Jaguar pickup on neck position

LeoKula

Hey there guys, Im having a new PG for my jagstang and since Im changing it anyway, I was considering replacing my original neck pickup with a jaguar one, with the metal claws and stuff. Now, I never played a Jaguar myself, the reason Im thinking about it is only to try something different than a regular single coil.

Now, for you guys that are the guitar experts, Id like to know:

- is it a stupid mod?

- what you guys think will be the tonal differences?

- oh btw, can i just swap the pickup or there's something im missing? I think itll just take some routing...

- can i still have the same wiring?

- i was thinking of putting it angled, just like the original... Would it work?

And finally, whats ur opinions? Any other considerations?

johnnykazz

LeoKula said:
Hey there guys, Im having a new PG for my jagstang and since Im changing it anyway, I was considering replacing my original neck pickup with a jaguar one, with the metal claws and stuff. Now, I never played a Jaguar myself, the reason Im thinking about it is only to try something different than a regular single coil.
Now, for you guys that are the guitar experts, Id like to know:

is it a stupid mod?

what you guys think will be the tonal differences?

oh btw, can i just swap the pickup or there's something im missing? I think itll just take some routing...

can i still have the same wiring?

i was thinking of putting it angled, just like the original... Would it work?
And finally, whats ur opinions? Any other considerations?

It would work for sure. I am doing this too but I had Curtis Novak handwind me a 1965 Jaguar replica neck pickup. He did this without the metal shielding so it would fit into a normal Strat cavity. As far as I know though, the Jaguar with the claw shielding will fit in the Jag-Stang cavity and be fine angled, you will just run into problems with the pickguard because the claw shielding on the Jaguar pickup makes it wider than a Strat pickup. I'm not sure I correctly understood, but if you are getting a custom made Jag-Stang pickguard and you have the neck pickup slot routed for a Jaguar pickup, then this will work flawlessly and yes, you could wire it exactly the same. As far as the tone being, it all depends on what type of pots and caps you are using in your Jag-Stang. I believe a real Jaguar uses 1meg pots but I may be wrong as I have never owned one either. The 1meg pots may make you not like your humbucker sound so I would say go with 500k pots and .22 or .47 capacitor. Also, your tone will vary extremely slightly based on whether your Jag-Stang is basswood or alder. If you have an original 90's Jag-Stang, it's basswood. If you have a reissue 2000 era Jag-Stang, it is alder. Hope this helps a bit and some others can chime in too.

P.S. - I will try as fast as I can to get this Jag pickup in my Jag-Stang so I can send you a demo of how it sounds. Also, Kurt originally drew up a drawing of his Jag-Stang idea and said he wanted a '59 Les Paul humbucker and a '65 Jaguar pickup in the neck. Just a fun fact since you're considering this mod.

LeoKula

Cheers mate, helped a lot!

I need to do some research on pots, I know people are always mentioning it, but I myself am not aware how they work or even what they are.

johnnykazz

LeoKula said:
Cheers mate, helped a lot!
I need to do some research on pots, I know people are always mentioning it, but I myself am not aware how they work or even what they are.

Yeah, with a little research you will easily understand what the pots are and do. Pretty simple and good to know info. Here is a little demo you can listen to of a Jaguar, as Jaguar pickups will always tend to retain this sound to an extent and like I said before, only minor differences will occur. As far as the pot situation, if I am correct and the Jaguar does indeed use 1meg pots, the 500k pots I suggested will take just a bit of the brightness out of the pickup. As you can hear, Jaguar pickups tend be pretty trebley and thin at times, but it all depends on your amp settings and such and they can be very versatile pickups.

Fretted Americana are a vintage guitar shop. They make awesome YouTube demo's and Phil-X is quite the character, but you can really hear the differences in the bridge and neck pickups. When you watch, he will tell you what pickup he's using and what times so it will be easy for you to hear what a Jaguar neck pickup sounds like. He is using all tube amps, I believe a Vox AC-130 for clean and an old Magnatone and a bad monkey pedal for distortion. I promise it is just a coincidence that he plays Teen Spirit, ha ha. This particular Jaguar he's demoing was owned by Marc Bolan of T-Rex. Pretty awesome.

Another thing to add regarding the custom Jag pickup that Curtis Novak wound for me, he had stressed to me prior to dumping money into the actual Jag pickup that you can achieve really great Jag like tones out of a Telecaster bridge pickup by using it in the neck position. Kind of that twangy tone that the Jag gives you and you could really find an aftermarket Tele bridge pickup for very cheap and of good quality, especially if you look at a website like GuitarFetish.com. They make great and cheap pickups. Curtis Novak knows what he's talking about, so I am assuming this would also work. Good luck man and you should run into no major problems.

HNB

You would need to mod the pickguard or get a custom one made to fit the Jaguar pickup and Jaguar pickups screw in to the body, so there would be that aspect as well. Otherwise should be no problem.

RominRonin

Hi, this post is long dead, but for what it’s worth, I have a hot jaguar pickup in the neck position on mine (Seymour Duncan SJAG-2) and it sounds great.

But I wouldn’t recommend anyone route their guitar without being 100% sure that they want that sound in that body. If you’re unsure about the sound, take steps to alleviate the doubt first!