Beatlefreek said:
Mad-Mike: Wow, that's interesting.
I've read a lot about how the grooves in the saddles of the Japanese bridges are not as deep as the USA ones and that there seems to be more likelihood of having buzzing and string pops because of it. I have a Japanese '66 big block reissue, and although I haven't yet experienced any string pops, I'm switching to a USA-made Jag/Jazz bridge, mostly because of the better metal. (I'm also getting a USA tremolo unit to go along with it.)
Why did you put on stronger springs, and then only on the two outside saddles?
What I'm most curious about, though, is your use of 9's. I don't know how many times I've read "use heavier gauge strings on a Jag". Not everyone agrees, of course, but most don't go lighter than 10's. Right now, I have flatwound 11's on mine.
Do you not experience any string pops or buzzing with the 9's, or do you some how incorporate that into your "sound"? On the other hand, perhaps playing hard rock and metal, you don't even notice it. (Classic pop-rock is where my heart & soul reside.)
I must confess, that although my strings don't buzz, per se, they do have this funky kind of ... hmm? "rattle", I guess, which, in my view, is part of the guitar's charm. I don't find it to be unmusical in the least. On the contrary, I find it adds a unique percussive attack when I play. And I do indeed incorporate that rattle into my "emerging" sound. I say "emerging" sound because I have a whole mess of other guitars (Fender, Gibson, Gretsch) that are set up to play "properly", but I'm becoming more and more enchanted with this Jag and all its supposed "flaws".
I initially started using 009's as that's all I had, before the Jaguar the only offset I had was my Jag-Stang, and that thing loves the Fender Bullet Stainless 009-040 gauge sets the most (it also helps clean up the sound a tad and give some sparkle and spank to the highs, Jag-Stangs tend to be very wooly guitars, and EMG's add to that in spades as well as adding some highs and brightness not normally existant).
However, I found that the 009's, as you said about adding the "quirks" to the sound, they brought them out and made them rather musical in my environment. Almost all Jags I've played with the stock trem and bridge get a major Third off the low E from behind the bridge, and I use that 3rd bridge stuff in all sorts of crazy ways. I also bend from behind the bridge a lot getting some odd Pedal-Steel effects out of the guitar. Then there's the "reverbation" from behind the bridge, which seems to be more prominent with lighter sets. Some of the "chunkier" stuff I have played/recorded you can hear when I stop playing, there's this ghosty/airy sustaining thing and that's the strings from behind the bridge vibrating.
The Jaguar has a lot of strengths for me in these realms as well..
- Drop tuning - lower output pickups, paired with a higher wood body density, and the sharp attack, gets rid of the muddiness and allows me to retain a tight sound. Also, Bar Dives become possible on such light strings, once you get down to C# or C, I can get the low E almost floppy enough to touch the pickup.
- The shorter scale and smaller frets make the neck faster in my hands. For some reason I can really haul ass on a Jaguar but a wide neck flat fretboard in 25.5" makes me feel constrained in some odd way.
- There is an added midrange the Jag has that no other guitar does, it's not honky like a Les Paul, but it's not scooped out like a Jag-Stang. It's got it's own clacky value to it that is really pleasing to my ears. I pair that up with a modern Hi-Gain amplifier (which has more gain than I ever really need for anything except maybe the weakest Sears guitar) and I get this really good rich thick but cutting tone, even on a stock Single Coil Jag. Usually for a Jaguar I'll back off the highs a bit, push the mids more, and crank some of the bass a bit, and then boost the treble for solos. Jazzmasters and Teles work well this was in hard rock/metal as well.
