These parts are cast, polished, and assembled by hand right here in California! Available with the Rollermatic-style bridge or the ABM bridge as seen in the pictures. Email us at guitars@m3california.com or call us at (916) 760-8560 for pricing and ordering info.
About The Bridge...
We've tested a lot of bridges over the past couple of years...the Rollermatic-style bridge (similar to Hallmark's) made overseas, the Schaller with adjustable string-spacing, the Mastery bridge, and finally the ABM.
The Rollermatic-style bridge is a decent bridge. Its solid with Mosrite-style roller saddles and very affordable. We will make these available on our 63 American Standard models once we finally introduce them.
The Schaller bridge is a solid bridge but when we looked a little closer we found what we felt were design flaws. The adjustable string-spacing seems like a good idea, but it seems that most people never utilize that function. But when string-bending or vibrato is employed we noticed that the saddles tend to get loose from time to time and can get out of adjustment. They move straight, side-to-side, so, depending on where they sit, it can actually put the radius a little off and can mess with the action and intonation a bit. Even if it is only slight it just doesn't seem worth it. In addition, it employs a 14" radius and we decided to go with a 12" radius on our guitars so the Schaller roller bridge just doesn't seem to be a logical choice any way you look at it.
We really liked the Mastery bridge and it seemed to stay in tune better than a standard Jazzmaster bridge. However, intonation adjustments are somewhat limited since the bridge basically employs two saddles (3 strings per saddle.) It does have a lot of give for what it is, but we couldn't seem to get the precision we were used to when using 6 individual string saddles. As a side note, we also noticed that when you adjust the height screws to a certain point, it seemed they were rattling on the bottom of the mounting thimbles and causing a slight "buzz". While an overall improvement over the Jazzmaster bridge (which lacked a LOT to be desired), it still didn't quite have that magic.
Finally, we tested the ABM roller bridge. We were hesitant to try it out due to its square, boxy-looking design. However, upon closer inspection, we realized this is a very well-made bridge. Solid as a rock. The saddles feel solid and sit flat against the bottom. We really liked this bridge. The strings glide nicely over the roller saddles. It has the same radius and string-spacing as the Rollermatic-style bridge, so it wouldn't necessitate any changes in fretboard design between the Standard and Deluxe models either. This is the bridge we will be offering on the 63 American Deluxe. The cost is significantly higher than the Rollermatic-style bridge, but we feel it is well worth it. A notable modern improvement of Tuneomatic roller bridges.
Anyhow, they're hand-polished, sandcast aluminum. We're working on a chromed brass version that we hope to introduce some day.