Incoming - 1980s E serial Jag

[Bacchus]

Now cover it in stickers.

[MattK]

genius

[NickD]

I have no idea how you would get the original colour OFF the body to be honest. There was even epoxy putty in a few places and I scraped it back, sanded it out and you would never know. You could probably hammer nails in using the body.

From experience - a heat gun and scraper then sanding. Lots of it. Days.

Modern paint stripper won't touch poly in general - as you found.

[sunshiner]

I watched an old youtube video where two teenagers started with an attempt to strip old paint off of a cheap strat body and refinish it and ended up just butchering it with a jigsaw because the paint was so difficult to strip off.

[MattK]

Yeah I stripped a poly Telecaster a few years back, easier because of the flat surfaces, but the finish had to be heated until it began to craze before it would come off.

[MattK]

Glamour time, I tidied the floor and got out my "proper" camera.
How it arrived -


Headstock unchanged (but now strung with 12s)

[MattK]

About 10 years ago I had a white MIJ Jag and tried some upgrades, still didn't connect with it so I sold it. So I had these bits to hand:
- an AVRI bridge pickup I got for $5 on eBay (no cover or claw)
- plates from a Classic Player Jag
- another 80s MIJ trem tailpiece
- a Mustang bridge which I think is MIJ
- a bunch of cloth wire from the previous Jag I rewired
Since the pots were replaced and I was switching the plates, I figured I would just rewire the whole thing. The chrome stuff was both corroded and deliberately scratched up, so I swapped them out for the nicer CP ones. I was too scared to put the 64 pickup back in, I will clean it and see what I've got. Ordered a cover and claw for the AVRI bridge pickup and stuck a Strat cover on it for now.

[MattK]

And here it is, all done. I love it.




The last pic is probably closest to its colour in real life. The body's really nicely shaped, much nicer than the 90s one I had before, and with the AVRI pickups it sounds pretty full and has that hard flat attack that makes the Jag different to anything else. It needs half a turn taken out of the truss rod for more relief, and some frets are worn, otherwise lovely to play. A keeper for sure.

[Bacchus]

Of all the guitars that shortscalers own, this one is the one I'm most jealous of.

Incredible. Absolutely beautiful.

[Nick]

What a transformation! Stunning and kudos for being skilled enough and having the patience to bring this back proper.

[plopswagon]

I had a feeling it would turn out nice but this far exceeds my expectations.

Question though, is the bridge all the way down? You might need to shim that neck.

[Gavin]

yeah, phenomenal work. it looks great.

[MattK]

well you're all kind people and I'm glad to share!
plops yeah there is a little way to go in the setup. It had a shim when I got it but because I was switching the bridge I did my usual, which is just put the neck on, deck the bridge, wind it up slightly to give it some movement, then raise the ends until I lose string buzzes. That happened at the low height you see, and since I like low action I left it there. However it's a bit dead-feeling to play and looking along the neck there is very little relief. So my plan is to take a half turn out of the truss rod and see how that goes. With Mustang saddles it's not string-jumping though.

[dots]

tasty choice with the mustang saddles and just an all around spectacular job you've done bringing that guitar back to life. i kinda want one in that color with the matching headstock now. =]

blown away, very nice!

[MattK]

thanks again! It's kind of wild that this was the only matching-headstock Jag available between, say, 1971 (matching headstocks discontinued) and 1998 (some AVRI runs?)?

[Doog]

Amazing! How'd you even get that bullshit off of there?

[MattK]

Gentle paint stripper, scraper, wet sanding, cutting compound then polish … and about six hours of pain … (there’s a montage on page 3)

[taylornutt]

I bet it would look really good with black pickup covers.

[cooter]

Amazing work. It looks so good.

[MattK]

Making friends with its 1985 sibling