. Stuff like that is for guys with techs or 1 watt bedroom players. I was just in a studio wednesday, even thats all about fast, man. Be fast and easy to work with. Don't be fucking with your fancy pants tuners, huge effects board or knob laden amp unless you are paying for the studio time!

Haha, I take sod all time to tune and must admit my 19:1 tuners on my Ibanez take ages to tune from E standard to drop D in comparison, I really don't take long to tune at all, like you said if you tale longer than 5 seconds to tune up then you may well have issues haha. I just guess I'm a sucker for these flashy specs, guess that's what the companies are hoping for right? I'm a set and go type of guy, get my sound dialed and just leave it. I hate amps with a million knobs, so awkward to get the sound you want compared to a amp with a volume, gain and 3 band EQ! With my Ibanez though I only tune it once, maybe twice a month thanks to the locking tuners

I am at a point now where I pretty much just want my polytune, maybe a boost or flange if absolutely necessary and an amp with only a volume. I'll take 3 or 4 guitars though....

I was going to say that I'd prefer to have a tremolo arm with my Jazzmaster. Maybe I'll just move to 12 gauge strings. I understand what you're saying about Mastery Bridges. When I do get my guitar... one day, I will perhaps follow this advice.

12s are not for the faint hearted.

This thread's title sounds like a film based off a chick book that takes place in the deep south.

you're thinking of "the fender bridges of fulterton California"

12s are not for the faint hearted.

Challenge accepted.

remember, Bill Gibbons plays on like 7s and has huge tone... and he has such a light touch that he could play a jazzmaster or jag with those strings without popping them out of the saddles...

but 12s will kill your fingers SRV style and make you get otherwise unnescasarry surgeries after 5 years

I have played 12s for a while and they just feel horrible, just far too much tension, hurts to push the strings down and bending is difficult. I went back to 11s which suit me perfectly. Maybe try 11s first and she how you get on with those?