Squier VM Jag & JM: I don't like the medium jumbo frets

Noisy Cat · Post by **Noisy Cat** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 10:48 am

I much prefer the feel of the 'vintage' frets on my Fender 65RI Mustang and Squier Super-Sonic

What are my options for getting vintage frets on my Jag & Jazz? Replacement necks? Would CIJ necks fit?

Or is it feasible to get my luthier to file the frets down to vintage height?

JordanD · Post by **JordanD** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 11:11 am

I tried a CIJ Jag-Stang neck on my old VM mustang before I sold it and it didn't fit. I didn't like the size of the frets too much either.

NickD · Post by **NickD** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 1:20 pm

There is generally a 1mm or so dfifference between Japanese and US spec necks - as Jordan has found out. The Japanese are usually the larger - I'm having a conundrum about this on a couple of projects and I think I'm going to sand the neck heels to fit - the bodies are vintage spec.

I'm pretty sure the VM guitars are US spec - I have a 65 Musicmaster neck on my VM Jag with no issues.

Let me know if you decide to sell either neck, I might be interested, but I think your options are a replacement custom neck, or get your Luthier to work on them. FWIW, vintage/US spec seems to be around 54.5-55mm at the end of the heel, and the Japanese spec around 56-57mm.

George · Post by **George** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 3:27 pm

in the grand scheme of things a refret may cost about Â£150-Â£200. if you sold the neck on ebay, you'd probably get around Â£80-90, possibly more?

I think selling the neck and hanging around the classifieds for a bit for a vintage or MIJ neck would likely be cheaper overall, and better for resale

filing down could be an option i suppose, but i guess it all depends on if you care about resale. many people would read "frets filed down to vintage height" as a negative, i expect.

Fakir Mustache · Post by **Fakir Mustache** » Wed Mar 26, 2014 4:03 pm

...and you might not like them even if vintage height, because they are still not vintage width if just the top is shaved.

serfx · Post by **serfx** » Thu Mar 27, 2014 7:36 am

pull frets, buy replacement wire from stewmac for $5 (approx)
learn how to do a re-fret at the same time.

= solved.

I added in a step on a few of my necks to make them 7.25r as well... taht adds a quite a bit more to the time + effort, but fuck it, i have more of those then I do money.

spirograph · Post by **spirograph** » Fri Mar 28, 2014 2:26 am

Jim_Nowhere wrote:I added in a step on a few of my necks to make them 7.25r as well...

this sounds batshit crazy. you got pics?

Noisy Cat · Post by **Noisy Cat** » Sat Mar 29, 2014 10:15 am

Thanks everyone.

It's too much to hope for a USA neck to be on sale (at least for less than a fortune) here in the UK, so I'm gonna look for CIJ/MIJ guitars.

Johnny Noir · Post by **Johnny Noir** » Sun Mar 30, 2014 7:15 am

you can find vintage musicmaster neck on ebay for 200$

serfx · Post by **serfx** » Wed Apr 02, 2014 6:37 am

spirograph wrote:
Jim_Nowhere wrote:I added in a step on a few of my necks to make them 7.25r as well...
this sounds batshit crazy. you got pics?

not yet, i've only gotten as far as buying the supplies i need to make the jig, and sanding blocks..
gotta make another week long trip to the folks to get it finished, i'll be updating my thread about it when it happens

however this youtube video has helped me quite a bit.
[youtube][/youtube]