ShortScale.org

Hi, this is my first post, so please excuse whatever needs excusing. 1st mistake may be posting my question in wrong forum, but it's a hybrid topic: I was wondering if there are any obvious musical reasons to not try a 24" neck on a Jazzmaster. (By musical I'm including structural features that affect sound, e.g. bridge placement, angle of strings along the fretboard, etc.) My reasons for trying it : I'm not young (61), and trying chords far more complex than I ever tried b4. I have 2 jazz guitars, a Samick and a beautiful W.E. Moll I was given while occupied with cancer. They sound good and great, but after 2 years' struggling, I happened to borrow a Mustang and could form chords I'd been fighting, as well as move from chord to chord quick enough to not forget the melody while I shifted.
Now I have a Mustang, and can borrow a Jag. But I've wanted a JM since I was kid, & nowadays they're available in an array of forms; yet I want to stay w/ short -scale while trying to scale Mt. Wes M., etc. (Ballads, ballads.) Maybe this blend of interests seems freakish, but I've come to really like not only the short-scales themselves but also the whole funky mind-set of the community that values them.
So, to sum up, I'm asking if there're any reasons I should leave the idea alone, and/or any suggestions about best ways to do it, i.e., which types of JMs seem better candidates, for whatever reason, and which necks, whether a stock Mustang or Jag, or a Warmoth, etc.. All I know I prefer in neck (aside from scale) is a maple board.
Many thanks, Luther

The scale lengths are different, so yes, the bridge placement will throw off the intonation.

You're going to want a conversion neck.


Warmoth sells a 25.5" to 24.75" Conversion neck which gets you most of the way there to shortscale.

From what I understand, the newest models of Squier Jagmasters have 24" conversion necks on them, so you could effectively swap it with a strat/jazzmaster neck. Don't have first hand experience with that though, and there's some debate about it on other forums.

Hello luther, and welcome to the forum. Sadly, it's not possible to put a shortscale neck on a Jazzmaster body. But all is not lost: you could get a Jag body routed for JM pickups, have a custom guard made, and I know Musikraft will make a maple Jag neck. Keep us posted as to what you do, sounds a fun project.

benecol wrote:you could get a Jag body routed for JM pickups, have a custom guard made, and I know Musikraft will make a maple Jag neck. Keep us posted as to what you do, sounds a fun project.

James Shaw of Metric has JM pickups in his jaguar.



With a new pickguard with a three way switch, it might be an option.

As already noted there is only really 2 options:

1. Find a 24" conversion neck from a Jagmaster (Rosewood) or a Squier CV DuoSonic (Maple). Pros: Fairly simply swap and re-intonation I'd imagine. Cons: intonation will need to be reset. Are you cool with necks from cheaper guitars?..

2. As Benecol suggests, just drop in the JM pups into a Jag...which could involve extra routing, or go for one of these nifty (but expensive) bespoke pups designed for just this purpose:

http://curtisnovak.com/pickups/JMx-Jag.shtml





Pickguardian have made the pickguards to match. Maybe they could do one in a Jazzmaster style (i.e all controls are mounted).

Many thanks to you 3 for the welcoming advice, which I have to say was compelling. In reply I had typed a too-long reply which you were all spared by some glitch. In sum, I’ve cobbled together your hints into this plan: a Jag body with the bespoke Jazzmaster pickups; I’ll soon have a chance to play a Squier DuoSonic, to check out that (kind of) neck. By whatever luck, I’ve had no reason to look down on Squiers; my only Strat is an ’83 MIJ, and my other Squier is a 12-string Indonesian Tele after-“crafted� by an inspired tinker from somewhere in Pennsylvania (maple board, check!). Bless all us fools and Squiers. Thank you again.

Dude, I know it's off topic, but I wanna see that 12 string tele!

Luther, be aware that the squire CV duo neck is a conversion neck - this means it converts a 25.5" scale guitar (like a Jazzy) into 24". Why they didn't build the squier duo as true 24" scale i don't know! The Jaguar is naturally a 24" scale guitar and therefore (I believe) a conversion neck wouldn't work - you'd actually need to source a 24" neck for it. I believe there are now squier Jaguars released with maple necks so you could look out for one of them and drop the Jazzy pups in, or possibly find a true fender Jag in maple neck. Or, as Benecol mentioned, there may be 3rd party neck makers that do a Jag neck in maple. Hope that isn't confusing! Don't hesitate to ask any and all questions. All I can say is that had you come here with the same question a few years back your options would have been far smaller!

Hope to see this develop into something awesome!

Dave, thanks for the "conversion" clarification. I see that in phrasing if not thought I was conflating some distinctions. I've priced (from Warmoth?) a 3rd party 24" Jag neck w/ maple fretboard, and while it's more expensive than I'd ever mention in family budget sessions I can dress down the cost by letting the Jag body sit neckless while I save up. (I know that hiding addictions & G.A.S. is a whole other topic. E.g., Cassandra Williams is funny on her father's axe-stashing around the apartment. Different site? Thread? Forum?) You're right too about the current range of choices, & I am grateful; but I keep being surprised by the weird assymetries in the Fender neck/board line-up present & past. You'd think that Fender owned all the maple in creation judging by Teles & Strats, yet maple boards can be v. rare or outright unknown in some contexts. So if you prefer maple boards like I do, you're made instead to "settle" & theref. pay for some kind of rosewood. Sorry, I'm topic-hopping again. Thanks, all.

PS: about the 12-string Tele-- if I can get permission from the mad after-crafter (there IS a genteel reclusive-moonshiner aura around him), I'll try to post some pics.