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Fender Blacktop Modification

Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 5:32 am
by poorhillbilly
Hey I'm new to this forum, I have tried other forums and noone seems to care about shortscales as much as here. I bought a Blacktop Jaguar not long ago at giveaway price Aus of $640. I was a bit unsure and had thought i had bought a fake or a Squier, but then realised its part of the Blacktop range. Being new to Fender guitars (I had thought that it could be too good for my ability) I was completely blown away by the quality of it, its top of the line. They use Kluson tuners, alder, maple, Seymour and Duncan style pickups, Gotoh bridge and tailpiece. Its incredible value. Awesome Shape, Awesome Size, Awesome Colour, The whole aspect to it being simplified doesn't affect my judgement of it, because i'm not used to the old jaguar switches (that should be saved for the 'Special's). its just a regular guitar with a pickup selector and tone vol control. And did I mention that i can't keep my eyes off it and can't stop playing it? Its like i'm in a dream world.

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I just didn't like the Black skirted Amp knobs, so i took them off and in the process ripped out my tone pot. no biggy. i got mustang knobs for aus$7 (three shades of black including pickguard, knobs and body) Though might get chrome domes unsure for now.

I got a Wilkinson Wigsby for aus$60
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And a Wilkinson Locking Rolling Bridge for aus$20
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All I have to do is get the local Guitar tech to help me rout a cavity smaller than a tim tam in my guitar and mount the stuff.

I'm already eyeing up some chrome Sperzel 6 inl lockers for aus$50 that i may purchase in the near future.

The HH pickups are some of the best pickups i've ever played.

A friend of mine collects Fenders, owning thousands of aus$ worth of equipment, and he says his favourites are the Mexicans.

As you can see my Guitar has only cost me aus$727 plus tech quotes. So thats $800 saved over buying a Vintage American Reissue. No more to be said than that!! ps. and all that chrome is ****ing madness. like its been assembled piece by piece from Roswell UFO scrap and it could potentially shoot laser beams.

Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 5:58 am
by StevePirates
Once you have it all together, you'll have to post a photo or twelve. Looks like a great guitar. Not too familiar with Wilkinson, is that an AUS manufacturer? "Wigsby" is a very cute name.

Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 8:51 am
by ekwatts
Wilkinson parts are named after Trevor Wilkinson, a British guy. It's all made in China as far as I'm aware, but most of it is good stuff. Much of it can be found unbranded for cheaper prices, though. GFS carries some unbranded Wilkinson gear for good prices.

I use a locking roller bridge on my Jaguar too, although it was a CIJ reissue so I had to drill the holes wider. I'm sure somebody else on here tried to retrofit the same bridge on a Mexican CP Jag but it didn't actually fit. So beware.

Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 8:54 am
by ekwatts
As for the Wigsby, I've no idea whether it's any good or not as I've only seen them on Shine guitars, which tend to be complete garbage.

You'll need to rout the body to accomodate the gribbly bits:

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Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 10:57 am
by poorhillbilly
The guitar should be ready this week. I will post a before and after. I have already lined up the parts. looked damn! good. the curves oh the curves

The Wigsby, its actually smaller in real life, and the two springs are tiny. The thing that was buggin me was te tailpiece on the jaguar, the holes were wider than the Wigsby. I told the tech I couldn't care how it comes out, as long as its on there, he said he would definitly see what he could do to fill these holes lol.

as for the bridge, it need higher bushings. It did come with bushings so I'll see how it turns out. I do trust the tech. hes an authorised Maton Fender Tech known around town >>http://www.dobsonguitars.com.au/

for Wilkinson gear. definitly awesome. It must be all newish. noone knows what it is. great stuff.

http://www.dupreguitars.com/guitars/fuz ... laster.htm

Tom du Pre has used some on his Fuzzblaster I.

