Jaguar HH Special Custom Project

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 12:11 pm

So seeing as we traded and I have the body now plus you have all the pictures and information of this build I'll just recycle this thread for building it.

haha. So I wanted to get an opinion from a few people before i buy it, should I get a blacktop jaguar neck that comes with tuners for $210.00 or wait for something else to pop up? I don't know how good them necks are.

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 12:20 pm

It depends if you want vintage style or not. For that money I'd rather buy a vintage 24" neck on ebay. Musicmaster/Duo ones are cheaper than Jaguar ones. Late 70s Musicmaster necks are great (and cheap).

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 12:21 pm

...And make sure you check it's 24" some sellers list the shorter ones and don't mention the scale.

dren68 · Post by **dren68** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 12:54 pm

I guess it depends on what kind of neck you want. Aren't the Blacktops 9.5" radius?

Thomas wrote:...And make sure you check it's 24" some sellers list the shorter ones and don't mention the scale.

Yeah, I've seen some 22.5" necks that didn't mention the scale. I think they may not even know that's what they are. The way you can tell is if it has a 9 on the heel, it's a 22.5" scale. The 24" scale necks have an 8 or a 16. That's according to this site, anyway. LINK

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 2:09 pm

...and if there's no pic of the heel, only a face on pic of the neck it'll only have 21 frets, you can easily spot it my the dot on the last fret.

Or even 20 frets like the Mexican Duos:

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 2:52 pm

Whats the big deal with the 9.5 radius? Is that thick or what does that mean? What's the difference of that compared to a jag stang neck or a 69 reissue mustang neck?

dren68 · Post by **dren68** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 3:00 pm

The radius has to do with how round the fingerboard is on the neck. The bigger the radius, the flatter the neck. It's not a big deal. I don't mind the 9.5" at all. I had a CP Jaguar for a while, and it felt fine. Some people just prefer the vintage 7.25" radius and smaller vintage frets, so that's why I thought I'd mention it. Here's an article that explains radius a little bit more: LINK

Concretebadger · Post by **Concretebadger** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 3:40 pm

dren68 wrote:The radius has to do with how round the fingerboard is on the neck. The bigger the radius, the flatter the neck. It's not a big deal. I don't mind the 9.5" at all. I had a CP Jaguar for a while, and it felt fine. Some people just prefer the vintage 7.25" radius and smaller vintage frets, so that's why I thought I'd mention it. Here's an article that explains radius a little bit more: LINK

Oooh...useful. Cheers for the link.

I started on 7.25" and that's what my JM and Mustang are at the moment...I prefer chords rather than single note lead, so the smaller radius suits me better. That said, the radius of my Ibanez is much larger so it's super-easy to play lead lines and the action is really low too. I guess 9.5" would be comfortable as well though.

dren68 · Post by **dren68** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 3:59 pm

Concretebadger wrote:
dren68 wrote:The radius has to do with how round the fingerboard is on the neck. The bigger the radius, the flatter the neck. It's not a big deal. I don't mind the 9.5" at all. I had a CP Jaguar for a while, and it felt fine. Some people just prefer the vintage 7.25" radius and smaller vintage frets, so that's why I thought I'd mention it. Here's an article that explains radius a little bit more: LINK
Oooh...useful. Cheers for the link.

I started on 7.25" and that's what my JM and Mustang are at the moment...I prefer chords rather than single note lead, so the smaller radius suits me better. That said, the radius of my Ibanez is much larger so it's super-easy to play lead lines and the action is really low too. I guess 9.5" would be comfortable as well though.

No problem. I found that link when I first got my CP Jaguar and was reading all this stuff about how the radius on those was 9.5" while the radius on the vintage and reissue Jags was 7.25" and I had no idea what that meant. Once I had a chance to try an AVRI Jag with a 7.25" radius, I realized I liked the 7.25" even better, but like I said, the 9.5" is fine, too. It's just personal preference.

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 4:04 pm

Ok. I see now. Does anyone know the radius of the squier vintage modIfied jaguars? The ones with the strat input plate.

dren68 · Post by **dren68** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 4:11 pm

I think all of the VM guitars have the 9.5" radius. The only ones that have the 7.25" radius are the AVRIs, the Johnny Marr, Japanese Jags, and the new RIs.

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 4:18 pm

dren68 wrote:I think all of the VM guitars have the 9.5" radius. The only ones that have the 7.25" radius are the AVRIs, the Johnny Marr, Japanese Jags, and the new RIs.

Damn. Cus I really don't care for a flat fretboard. Are you sure they are 9.5"? Because the squiers are really flat.

dren68 · Post by **dren68** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 4:27 pm

Punkacc9 wrote:
dren68 wrote:I think all of the VM guitars have the 9.5" radius. The only ones that have the 7.25" radius are the AVRIs, the Johnny Marr, Japanese Jags, and the new RIs.
Damn. Cus I really don't care for a flat fretboard. Are you sure they are 9.5"? Because the squiers are really flat.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure all of the Squiers are 9.5". Even the 50th Anniversary Jag is 9.5".

Thomas · Post by **Thomas** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 5:23 pm

You can't always go by the spec sheet on the Squier site. The VM Tele I had was listed as having a 7.25" radius and it was flat as anything. It felt more like Gibson 12" radius than 9.5" even. Tho I think it was 9.5" but because they don't roll the edges of the fretboard they feel much flatter than they actually are.

For example my mate has a Fender Special Tele with a well rolled maple neck and 9.5" radius and I love playing that, Usually i'm all 7.25" or nothing.

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Mon Aug 27, 2012 7:10 pm

Thomas wrote:You can't always go by the spec sheet on the Squier site. The VM Tele I had was listed as having a 7.25" radius and it was flat as anything. It felt more like Gibson 12" radius than 9.5" even. Tho I think it was 9.5" but because they don't roll the edges of the fretboard they feel much flatter than they actually are.

For example my mate has a Fender Special Tele with a well rolled maple neck and 9.5" radius and I love playing that, Usually i'm all 7.25" or nothing.

I don't know. I found an old musicmaster neck on ebay but I'm stuck between getting that and the blacktop neck.

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Tue Aug 28, 2012 1:25 am

So I just bought and ordered a Mint guard with out the pickup ring mounts, so it mounts right to the guard. Mine will have more square of pickup routs though.

mint guard by punkacc9, on Flickr

I'm gonna get these GFS Split humbuckers. I heard they sound pretty good. More like humbuckers then the wide ranges but they have the looks.

split bucker by punkacc9, on Flickr

HNB · Post by **HNB** » Tue Aug 28, 2012 1:35 am

Looks cool!

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Wed Aug 29, 2012 5:01 pm

Soooo look what just arrived today. (:

Untitled by punkacc9, on Flickr

HNB · Post by **HNB** » Wed Aug 29, 2012 9:07 pm

Nice! I am glad they made it to you. That was pretty fast shipping.

Awstin · Post by **Awstin** » Wed Aug 29, 2012 11:34 pm

HNB wrote:Nice! I am glad they made it to you. That was pretty fast shipping.

Yeah it was lol.