NGD Block Party

BoringPostcards · Post by **BoringPostcards** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 4:08 pm

Hello folks,
I picked up a MIJ 66BB in Candy Apple Red with a mint guard and plain headstock (my least favourite colour.. will probably end up CFM or Sherwood soon...). Got a bridge cover with it, because the guy thought they looked better with them. It fits nice and snug and does look nice. I took it off though.. palm muting and all that jazz.
Spent an hour setting up the bridge. Those grub screws are evil rattling bastards. Used a bit of clear nail polish on it and made sure all the saddles sat flat on the baseplate. the thing isn't buzzing for now at all. Right away, I was thinking "ok this is getting a mastery/staytrem and stat", but I got the buzz out of it and I really like the way the stock bridge sounds and feels. The guy had .09s on it. I am going to go grab some 10s or 11s today and get them set up on it. Need to raise the bridge a tad as well, so I don't fret out past the 12th fret. The guy also hardtailed the vibrato. The spring was tightened and the lock was engaged. Loosened the spring and got it moving. It's going to need a lubing, as it is a tad stiff. Smooth action though. I missed that. My CIJ Mascis had the adjust-o-matic that didn't rock, so the vibrato didn't sound as smooth. Bridge goes back to center and it holds the tuning as well as my Mascis did. We'll see how the stock bridge fares.

P.S. even with the .09s the guy had on it (dude had no clue how to set up offsets), I'm not finding myself knocking the strings out of the saddles. I even tested it with a gypsy swing rhythm riff strummed extra hard with a 3mm stubby. They stayed in their little slots. I also did a Moore/Ranaldo/Cobain style noise freak out with it and the strings still did not pop out. Do people actually have this problem? I don't even think Greg Ginn could play this hard enough to move the strings.

p.s.s As usual the quality of the build is A+. Anyone who is unsure of MIJ/CIJ should just forget about thinking and go get one. I've yet to play a bad Fender Japan model in 20 years of playing. Bridges are wonky, but so are the US ones.

Here's a quick pic from my phone. Don't mind the mess in the jam room. I really need to get at that soon. . . .

Better pics when we get some sunshine as well as a video when I get the time.

In this shitty pic, you can see the bridge cover.

You can see the mint better in this shitty pic!

BearBoy · Post by **BearBoy** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 4:15 pm

Sweet JM. Congrats.

speedfish · Post by **speedfish** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 4:51 pm

Damn, I love me some B&B! Congrats!

BoringPostcards · Post by **BoringPostcards** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 3:38 pm

tweaked the set-up a tad more. Ain't no way to get super low action without buzzing/fretting out past the 12th fret so far. Maybe with a neck tweak. I like mid-high action though, so it is playing right exactly where I like it, but I was just wondering what it would feel like as low as my SG, but it wasn't having it. Maybe a mastery would remedy this? Or is this just a part of the whole 7.25 radius thing? (although the compstang doesn't fret-out/buzz with slightly lower action... scale?)
Any pro tips?
This thing sounds great. I love it so far.
I'm pretty sure it's alder, because I can't find a spec sheet that says otherwise. All the specs I've read on the net state that the JM66b has a 3 piece alder body. I think it's correct, because the body sure is resonant. I can feel the bass notes and other vibrations through the guitar when I strum it. My basswood Mascis had way less resonance. It sounded great, but I couldn't feel it in my guy/chest when I played it. It was also a tad lighter than this one.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 3:48 pm

I think that's a radius thing. my vm jazzy even with the stock bridge and super low action never fretted out. and the strings never popped out of the bridge. thing has a 9.5 def prefer the feel of the 7.25 though.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 3:50 pm

always could try raising the action and shimming the neck for a better neck angle. did that to mine b/c the saddles on my stock bridge were being assholes and it's solid enough to throw in traffic and not go outve tune

HNB · Post by **HNB** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 3:52 pm

The relief could be too much also. Could cause fret buzz on upper frets.

George · Post by **George** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 3:53 pm

ZenJenga wrote:tweaked the set-up a tad more. Ain't no way to get super low action without buzzing/fretting out past the 12th fret so far. Maybe with a neck tweak. I like mid-high action though, so it is playing right exactly where I like it, but I was just wondering what it would feel like as low as my SG, but it wasn't having it. Maybe a mastery would remedy this? Or is this just a part of the whole 7.25 radius thing? (although the compstang doesn't fret-out/buzz with slightly lower action... scale?)
Any pro tips?
This thing sounds great. I love it so far.
I'm pretty sure it's alder, because I can't find a spec sheet that says otherwise. All the specs I've read on the net state that the JM66b has a 3 piece alder body. I think it's correct, because the body sure is resonant. I can feel the bass notes and other vibrations through the guitar when I strum it. My basswood Mascis had way less resonance. It sounded great, but I couldn't feel it in my guy/chest when I played it. It was also a tad lighter than this one.

i think super low action is unattainable on a vintage 7.25" radius, at least if you want to bend up a whole tone on each string. and even then if the strings aren't crossing perfectly straight across the necks radius you can get choking because the strings will ever so slightly come across the radius at an angle. your sg will have a nice 12" radius so the problem will be much less prevalent.

