CV Duo-Sonic or VM?

Fine Swine · Post by **Fine Swine** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 5:37 pm

Greetings, wise prophets of the short-scale (and assorted fellow noobs and lackwits), I seek your counsel. I'm wanting a cheap, small-bodied short-scale to play around with, preferably a hardtail. I know, that sounds like a Duo (and i love the Duo neck) but I also prefer humbuckers. Any thoughts/recommendations? Kind of wondering how the VM Jaguar HH or Jagmaster compare, among others. Thanks.

NoisemakerEffects · Post by **NoisemakerEffects** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 5:52 pm

I'd go with the VM Jaguar HH in your position.

I've got one in Fiesta Red and it's nice and solid. Good quality, nice playability, all that.

The reason I'd choose it over the Duo-Sonic though, is that the humbuckers are easily splittable. You could re-wire it with a master tone and master volume, and make the concentric lowers into spin-a-splits rather easily - giving you some single coil tones as well as humbucker tones.

Plus, on the new side you can get them for $250-$275, and used I doubt you'd pay more than $200 shipped for a mint condition one.

SGJarrod · Post by **SGJarrod** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:06 pm

niether the Jaguar or the Jagmaster are small bodied. They are actually quite large bodied. Your best bet would be buying a Vista Jagmaster locking down the bridge and modding it.

PS...When you get 50 posts here check the classifieds....there is a nice one that is a heck of a good deal

Fine Swine · Post by **Fine Swine** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:11 pm

Vista Jagmaster, huh? I've heard of the elusive beast, but it, like the MIM Cyclone, seems to be something that only happens to other people.

Fine Swine · Post by **Fine Swine** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:14 pm

Oh, I've also seen that Durango Contender, but there's no real way to try before you buy, unfortunately...

SGJarrod · Post by **SGJarrod** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:14 pm

I was being half sarcastic and half serious..... serious as in that's ur best bet and half sarcastic as I am selling mine in the classifieds for $300 plus shipping CONUS

mkt3000 · Post by **mkt3000** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:19 pm

SGJarrod wrote:I was being half sarcastic and half serious..... serious as in that's ur best bet and half sarcastic as I am selling mine in the classifieds for $300 plus shipping CONUS

And I'm trying to sell a bunch of stuff in hopes of buying it

sholkham · Post by **sholkham** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 6:59 pm

you could always put some singlecoil sized humbuckers in the duo-sonic.

Fine Swine · Post by **Fine Swine** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 7:02 pm

sholkham wrote:you could always put some singlecoil sized humbuckers in the duo-sonic.

True. Something like a JB Jr. maybe...

sholkham · Post by **sholkham** » Mon Aug 06, 2012 7:08 pm

yep, there was even a thread on here about someone trying to fit some kind of single-bucker under the pickup covers if you want to keep the original aesthetics; I'm not sure if it worked out or which pickup they were using though.

Fine Swine · Post by **Fine Swine** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 12:36 pm

It's all very confusing. There are so many models that seem quite similar, notwithstanding the various switching layouts, which I wouldn't use much anyway. For example, I don't really see a whole lot of difference between the Jagmaster and Cyclone or even the Jaguar HH.

jagsonic · Post by **jagsonic** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 1:13 pm

A jagmaster has a 24" neck, a strat tremolo and two humbuckers. The HH Jag has a 24" neck, no trem and two humbuckers. The cyclone has a 24.75" neck, a strat-tremolo and a single coil and a humbucker - and a different bodyshape.

Fine Swine · Post by **Fine Swine** » Tue Aug 07, 2012 3:52 pm

All good points. I was just looking at it from the perspective that they're all a lot more similar than, say, a Tele and LP. I'm thinking lack of trem is more important to me than the scale, as long as it's either 24 or 24.75. Admittedly, though, I'd prefer the 24...