jagmaster project (hi)

Painting? Routing? Set-up tips? Or just straight-up making a guitar from scratch? Post here, and post pics!

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r40f
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jagmaster project (hi)

Post by r40f »

hi, i'm new here. i didn't know shortscale guitars had such a cult following, but i think that's really cool. i've been reading the forums and finding some really useful information, so thanks. i'm a hobbyist/experimenter when it comes to building, i don't know that much about guitars, so please go easy on me. :)

i bought a new sunburst jagmaster to modify. i had never played one before, but from reading the description, i figured it wouldn't be too different from my beloved super-sonic, so i took a chance. i've played jaguars and mustangs in the shop, but i was never crazy about them beyond the looks. anyway, i couldn't have been happier with the cheapo stock jagmaster. i was very pleasantly surprised by the sound straight out of the box and the feel of the neck. it's wider than the super-sonic neck and more comfortable for me to play. i bought this from musician's friend, btw. the first thing i was really psyched about was that the tremelo bar wasn't in and the bridge was basically fixed, so that saved me the trouble of doing it myself.

i immediately loved the neck pickup, but didn't like the bridge pickup. so the first thing was to replace that with a gibson '57 classic (not a true vintage one, a new one). :) (i bet i'm going to get yelled at right away). i'm much happier with the sound of this one in the bridge position. i just had to widen the corners in the pickguard slightly to get it in. i was also really pleasantly surprised that it has a swimming pool route in there - i didn't know what to expect when i opened it up.

so the main idea i had for customizing it is to add a GFS lipstick pickup in the middle position, but to keep it on a separate circuit from the original wiring. it's going to go from the pickup to a volume pot to a separate output jack. so i will have two different outputs, maybe running to two different amps at once. that's what i'm working on now - everything is drilled and mounted... i just have to solder everything together.

i've never cut a pickguard myself, so i managed to do a fairly sloppy job of it around the pickups. i'm trying to think of a way to disguise the awkward cuts. but i'm not stressing too much because i guess i could still buy a new one.

the specs recommend a 250k volume pot, but i was thinking of trying a 500k... any suggestions on that?

i'll post pics once it's assembled again, if anyone's interested in checking this out. :)
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Post by robroe »

i would use a 500K with the gibson pickup and a 250K with the GFS pickup.

sounds like a cool setup. My friend jared back in highschool did the 2 amp set up like you are trying but took it a step further by nocking out pole pieces in his pickups so only certain pickups played certain strings, then he wired them all on seperate circuits to different amps. so in the end 3 strings came out of one amp and 3 strings came out of the second amp.

i cant remember if it was 3 in a row, staggard or how he had it set up. it was fun just to sit there and watch him play it.
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Post by r40f »

robroe wrote:i would use a 500K with the gibson pickup and a 250K with the GFS pickup.

sounds like a cool setup. My friend jared back in highschool did the 2 amp set up like you are trying but took it a step further by nocking out pole pieces in his pickups so only certain pickups played certain strings, then he wired them all on seperate circuits to different amps. so in the end 3 strings came out of one amp and 3 strings came out of the second amp.

i cant remember if it was 3 in a row, staggard or how he had it set up. it was fun just to sit there and watch him play it.
that does sound cool. i bet it would be great with some alternate tunings.

thanks for the reply
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Post by r40f »

okay, here it is so far (sorry it's a bad pic):

Image

as you can see, i haven't got a third knob for it yet :) but the two jacks are there and everything is working.

i'm totally happy with how this came out. the variety of sounds i'm getting is really fantastic. i can plug into two amps at once or plug two lines into one amp and use that as sort of a pickup mixer. i think it sounds great. i've been playing all night. :)
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Aug
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Post by Aug »

2 input jacks? is this for stereo?
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Post by r40f »

Aug wrote:2 input jacks? is this for stereo?
no, it's for two separate circuits
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robroe
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Re: jagmaster project (hi)

Post by robroe »

r40f wrote:hi, i'm new here. i didn't know shortscale guitars had such a cult following, but i think that's really cool. i've been reading the forums and finding some really useful information, so thanks. i'm a hobbyist/experimenter when it comes to building, i don't know that much about guitars, so please go easy on me. :)

i bought a new sunburst jagmaster to modify. i had never played one before, but from reading the description, i figured it wouldn't be too different from my beloved super-sonic, so i took a chance. i've played jaguars and mustangs in the shop, but i was never crazy about them beyond the looks. anyway, i couldn't have been happier with the cheapo stock jagmaster. i was very pleasantly surprised by the sound straight out of the box and the feel of the neck. it's wider than the super-sonic neck and more comfortable for me to play. i bought this from musician's friend, btw. the first thing i was really psyched about was that the tremelo bar wasn't in and the bridge was basically fixed, so that saved me the trouble of doing it myself.

i immediately loved the neck pickup, but didn't like the bridge pickup. so the first thing was to replace that with a gibson '57 classic (not a true vintage one, a new one). :) (i bet i'm going to get yelled at right away). i'm much happier with the sound of this one in the bridge position. i just had to widen the corners in the pickguard slightly to get it in. i was also really pleasantly surprised that it has a swimming pool route in there - i didn't know what to expect when i opened it up.

so the main idea i had for customizing it is to add a GFS lipstick pickup in the middle position, but to keep it on a separate circuit from the original wiring. it's going to go from the pickup to a volume pot to a separate output jack. so i will have two different outputs, maybe running to two different amps at once. that's what i'm working on now - everything is drilled and mounted... i just have to solder everything together.

i've never cut a pickguard myself, so i managed to do a fairly sloppy job of it around the pickups. i'm trying to think of a way to disguise the awkward cuts. but i'm not stressing too much because i guess i could still buy a new one.

the specs recommend a 250k volume pot, but i was thinking of trying a 500k... any suggestions on that?

i'll post pics once it's assembled again, if anyone's interested in checking this out. :)
dots wrote:incesticide
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Aug
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Post by Aug »

oh! well, excuse me for not reading this thread! :wink: