KISS MY STRINGS! A Truly Affordable Alternative to the Mastery? KMS JAM Offset/Jazzmaster Bridge
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- Опубликовано: 1 авг 2024
- Have you ever wanted to upgrade your offset bridge but just not had the money to afford one of those big name bridges? I spend a lot of my time scouring the internet for interesting new offset guitar products, particularly ones that are offered at good prices in the UK and Europe. I was really excited when I saw the KMS JAM Bridge, especially as it seems to offer a lot of the same benefits as bridges like the Mastery and Halon bridges. Now that I've had it for 3 months, here's my review of the bridge.
LINKS
KMS JAM Bridge
www.kissmystrings.de/jam-bridge
Northern Pickups
www.northernpickups.co.uk/
Other Videos with This Guitar
• Make Your Mustang Soun...
Other Bridges I've Tested
• Casterbridge: Taking t...
Ultra Glide Tuning Slide Grease Synthetic Grease with P.T.F.E
www.brass-fix.co.uk/product/u...
GEAR USED
💀Fender Mustang Parts Build (GuitarBuildUK Body, Musikfraft Neck, Northern Pickups, Monty's Double Thickness Baseplate on Bridge Pickup, MIK Mustang Dynamic Vibrato, Wilkinson Plastic Button Tuners, Unbleached Bone Nut)
💀Boss TU-3
💀DeadEndFX Grima Fuzz (Schumann PLL Fuzz Circuit)
💀Boss HF-2 Hi Band Flanger
💀TC Electronic Flashback 2
💀BBE Sonic Stomp SS-92
💀Bluguitar AMP1 Mercury Edition
💀Two Notes Cab M+ (2x15 D00m M00d Marshall JCM800 Cab with Celestion Sidewinder S15-250 speakers, mic'd with Sure SM57 + AKG D112, using the in-built room reverb and enhancer to match the sound of my rig in the room IRL as closely as possible)
💀AKG Lyra USB Microphone
💀Behringer UMC204HD
💀Dunlop Prime Tone 3mm Pick
💀Elixir Nanoweb 12-68
TIME STAMPS
00:00 Intro
00:16 Intro Playing
00:51 10 Thing to Consider When Assessing Any Bridge
02:24 Playing Interlude (Fuzzy Post-Hardcore Chording)
03:11 Pros of the Mastery Bridge
04:05 Con of the Mastery Bridge
05:53 Playing Interlude (Behind the Bridge Picking Test)
06:24 Introduction to the KMS JAM Bridge
07:00 Customer Service & Purchase Experience with Kiss My Strings
08:20 Playing Interlude (Neck, Middle & Bridge Pickups)
08:49 Presentation and Quality of the KMS JAM Bridge
09:20 Playing Interlude (Reverby Maj7/Min9 Chord Progression)
10:44 Design and Functioanlity of KMS JAM Bridge w/ Closeup Footage
12:57 Playing Interlude (Fuzzy Chord Riffing)
13:49 Pros of the KMS JAM Bridge
21:32 Playing Interlude (Fuzz with Heavy Tremolo Usage)
22:23 Cons of the KMS JAM Bridge
25:45 Playing Interlude (Punchy Hybrid Picking Run)
26:06 Conclusions 
Видеоклипы
StayTrem bridges (UK) are the way to go. I like the Staytrem bridge for its quality of design and execution. Stainless steel. Solid, no rattles. It comes in 9.5 and 7.25 radius. It has a string spacing of 5.2 instead of the standard Fender 5.5/5.6 (so the strings won't get easily pulled over the edge of the fretboard). The hex scews that adjust the saddles are off-set for easy access. Fender now uses Staytrem on selected models.
And.... it costs less then a Fender Jag bridge.
The Staytrem is definitely unbeatable in terms of price and the design does seem very good. My brother-in-law has one on his Bass VI and it seems like an excellent bridge. I've been put off getting one due to the wait time, mostly - which is probably ridiculous because I was willing to wait for a Staytrem arm/collet! It seems like the most logical way to improve the Mustang/offset bridge. I'll have to try one one day. Thanks! 😊
Staytrem all day. Or the ones Squire use on the 40th anniversary works too.
