Hate is a strong word, and one I normally don’t like to use unless the subject is foods called “salad” which do not contain lettuce (the only exception being Fruit Salad, but why call it that when ‘Cup of Fruit’ would suffice). While I can’t call my feelings for the Buzz Stop ‘pure hatred,’ I have to admit that removing them from guitars is one of my favorite jobs.
For the uninitiated, the Buzz Stop is an aftermarket bracket for Fender Jazzmasters and Jaguars which acts as a tension bar, much like the roller bar on a Bigsby B7 vibrato. Affixed to the guitar via the forward-facing vibrato mounting screws, the Buzz Stop forces the strings against the bridge, keeping the them in place while also stopping the saddles from buzzing. Hence the name; it stops the buzz.
In theory it’s a fine idea that attempts to solve the problems so many have with the original Fender design, but it’s ultimately completely unnecessary and in many ways a detriment to your guitar’s sound and functionality. Below, you’ll find the reasons I elect to do away with the Buzz Stop, and why I find guitars without them to be better instruments for it.
1) The Buzz Stop Introduces New Points of Contact
The whole point of the Buzz Stop is to force the strings down, and in doing so invariably creates additional points of friction. The Buzz Stop’s roller bar is one of those points, and while it is intended to rotate as the vibrato arm is depressed, I’ve never encountered one that actually does so in a smooth manner. Most seem to require a bit of force to turn, more than the strings can dish out. As a result, many of the Stops I’ve removed have had grooves worn in them, which means the strings are just grinding against an immobile roller.
The second point of contact is the back of the bridge itself, a problem that Jazzmasters and Jaguars shouldn’t have to begin with. Under normal circumstances the strings flow from vibrato to bridge uninhibited; the sharp angle of the Buzz Stop causes them to dig into the back edge of the bridge, leading to tuning or even breakage issues. The less metal in the string’s path, the better.
2) Buzz Stops Decrease the Stability of the Vibrato
With its nearly unparalleled stability and smooth feel, the offset vibrato really is one of the biggest selling points of the Jazzmaster and Jaguar. But with the increased friction of a Buzz Stop, it’s a miracle when the thing returns to pitch. Anything that messes with the functionality of the vibrato is a liability, not an asset.
3) It Forces the E Strings onto the Dreaded Pivot Plate Screws
The vibrato pivot plate mounting screws which sit directly beneath the two E strings have long been a problem on reissue guitars, causing string breaks and tuning issues which can normally be cured with a proper setup and increased bridge height, or by simply turning them upside down as shown in one of the early Demystifying articles.
With a Buzz Stop installed, there simply is no hope for the strings (See above). Pulled down toward the vibrato plate, the Es are forced against those pesky domed screws. As they’re bent, tuned, or warbled with the vibrato, the screws eventually saw through the string’s finish wrap leading to sharp detuning, and eventually, breakage.
4) The Buzz Stop Alters the Guitar’s Unique Vibe
Part of the unique sound of Jaguars and Jazzmasters is the length of string behind the bridge. Like an archtop acoustic, every bit of vibration counts. There’s a fullness and a pluckiness to the tone that comes from the added string length, and the slight decrease in sustain and tension makes these guitars feel and respond unlike other solidbody electrics. It should be no surprise that I also wholly endorse vigorous picking behind the bridge for atonal, noisy fun.
With a Buzz Stop installed, you may as well have a stop tail. It effectively cancels out the length of string behind the bridge, sterilizing some of the three-dimensional resonance that make these guitars sing. And honestly, if you’re looking for more sustain or ‘better tone’ there are far better options available to you in the form of Mastery and Staytrem hardware.
5) It’s a Half Measure Response
The Buzz Stop is a product of a time when these guitars were thought of as toys rather than fully-playable instruments. Without the readily-available, conversational sources for setup and modification that we have today (including this blog and my recent Premier Guitar article) the Buzz Stop was perhaps a once-legitimate option for taming this misunderstood, often neglected offset design. Though its premise was flawed, it served its purpose.
The Buzz Stop, by its very nature, doesn’t really “fix” anything; it’s a stopgap which fails to address core issues, applying force instead of correcting an inadequate setup. All of the common complaints, from bridge buzz and string jumping, tuning stability, and unwanted string resonance are easily solved with an attentive eye, a couple of screwdrivers, and a few hex keys. Neck angle, bridge height, string gauge––all of these things are integral to the design of the guitar, some of which the Buzz Stop website actively recommends against.
With advent of the internet, players now know how to care for the Jazzmaster and Jaguar better than they ever have. Communities like Offset Guitar Forum and Shortscale.org popped up and thrived, surrounding the Jazzmaster and Jaguar with that perfect, geeky love that reminiscent of my fellow Star Trek fans, excitedly swapping tips and parts, digging into manuals and other documents to discover the proper way to work on them.
6) It’s Ugly
It is. Don’t @ me.
The Long Walk into the Sunset
Call me a pedant, call me a purist, even call me ol’ Henry’s favorite, “luddite”––I just think we have so many better options for modifying or ‘fixing’ these instruments, all of which leave the original sound and intent largely intact. And honestly, in every instance where I’ve removed a Buzz Stop and then properly set up the guitar, it just sounds better to me.
We used to joke at the old shop about a cardboard box tucked away in the back that was filled with forty discarded Buzz Stops. We’d always say “forty” for some reason––We have forty of them in a box!––but thinking back that number has to be low. Literally every time we took in a new Jaguar or Jazzmaster bearing one, off it would come, fate sealed, tossed with prejudice into said box never to be seen or thought of again. And that’s just the way we like it.
Mike & Mike's Guitar Bar 
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Buzz Stop
I recently read your entertaining anti-buzz stop screed. I have differing thoughts.
Several years ago I had a parts Jazzmaster (I used Musikraft parts) assembled for me by Matt Brewster at 30th Street Guitars in NYC. I really just wanted a guitar with that vibrato system. Matt’s work was perfect, but ultimately I decided I didn’t like that guitar very much. The shallow break angle over the bridge gave it a “plinky” feel that I could never get in to. I tried heavy strings, flat wounds, shimming the neck, but nothing really worked for me.
One day I was talking to a friend of a friend who is a fairly well-known boutique guitar builder, and that builder guy said something interesting. This guy builds high end, mostly offset style guitars that are played by lots of pros, so I feel like he’s a pretty reliable source on this subject. He told me that he uses a Mastery bridge and a buzz stop on his personal Jazzmaster-style guitar that he built for himself. At first I was like, “Whaaaaat?!” But he told me that he just likes the way a buzz stop changes the sound and feel of a Jazzmaster, and that to him it’s an improvement. So I tried it, reluctantly. I had to admit, immediately, that I preferred it with the buzz stop. I was pretty bummed about that, to be honest! The main difference was that the increase in the break angle over the bridge seemed to make the whole thing just feel better to me. And the buzz stop didn’t hurt tuning stability at all. In fact, I’ve been using a buzz stop on that guitar for about 5 years now. If I want to I can completely abuse the vibrato all night long and the guitar will not go out of tune, no matter what I do. I can pull it up as far as it will go, and push it all the way down to the pickguard and be 100% confident that right after that I can hit a big first position E chord, Pete Townsend style, and it’ll still be dead-on in tune. I can use 10s and tune down a half step, if I want to. It’s fantastic. I regularly play a full length set on that guitar, with tons of string bending and lots of heavy vibrato use, and literally won’t have to tune it at all for a whole show. I’ve never had a guitar that stayed in tune as well. And I love the synergy between a buzz stop and a Mastery bridge. There’s a particular magic to that combo.
Over the past few years I’ve found myself occasionally seized with doubt about whether that ugly buzz stop should be on my guitar. I’ve actually broken down and taken the buzz stop off a couple times to double check that I’m still into it, usually after reading an article like this one. But each time I do, including recently after reading this, I put it right back on the guitar. The truth is, my guitar’s just nowhere near as good for my purposes without the buzz stop on it.
So, thanks to the hideous looking but gloriously effective buzz stop, my Jazzmaster is the best feeling and playing instrument I’ve ever owned. Maybe a buzz stop is for people who don’t like Jazzmasters, no matter how well they are set up? If so, I think that’s totally ok. A Jazzmaster with a buzz stop has its own charms.
