Jazzmaster: Heavier strings and pickups

Bolteh

I got myself a CIJ Jazzmaster (Olympic White) this Christmas, though, due to college and stuff, I haven't been able to play it much. Anyway, today I had some spare time and decided to finally get into the world of setting up a guitar. So I googled a bit to find out how to adjust the saddles and bridge etc, how to set the intonation right, actions, blabla, the whole lot. In the end, everything worked out, the intonation is perfect, the action is perfect for me and I got the strings spaced out enough to deal with my extremely sloppy picking.

However, there is one thing I haven't found out just yet. The Jazzmaster came with default .09 strings, and I want to put some .10s on this week, how exaclty does this work? My old Jackson had a Floyd Rose and heavier strings meant adjusting the bridge so it didn't rise up and break. Do I have to adjust the Jazzmaster bridge as well when I restring?

Anyway, the saddles will most likely make room for Mustang saddles sometime during the course of this year. I'm also thinking about chaniging one or both pickups. Anyone got some suggestions? I mostly play hard rock, grunge (duh), punk and heavy metal.

nirvana23freak

for the strings, i dont think you need to do anything, and AVRI stocks? or humbuckers

65fenvox

Well this is my own opinion, but when I've just a bought a guitar and want to change the strings to 10's, this is how it goes-

-Remove old strings, unwind, don't cut.

-Give the guitar a good clean, since yours in new, a wipe down will do.

-Fill bridge and nut with Graphite, put on new strings.

-Tune up, let stand for 30 min's, re-tune.

-Check intonation, string height, pickup height/volume.

-Now, if your gonna use the Tremolo, let Robert or Fran give some notes on setting up that.

-Make sure you listen to them when it comes to putting electrical tape around the bridge posts or not.

jellybelly

Pickup changes: check out curtisnovak.com, I have a set of his P-90s in my jazzmaster and it absolutely screams now! He also does jazzer-sized humbuckers, strat pickups and vintage jazzmaster styles: I have a set of his strat pickups in my USA lonestar strat now and its far better thanthe texas specials, which I used to swear by.

Fran

Some other pickups you may want to consider are Seymour Duncan Quarter pounders, especially if you play a bit of heavy metal.

The bridge is much easier to set up than your Floyd... but similar principals.

If you move up a gauge in strings (10's) obviously there is more tension on the neck/tremelo, moving up one size does'nt usually bother the neck tension noticeably but the trem will have less dip in it. If this annoys you just tighten the tremelo tension screw untill the trem arm is back were you want it. Some people like just a semi tone up pull, others use the locking button and set it to that.. its a matter of preference.

The best bet is to get it comfortable for now then play and play it. As time goes by you will notice what will improve things for your playing with its set up. Jags and Jazzys are them kind of guitars, you sort of progress together. Unlike a S.G. for instance were you just plug it in the amp and your away........

Its worth it in the end.