New here :-) hello all and Jagmaster....

CauseEffect

Hi All

Have just signed up to the forum and have been enjoying reading some of the stuff on here, particularily about modding the squier Jagmaster..

Have just got my hands on a second hand one after realising that im not going to be able to afford a jazzmaster or Jaguar in the next few years ataleast lol. ive looked through some of the modding threads on here and got some pretty cool ideas but theres one burning question that i was hoping someone could answer for me 😀

I want to take out the strat trem unit , and do away with tremolo on it all together , could i fill the holes and replace with one of those strat hardtail bridges on it ? the other idea i had is to use a bridge like the one on my 90s MIM duo sonic ... however finding a bridge like that has seemed pretty difficult.

would appreciate any advice anyone can offer

Cheers

Mark

Fran

Welcome.

You could fully tighten the trem spring screws, that would effectively make it hardtail.

If you did fill the cavity it would mean a refinish. They have some interesting bridges at www.guitarpartsresource.com

CauseEffect

Hi Fran

Thanks man , lol i didnt even think of that .. shows how new i am to modding guitars haha. This will keep me going for now

will check out that site though as its going to need a refinish at some point as its not in pristine condition so i think i might consider removing the trem unit at some stage.

Thanks again for the quick answer will post pics as im working on it

Cheers

Fran

No, no probs. You would get better sustain with it all blocked off, supposedly. That website has Toronado bridges which are almost identical to the Musicmaster/Duo bridge.

Some people wedge a 9v battery between the trem block and body to lock it off. Either way should work.

CauseEffect

Yeah Just been having a nose around on there and found this

http://www.guitarpartsresource.com/images/large/005-3378-000.jpg

quite similar to my duo bridge , i think i might need to make some adjustments to the pickguard to fit it but i think would be worth it.

Cheers man

tragictravisty

jamming a hunk of wood behind there disables the trem + supposedly makes it sound better. either way, you make it into a hardtail for cheap and get the mojo. (eric clapton likes a strat set up that way). if youre superstitious, itll improve coupling as well, which will improve resonance, and the natural acoustic qualitys of the guitar. why not?

CauseEffect

Cool , will have a play with this over the weekend 😁

tragictravisty

i dont think youll here any notice any substantial difference with type of wood (maybe if you used an oscilloscpoe you would) but id still use the best you have. if all youve got is plywood or something, its not a problem since its incredibly reversible.

CauseEffect

Will have have a dig around in the shed lol but will find something , i think in the long term im gonna put a bridge like my duo on it if i can as i really like how they look and can see it lookin good on this guitar 😊

i got a few other plans too replacing the stock pickups etc , refinish. i think originally it was black but the previous owner has sanded it down and refinished it in cream .. i like the colour but its not a very good job so will probably redo it

Thanks for all the advice guys , im learning already haha

Fran

Do you not like the stock pickups?

I find them pretty decent. What kind of music do you play?

CauseEffect

They are a lot better than i was expecting to be fair , the stuff im into is Sonic Youth , Mudhoney, At the drive in / Mars Volta, mogwai, tortoise... am working on a project at the moment that kinda fuses those infuences with more downbeat electronica kinda stuff.. bit weird to explain lol some of it is slow and melodic and some of it is fast and noisy and vise versa haha. most of the reocrding im doing myself but got a couple of guys who are interested in trying to turn this into a live thing.

Im thinking about replacing the bridge with a dimarzio super distortion .. not sure about the neck yet because as you say they are ok just not quite what i want. The sounds i get out of my duo sonic and tokai tele copy are cool this guitar will kinda complete the set for the sounds i need .. if that makes sense lol

Robbmonster

Be careful spending too much. Eventually the money you spend on all the mods might end up costing more than a good second hand Jaguar.

Welcome to Jagmaster though. I love mine. What are the specs on yours (colour, neck finish, year, et al)?

CauseEffect

Yeah i know what you mean , its easy to get carried away lol

I got the guitar pretty cheap though and its gonne be an ongoing project, heres a pic and the details

Crafted in China standard series - year 2007 .. i think

Not 100% sure what the original finish was but as far as i can tell these are only available in 3 tone sunburst and black. previous owner had sanded down and refinished cream ( which i like except its a bit of a messy job)

No trem bar but is no bother as im screwing down the bridge to hardtail for now and going to look into replacing with the toronado bridge then do a proper refin 😊

CauseEffect

Heres a pic of it with my 1996 MIM Duo Sonic ( my baby lol) the tokai is over at the studio at the mo ... but its nothing special to look at has taken a bit of a beating over the years 😈

Robbmonster

Maybe the colour of the pickguard will tell you what the finish originally was...

If the pickguard is red tortoiseshell, chances are it was the sunbusrt model.

In the photo, I couldnt quite see the pickguard to see if it is tortoiseshell or black lol.

Of course, older Jagmasters had some finishes that came with a black pickguard. The silver sparkle and candy-apple red version being two especially cool examples.

Good lick with the project, and keep posting. I look forward to hearing how things go.

PS: I like the color, reminds me of a Jazzmaster...

CauseEffect

Yeah the pick guard is red tortoiseshell , so most likely the sunburst model as im sure its a 2006 or 7 serial number.

I was bidding on a Vista series super sonic and silver sparkle jagmaster on ebay a few weeks before i got this one both of them went way out of my price range though ( i think they are pretty rare now ) and then i found this one locally and struck a deal outside of ebay on it.

Yeah i really like the colour on this one , prefer it to sunburst or black actually so i will definitely be refinishing it the same colour it looks really cool with the pickguard colour

Will deffo keep posting pics as i work on it man, actually really looking forward to doing this 😁 i guess in someways its like building my own Jazzmaster lol

CauseEffect

HI All

Quick update on this project and a further question lol

So i went for the "clapton style" setup on the tremelo system , found a chunk of pine in the shed and chopped it down to block it off, its surprising how much blocking that off has affected the resonance of the body actually... great for making atmospheric noise 😀 i didnt think it was worth taking pics of me doing it as its pretty straight forward haha.

Ive decided to keep the stock pickup on the neck and replace the bridge pickup with a dimarzio super distortion... now onto the neck ..

Was reading frans post about his jagmaster project and saw that pretty much any fender neck will fit the guitar, what about a strat lefty? i really like the way the reversed neck looks on the squier vista super sonics but im not sure if i would be able to achive this just by installing a lefty , i guess the other option could be one of those musicmaster necks but that might get pricy.

Anyone have any thoughts ?

Cheers

tragictravisty

yes it will. i like the looks of a reversed headstock aswell, but i dont know if it would be easy to tune or not.

CauseEffect

Yeah that was one of my concerns if im using a strat neck , coz the headstocks are slimmer than the vista series reversed ones. on all the pics i have seen of that guitar the low E is strung where the High E would normally be , so.. although it is strung for right handed playing each string is reveresed in its tuners.. if that makes sense...

I guess i could just buy a cheap lefty strat neck and give it a go , and if it dont work just put the original back on lol .

heres a pic of the supersonic , im sure you have all seen them already

will try and post pics as im going along, its going to take me a while anyways as im goign to buy bits as and when i can afford them 😀

Robbmonster

I don't think swapping a 25.5" scale neck onto a 24" scale body would work. I think the distance from the neck pocket to the bridge would be different and would lead to all sorts of turning and intonation problems. But I am not 100% sure.

I think you would have to move the bridge back a bit to make it work