The string tension, when tuned to pitch, is going to be the same whether one uses a buzzstop or not — that’s literally how note pitch works. The string is essentially being “pinched” between points of contact at the nut and bridge saddle. Then, for a given string gauge, tuned to a given pitch, the pounds of tension on the string will be the same, buzzstop or no.
The only thing, and I mean ONLY thing, the buzzstop does is increase break angle and, consequently, increases downward pressure on the bridge. The laws of physics being what they are, this is not going to change string tension or “feel” or anything you’re doing between the bridge saddle and nut, which includes both fretting and plucking the notes, because this happens behind the playable area of the string.
The entire point is to correct the “flaw” in Jazzmasters and Jaguars whereby lighter gauge strings — those without a wound G — would not exert enough downward pressure on the original threaded saddle bridge to prevent the strings from leaping to a different thread on the saddle under play.
Now, one could easily solve this by using thicker gauge strings as intended with the design and calling it a day, but of course, some people do prefer lighter string gauges and these strings do produce a different sound and feel than thicker gauges.
Fair enough. There are fixes for this that introduce fewer issues than the buzzstop does while fixing the same issue.
1) Use a Mustang bridge (or aftermarket equivalent, e.g. Staytrem). These are a drop-in replacement, and feature large, barrel saddles with a single string notch. They can be added without even removing the strings and as an added bonus — and quite a major one at that — are pre-radiused. Simply grab one with the proper radius for your neck (99% of Jazz/Jag guitars are going to be either 7.25 or 9.5 and there are Mustang bridge options for both) and you can use whatever strings you like while enjoying absolutely dead-on radius’d strings and never have to factor that in to a setup again.
2) Shim the neck. Remove the neck. Put a dime, guitar pick, or piece of wood — or you can get fancy and use a full pocket shim from Stewmac or the like — centered in the back of the neck pocket. Reinstall the neck. Your neck is now pitched back, similar to a Gibson or hollowbody (Jazzmasters *were* supposed to be jazz guitars, after all, and were made with some of the same design conventions in mind as jazz boxes including the assumption of a pitched back neck). You will now have to raise the bridge (likely quite a lot) to account for even a minor back pitch, which will itself increase break angle, doing the same thing a buzzstop does, but without the additional point of contact, strings rubbing against the back of the bridge or E/e strings rubbing against the tremolo plate screws.
I have nearly a dozen Jazz/Jags. I’ve tried them with Mastery, Staytrem, Mustang or stock bridges, with and without buzzstops. After doing multiple blind tests, and subjecting my friends to the same, I can say with as much confidence as one can about something subjective that buzzstops do not alter the feel of the guitar.
(Also, while I can appreciate the build quality of the Mastery bridge, it, too, introduces its own problems. Chiefly, as with any multiple-strings-sharing-a-single-saddle design (and why I hate vintage telecaster bridges especially), intonation is always going to be a ‘good enough’ proposition at best. I can get the intonation very close with my Mastery bridge, but even my junky old Squier Affinity strat that I’ve had since I was 16 ultimately allows for more precise intonation. Also, while I recognize most players prefer plain G’s, the Mastery makes them a requirement. A wound G’s saddle should be closer to the neck than the D string; a plain G’s saddle should be further back, similar to the wound E. The physical layout of the Mastery saddles means you cannot intonate a wound G (well, I guess you CAN but at the expense of your b and e strings)).
What I love about the buzz stop the most is that it removes that annoying tin can like resonance that comes from behind the bridge. Some people call it the sound of JM or Jag, but to me it sounds like a real cheap resonator guitar.
Plus I really like the tighter feel of the strings and the improved sustain.
You can *literally* achieve all of those benefits by just having your guitar set up properly with all of the information contained on this blog. Again I say, the buzz stop is utterly unnecessary.
So all Jaguars that have Buzz Stops are incorrectly setup?
I have to politely disagree with some of what’s been written.
If the Buzz Stop doesn’t work for you, that’s fine, and if you’ve genuinely had guitars stay in tune better after vibrato use without the Buzz Stop rather than with that’s interesting. It’s also subjective, and therefore not everyone’s experience.