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but missing the guitar already, its been gone since thursday. love its ring from the bridge. the shape. the size. Its less than a metre in length! glad i'm on the right forum

Posted: Mon May 30, 2011 2:26 pm
by Joey
Welcome

Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 9:24 am
by poorhillbilly
thankyou! :D

Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 8:03 pm
by dezb1
poorhillbilly wrote:
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is it just me or does that look off?

Posted: Tue May 31, 2011 10:27 pm
by ekwatts
It might be the angle of the camera to the guitar and the angle of the butt of the Jaguar body. But yeah, a bit.

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 12:33 am
by poorhillbilly
nice observation there debz1. alba! viva la ecosse! Its tricky the shape of the Jazzmaster in that picture, it has the difference in height at the bottom, curves up, the wigsby being quite long it kinda has to sit on the back perched off a little bit.

when we lined mine up, seemed like we had a bit more space to work with.

here are some pics of of the wigsby on other models

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Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 12:49 am
by taylornutt
dezb1 wrote:
poorhillbilly wrote:
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is it just me or does that look off?
Where's the input jack?

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 12:50 am
by poorhillbilly
fuck knows. it looks like he's relocated the tone know to where the input jack used to be, and shuffled the vol knob down to the tone space, and the got rid of the original vol knob circuitry.

it could be on the side out of view though.

and hes also relocated the strap locks to a bizarre place.
aphasiac wrote:Instant SY goodness for a cheap price - v v nice:

Basswood Body
1 Piece Maple Neck
Rosewood Fretboard 12� Radius
21 Medium Jumbo frets 25.5� NUT: 1-11/16�
3 Switch Bass-Cut, Mid-Cut und Phase-Reverse
3 Switch on/off Humbucker
Volume + Tone
Vintage-Style Hardware
Vintage TremoloAlden/Wilkinson Roller bridge
Black finish


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0266202905

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definitly impressed by this, the bridge it looks great

anyone got much to say about sperzel lockers? i like them the best out of a variety of brands.

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:42 am
by hotrodperlmutter
taylornutt wrote:
dezb1 wrote:
poorhillbilly wrote:
► Show Spoiler
is it just me or does that look off?
Where's the input jack?
my guess is on the lower bout, a la telemaster.

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 1:57 am
by cur
poorhillbilly wrote:
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With some paint, that could be a good looking guitar.

Welcome to the board. Off topic, but my 360 gamertag used to be hobo hillbilly until my son jacked my account for his own.

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 2:01 am
by Ankhanu
taylornutt wrote:Where's the input jack?
Image

Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2011 2:32 am
by poorhillbilly
cur wrote:
poorhillbilly wrote:
Image

With some paint, that could be a good looking guitar.

Welcome to the board. Off topic, but my 360 gamertag used to be hobo hillbilly until my son jacked my account for his own.
Thankyou. yeah interesting finish on that one but I think it needs some paint. The blacktop Jaguar is perfect, I could have purchased the blacktop Jazzmaster, but its not as short as the jag, and the blacktop colour options are the black or naturalle finish. i like the black. The problems i have with the jazzes are the knobs are too high up, you want them out of the way so you dont whack your fingers, and i like the chrome covers on the jag. both jazzes had floating tremelo systems but unsure whether wigsby would have covered them.

Tom du pre actually advised not to use the Wilkinson Wigsby or Locking rolling bridge. because it supposedly went out of tune alot and drilling the cavity etc. I went ahead anyway.

as for the name, I wanted something a bit ironic to what I am, and somehow had Kurt Cobain in mind. haha

Before:

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After:
► Show Spoiler

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 12:24 pm
by Gabriel
Looks very cool. Better than I was expecting actually.



P.s. don't go with chrome knobs

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 12:26 pm
by poorhillbilly
yeah sorry i'll see if i can get some better pictures up later

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 4:05 pm
by serfx
i dig it.

Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2011 6:05 pm
by robroe
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*arsecake* *arsecake* *arsecake* *arsecake* *arsecake* *arsecake* *arsecake*