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I recently bought a Squier VM Jazzmaster as a project. I put some time in with it last night and I think it turned out pretty cool!

The bridge is an Invader that I put into a blank Jazzmaster cover. The neck is one of those GFS OEM blowout humbuckers they sold a few years ago. I had a set and put the bridge humbucker in my Squier '51 way back when. It looks a lot like a DiMarzio or something from Ibanez, but I'm not sure. Anyway, I put a blank cover over that one.

I used a Mustang bridge and got the pickguard for only $10 from Stratosphere. For some reason the Squier thumb roller bracket is shorter than every other Jazzmaster in the world. I can't mount it to the pickguard so I guess I'll pick a new one up. For now the rhythm circuit is just a cut switch, and the three way toggle selects the pickups. I'm not sure about those knobs. I might pick some up in cream, or do something totally different.

Cool thing. Rock it!!!

Yes, yes good. This is very good. How did you go about mounting the invader?

Grant wrote:Yes, yes good. This is very good. How did you go about mounting the invader?

First I took a normal Jazzmaster pickup cover, put it directly over the blank cover, and lightly marked the position of the normal pole pieces for reference.

Then I took the big allen head screws out of the Invader, and made a template showing the position of the remaining screw holes on a piece of paper. Using the marks I made for reference on the blank cover I lined up my template, taped it down directly on top of the cover, and drilled some holes. When I was done I fit the screws back into the pickup through the cover and tightened them down.

It wasn't really necessary, but I thought it would look cool. I ordered a custom Seymour Duncan humbucker for my TVL Jazzmaster about a year ago, and while it did everything I wanted it to, this did the same job for about $200 less.

I got a new, longer bracket for the rhythm circuit last night. Unfortunately the holes for the control pots are a different diameter (Smaller). The threaded portion of the mini pot shafts have a larger diameter, and I couldn't feed them all the way through. What a pain in the ass. I used a file on the holes in the bracket to make them a little bigger and it all worked out.

Anyway, if anyone else is thinking about a new pickguard on a Squier VM Jazzmaster I figured this might be useful info - you'll need a new rhythm circuit bracket and new control pots, or you'll have to do a little work to make it all fit. It was only a 5 minute job for me.

Nice Jazzmaster mate. Would love to hear how it sounds now, compared to how it was stocked.

That looks ace man. Great job!

where did you get the soap covers? allparts ?

The Squier VM Jazzy i put together.... mint guard. i had to order a special bracket for the rollie stuff to fit right. added a buzz stop. The bridge is a CP Jazz that just kinda sits in there in the original cups. Not really happy with it though i had to shim the neck so stuff it a tad weird. I got some Rose Pickups Picasso humbuckers. I had him do a custom for the bridge. It's like 17.5K ohms and the neck is 10.8 k i think. I originally did the standards and i wanted higher output so i swapped the bridge into the neck and had him wind a hot as fuck bridge. The standard neck was 9.4k. The thing sounds good, i just gotta get the bridge situation sorted out. I might just put the standard one back on and get some loc tite or something.

I'm really happy with it and I'm glad you guys like it too, thanks for the kind words.

The covers are from MojoTone. I ordered some other stuff from Allparts, but couldn't find the right covers there.

MojoTone Cream Jazzmaster Cover

I don't really have any decent recording gear, but I can probably make a video on my phone later. It breathes fire now.

Mattsican wrote:The Squier VM Jazzy i put together.... mint guard. i had to order a special bracket for the rollie stuff to fit right. added a buzz stop. The bridge is a CP Jazz that just kinda sits in there in the original cups. Not really happy with it though i had to shim the neck so stuff it a tad weird. I got some Rose Pickups Picasso humbuckers. I had him do a custom for the bridge. It's like 17.5K ohms and the neck is 10.8 k i think. I originally did the standards and i wanted higher output so i swapped the bridge into the neck and had him wind a hot as fuck bridge. The standard neck was 9.4k. The thing sounds good, i just gotta get the bridge situation sorted out. I might just put the standard one back on and get some loc tite or something.

I love it dude!

Are Jaguar rhythm circuit brackets shorter? Maybe that's what Fender is doing with the VM Jazzmasters? It seems so weird to me that they'd use a different size. I had to shim the neck on mine too, but that's pretty much par for the course with a Jag/Jazz using vintage trem placement. Didn't take much to get the tension right on this Squier. This is the custom pickup I bought last year (Bridge position). Kinda makes my TVL a sleeper, 18.45k with a ceramic magnet, but looks like a normal jazzy.

Most of the good Jazzmaster replacement pups are pricey. Rose makes humbuckers AND they're like $60 a piece. He didn't charge extra for the custom one either. As far as the bracket the issue I had was the original guard holes for it to screw in are farther apart and don't line up. I forget which guard I got (I just googled what fit) and the forum I was reading the guy who did it said he needed the different bracket.