Hello, I'm new to the forum but have been interrested in getting a jaguar or jazzy for around a year now. I have done a lot of research and tried out a vintage 70's Jag, Japanese RI Jag and most recently a Japanese RI Jazzmaster.

It was recently my 18th birthday so the plan was to try out as many different versions of these guitars as possible to suss out which one would be best and whether to buy AV or Japanese RI. Clearly this has been much more difficult than it would first seem as its impossible to find places that stock AV stuff in this country (England), especially Jags and Jazzmasters, and with the regularly abysmal in shop set up its really been diffucult figuring out which was the guitar for me.

I have tried out some nice jaguars and always presumed this would be the guitar for me as it is what i fell in love with first but after trying a few im not sure. I have found it impossible to track down a jazzmaster but recently a friend I met at Uni brought me one he was having trouble selling.

It is much more how I expected the guitar to sound and the extra length and sustain is better suited to my quality of music, still retaining the surf sound.

He is offering it to me for a snip at 200 quid, whilst it is not perhaps the exact guitar I was looking for and remember being 18 by and is a bit cheaper than I had imagined spending, it is much easier to get than buying AV's from America and possibly getting stung for import.

The guitar is CIJ and has a P-08xxxx serial number dating it to 93/94... or not as the case may be (ive never taken the neck off a guitar and have no propper tools so i havent checked the neck stamp). It is quite heavy and the wood seems to have a nice grain to it which makes me think it might be alder or ash rather than basswood (its sunburst) - any ideas?

Basically, as i can buy it for such a cheap price I thought I may as well buy it anyway and use the money I have saved to do it up. I am looking for some advice on the following things:

Pickups - the Japanese ones don't sound too bad but I know they are not the real Jazzmaster tone. I am looking to keep it vintage sounding so Im guessing AV re issue, Seymour Duncan vintage or Antiquity are what I will be installing - any ideas which would be best or how each one differs in sound quality?

Tuners - It holds tune quite well but these are a bit cheap and I suppose some better quality or even locking tuners would work better?

Trem - I am very uncertain about whether this is functioning propperly. I was not expecting it to 'click' into place, i thought the setup was different becuase the point at which it clicks means it sits rather close to the body, reducing its pitch lowering effect. I swear the Jags I have played were not like this! It also rattles around (the arm in the plunger) which is kind of odd and sounds cheap. I swear the arm should sit higher in the plunger and as for the trem lock, i am really not sure whether it is working at all. I have read the webrocker setup guide but am a bit nervous of adjusting it myself, I am a student and have no propper tools to do so at the moment. The Japanese tremelos are apparently renound for being a bit crap, do you think it may be worth having an American one installed instead.

Pots - I know the japanese electronics are a bit on the cheap side so do you think it might be worth changing these too?

Bridge - an obvious one, i have played a few jags with nice setups which had the original bridge, this one needs a decent setup as its sounds shoddy at the moment. Hopefully it will work out but if not it may have to go the way of the mustang!

3rd pickup - with the money I am saving, sticking something in the middle of those two soapbars is rather tempting especially after seeing Elias78's jag with the hot rails in it. The tonal versatility would be quite interresting. This would mean either installing some sort of jaguar switching system or making the 3 way selector a 5 way selector. I have been quoted