what might be worth looking as is the neck relief though. check where you're at but in my experience a flatter relief will usually help the ability to lower action some more. if this is out the box (or even used by a player who doesn't mind high action), the truss could probably use a straightening in any case.

in short i don't think a mastery bridge will help get a lower action. the issue is more to do with radius and neck relief, and possibly fret work.

it looks wonderful, congrats

BoringPostcards · Post by **BoringPostcards** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 6:59 pm

Neck was dead straight. I gave it a tad bit of relief and it's better. I got it where I like it and it plays fine. I just can't go as lead crazy on it as the SG, then again I couldn't with the Mascis either, now that I remember it.
I haven't experienced any string slipping whatsoever. They stay in the grooves. I even played it real hard with a 3mm stubby and they still stay in place. I was only able to get them to pop by playing behind the bridge.

gusman2x · Post by **gusman2x** » Fri Feb 14, 2014 7:38 pm

Often a neck shim at the base of the pocket will change the angle of the neck and allow you to have a good buzz free action. Radius has nothing to do with the buzzing, it only plays a part when you start bending, and generally above the 12th.

The nut (and slot height) are super critical to getting a low buzz free action.

Basically, four main things required:

Well cut nut (professionals are best for this)

Level frets (again, generally a job for the pro)

Very little neck relief

Good/optimum neck break angle. This is a fine line, and can only really be arrived at by trial and error. Generally 1-2 pieces of business card.

There's also the fact sometimes a guitar just wont allow for an action as low as an almost identical guitar. One of them things.

Oh, and sweet guitar man.

singlepup · Post by **singlepup** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 11:15 pm

Loving this guitar. Stock MIJ pups?

BoringPostcards · Post by **BoringPostcards** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 3:21 pm

Stock pups for now. They sound good enough for the time being. This thing already sounds far more 'jazzmastery' than my CIJ Mascis JM did. It's all in the bridge, I would assume.
I am considering Novak JM-V for the neck and JM-FAT for the bridge. I am going with Novak primarily because I've interacted with him through forums and facebook over the years and he is familiar to me. He is also a really nice guy and very helpful. I know plenty of guys who got pickups from him, decided they wanted to try a different wind and Novak traded them up without a fuss. Besides, his pickups are really well made and sound boss.
I tweaked it a fair bit more and got it playing much better.
I need to get used to using heavy strings again. I have been using 10s on my stang and 10s on my SG for so long and now I've got this JM strung with 11s. SO MUCH TENSION. It's like piano wire. I'm probably going to see if I can't manage 10s on it. I had 10s on the mascis without issues, although that had a TOM.

singlepup · Post by **singlepup** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 5:17 pm

Novaks are supposed to be ace. Everyone from San Diego is nice

I would definitely stick with the .11s for a month as you'll probably just get used to them. Really keeps the whole instrument more stable IMO.

I was actually trying to use .09s for a while on my VMJM as an experiment (came with .09s, lol). Bad idea!

I still have the stock Duncan Design pups in mine. Have not really compared to MIJ stock pups, but kudos for trying to work with a stock instrument for as long as possible. There's a certain nobility in doing so!

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 8:57 pm

actually kinda liked the stock bridge better than the TOM I have on mine now. might mess with it and switch it back.

singlepup · Post by **singlepup** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 11:38 pm

TOMs are so damn easy and manageable... But custom string spacing is really where it's at for me. My friends think I'm crazy, but I'm sticking it out with stock bridge.

Josh · Post by **Josh** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 4:21 am

switched my stock bridge back in. really brought that strummy jazzmaster sound back to it. sounded more sustainy with the Tom. sounds nicer now. heavy strings ate where it's at for these things and trying to get the action decently low.

BoringPostcards · Post by **BoringPostcards** » Mon Feb 17, 2014 3:11 pm

Yea, I'm definitely not having any issues with the stock bridge so far after my initial tweak. I need to get a radius gauge, so I can make sure I'm on with that. The saddle heights were all over the place when I got it. The guy either tweaked it himself or had a clueless tech do it. Either way, it feels great, the cover fits just fine and it isn't buzzing at all. I love the custom spacing thing. I have been fooling around with it. I put the high e and b right next to each other like a wide 12 string couple and fucked with that for a bit in an open tuning. All kinds of fun. I can see why SY always insisted that JMs/Jags were the ideal guitars for experimental rock.

@Josh: I know what you mean about the sound. Stock bridge gives it that "brittle crispy" tone. It is hard to describe, but that's what I hear. That tone wasn't present in my Mascis JM, and it being my first and only JM, it ended up bothering me all the time. Main reason I traded it with T-Nutt. I wanted 'that sound' since high school and was almost there. Now I'm there and it is so good. I do want to tinker with the electronics though. I may try and come up with something unique for the rhythm circuit. I have only ever used it as a kill switch or as a "instant woman tone selector". I'd like to put a modulation circuit in there. A phaser or flanger would be up my alley.

Another plus about this one over the Mascis is that I don't feel bad about modding it and making it my own. I always felt I would ruin what's special about the Mascis by changing anything on it.

The Candy Apple is really growing on me. Not sure if it will stay yet though.

It isn't my first JM or offset, but I feel like a noob, because it is my first time owning one with a traditional set-up (besides mustangs).