I’ve had one on my CIJ Jag for about as long as I’ve owned it, and to be honest, the vibrato used to send the guitar out of tune more often without it than with. The usual defence here, which you’ve already used, is that a proper setup alleviates this entirely; I wish it did, but again my experience differs. Setup helps, but that’s true of every guitar.
In my experience the Buzz Stop adds sustain and stability, and when teamed up with a Mastery bridge, better pickups and a decent setup essentially fixes or minimises a lot of problems CIJ Jags have (I know because I’ve owned a few, until my current one which I’ve kept for well over a decade). If the guitar goes out of tune after vibrato use now, it’s usually because the strings haven’t been stretched properly, i.e. after a whole new set or replacing a broken one, and a little of that keeps it well-behaved.
Sure, I liked the resonance of the behind the bridge lengths too, but where I regularly play with high gain (usually for lead work), too much of it used to just mean tying a thin scarf or something around them to stop it interfering when recording or with a cranked up amp.
My strings never sit on the pivot plate screws with it, as you’ve asserted; I know this because I can slide a thin playing card or similar underneath with no effort, so there’s clearance. I use 11-49 rounds as it’s short scale (10s on 25.5″ guitars). You said “As they’re bent, tuned, or warbled with the vibrato, the screws eventually saw through the string’s finish wrap leading to sharp detuning, and eventually, breakage.” which has personally never happened to me. The last thing that sawed through a string leading to breakage with the sixpence I was using to play a solo over and over for recording (hundreds and hundreds of takes to get it harmonised just right) on the high E string and I was really digging in, so very much my fault and nothing to do with the Buzz Stop!
“With a Buzz Stop installed, you may as well have a stop tail. It effectively cancels out the length of string behind the bridge” – no it doesn’t, it’s still there. In fact there are two now due to the split where the roller is! You just have to strum a little harder with a touch more gain and you’ll hear it just fine. It’s minimised; it doesn’t disappear, just deadened a bit.
“The Buzz Stop is a product of a time when these guitars were thought of as toys rather than fully-playable instruments.” – Who said that and when? I don’t think the Jazzmaster and Jaguar have ever been thought of as toys – in fact the Jaguar was for a few short years Fender’s most premium, flagship model, all the old 60s marketing testifies to that. A lot of players consider them difficult guitars due to their design, and they are, but they’re not considered toys by anyone I know. In my case I find people love the look of the Jaguar, some say it’s my best sounding guitar (they’re right; it is, probably partly because it makes me play better) although the usual “is that a Jazzmaster?” thing does pop up from time to time. At least they know what a Jazzmaster is 😂. The closest I can think of to what you’re saying is the Mustang and Duo-Sonic originally being student models and coming in 22.5″ and 24″ scales, but even now they’re highly respected great sounding instruments in their own right with lots of variations – I quite like the Mustang 90 in that pink/purple finish, had one for a bit.
“The Buzz Stop, by its very nature, doesn’t really “fix” anything; it’s a stopgap which fails to address core issues, applying force instead of correcting an inadequate setup.” – You’re assuming everyone using one hasn’t had their guitar set up, either by themselves, a professional, or both though and that’s your flaw with that blanket statement. When used in conjunction with a good setup they’re not of detriment to the guitar. I don’t really consider it a device which “fixes” anything – it augments what I already like about the instrument, and minimises some of what I don’t. I could live without it but I could also live without modulation (phasers/flangers etc) – I prefer having them because I like the sound.
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What it comes down to is, this is a tool that suits certain players more than others, and in my mind no different to a capo or a slide other than the fact it screws into place. Some players don’t like either of those implements – I’m in the middle because I love using a capo for songwriting and when layering guitars but rarely touch the slide, whereas other players like Derek Trucks absolutely own with a slide and would consider it integral to their playing. It’s personal preference, and it’s nice to have the option, plus it’s so easily reversible. You don’t like a slide, you take it off your finger. You don’t like the Buzz Stop, you slacken the strings etc, remove the two screws and it’s gone. Simple. Just a tool for a job, and like all tools not everyone needs to use them all.