The Staytrem is an excellent bridge - my brother in law has one on his Bass VI and it's great. The Squier Mustang style bridges are perfectly fine as well, they have 52mm string spacing, which is nice. I'm personally drawn to bridge designs that are a little bit more "out there", but there's loads of great options! Staytrem can't be beaten for price.
same price in US , and mastery is currently available. Looks nice though,
Ah fair enough! US made stuff is generally twice the price over here that it is for you guys, but I guess it's probably the other way round with EU/UK made stuff for you! It's a really cool bridge, and a great option where the Mastery is more expensive. I can see it may not be quite so appealing in the US 😊
How much did your Mustang partscaster cost in total? And was in worth it? I'd love to see a review/showcse of your beautiful mustang.
Hey mate, good question - I've never added it up! Let's do it now:
- I got the GuitarBuildUK Swamp Ash body 2nd hand. It was already finished with Tru Oil and came with the control plate, pots, knobs, and a hardtailed tremolo (£150)
- I got the neck from Musikraft USA: 1 5/8" nut width, 7.25" radius, with a 0.79 - 0.97 profile taken from a vintage 60's Fender profile, Nitro "thin skin" style finish (approx. £300)
- I had the Wilkinson Tuners, string tree, neck plate & screws, and bone nut already (probs £45)
- I had the A3 Mustang pickups already from Northern Pickups that I'd been sent to demo (£100)
- Monty's Double Thickness Steel Pickup Base Plate [not yet installed in this video] (£20)
- Teisco On-On Slider switches - one of the few parts I have left from my first guitar (£10?)
- Pickguard I had already and I finished it with a wallpaper and decorater's varnish (£15)
- MIK Mustang Tremolo (£40)
- KMS JAM Bridge (£125)
- Headstock decal + Nitro aerosol (£35)
So about £840, I guess! That's about £100 less than the Fender Vintera II Mustang. Of that £840, I actually paid about £550 due to having some parts already, getting gifted some parts for my birthday, and getting some sent to me to demo.
It's taken me the best part of a year to bond with this guitar and get it feeling/sounding/playing exactly how I wanted - but now I can't put it down! I absolutely love it! The neck is incredible, fretwork is amazing, hardware is all killer, pickups are awesome, and it's finished in Nitro or Oil, rather than plastic. For me, it's absolutely worth it!
I hadn't thought about making a video on it - I'm currently editing a couple of videos that are taking a while to come together. But once those are done, I can do a demo/review of it for sure 😊
Is this Bridge made in Italy
KMS is based in Germany. I believe it's made there in Germany 😊
Really like your playing a lot.
It's insane that there isn't a widely available affordable solution to this problem. Even this is a lot to pay for something to mount on a $500 guitar. The bridge they put on the american professional jazzmaster is sold by fender. I wonder if that's any good?
Thanks Andrew! 😊
I do see your point that it's still quite a lot to pay for a properly functioning bridge, even if compared to many of the alternatives it's well priced. I have seen that Fender bridge, but it's more expensive in the UK than buying a Staytrem bridge, so it doesn't really make sense over here! I'm sure it's a good bridge though 😊
2:11 KITTY ALERT!
Haha sharp eyes! There was originally a clip of her running into the room while I was recording, jumping up on the desk, and then slipping off the side again but it was so disruptive to the video I cut it out 😂
@@MarkB.Guitar I'd be down for that! They need to improve the yt algorithm to find me more videos at the intersection of "guitars" and "cats"!
@@Markleford 😂 well if you stick around on the channel I'm sure she'll feature again haha. She's quite prominent in the Casterbridge video I made a little while ago too 😉
You don't want "transfer of vibrations from your strings into the body of the guitar". That's physics nonsense. If string vibrations transfer to the body then there is less vibration energy in the strings at those frequencies for the pickups to see, and therefore sustain must be reduced. Guitars can't cheat the laws of physics, particularly the Conservation of Energy Law in this case. But it's a common nonsense amongst guitarists, and is actually stated on Mastery's website. It just shows that you don't have to know how electric guitars actually work to make decent parts for them.
If any of these bridges increases sustain, it is because they cause more vibrations to remain in the strings (reflected back up the string at the bridge), to be seen by the pickups. That's what a truly "resonant" guitar is.
Hey vw9659, thanks for the explanation. Very interesting! I'm not particularly scientifically minded (in case that wasn't obvious 😂). I've played electric guitars where you can really feel the whole instrument vibrating and resonating when you play, and have always assumed, whether through folklore or personal deduction, that such instruments have the fullest tone and best sustain. I'll have to refer back to the experiments Johan Segeborn has done on tone wood and sustain 🤔 From a scientific point of view, would denser body wood, set/through necks, or certain hardware choices have any significant impact on sustain?
lol, 3 ton for a bridge lol.