Working on a CIJ

Eisen

Hello everyone

I'd like to say thanks for creating such a great community as I've learn't a lot while reading this forum over the past fews days.

I have been playing guitar for over 10 years and have just bought my first Fender, a CIJ, CAR Jaguar. I've had it for a couple of months and played about with my effects and amp to see what kinds of sounds I can make and what I would want to change.

I don't play surf style music, I'm more of an alt rock kind of guy (think Smashing pumpkins, Placebo, etc) so I like a really overdriven sound as opposed to a full on metal distortion.

I never use the trem so I have taken off the bar and tightened the tension screw which I presume would make it mimic a hard tail. I'm away to fit a buzz stop and put some vasaline on the bridge screws to stop then vibrating then I'll restring with a set of 11's. The next change I want to make is to put a matched pair of SJAG-3s in but I am unsire if I wan't to change the pots at all, it's an area I don't know that much about. I really don;t know if I should change the pups myself or pay a shop to do it, I like the idea that I've done the upgrade myself but I would not want to mess it up!

The only other thing I may do is swap the bridge for a Mastery bridge but they aren't cheap, I'll see how I get on with the stock and the buzz stop for now.

Any advice on this would be much appreciated, thanks for reading!

funtoosh

welcome to the forum, eisen.

concerning your question, what you can or can't do yourself: if you can do basic soldering, you 'll manage a pickup change. pots might be different, on a jag, but start with the PUs. it'll surely be fun . . .

Fran

Welcome to the forum.

The main areas on a CIJ Jag to upgrade are the electronics, in particular the bridge pickup. A buzzstop and mastery bridge are uneccessary modifications in most cases, the only time i've needed a buzzstop was when i fitted a high output bridge humbucker. It helped kill the audible 'third harmonics'.