I have a question and hope someone can shed some light on it. Regarding my Squier Jaguar VM 2012, the pups that came in it are/were Duncan design and sounded really nice but were very microphonic. I could tap on the guitar body and it would pickup the sound and transmit it through my amp. I considered taking them out and wax potting them but decided to just go ahead and buy a set of Seymour Duncan Hot Jag p'ups at the tune of $120+. I just finished installing them and I'll be damned if they don't sound exactly like the ones I took out and are just as much if not more microphonic. Just grabbing the guitar by the neck it transmits noise through the amp. Holding it in my lap playing it, it picked up gurgling sound in my stomach and transmitted it through my amp. I have never played a Jag before so I have no idea what they should sound like. I've used Seymour Duncan p'ups in serveral guitars, Jazzmaster, Strats and Tele's but never had this problem. My question, are all Jag p'ups microphonic like I described?

Danny Ellison aka dubtrub

Last edited: Apr 16, 2013 16:26:52

The new Seymour Duncan p'ups are apparently wax potted as I had to push the wax out of the mounting screw holes to insert the screws. That's is what's so confounding. Everything is grounded, the guitars sound comes through loud and clear but my finger bumping the pickup cover while playing will actually come through my amp almost as loud as the strings being played.

I guess I will pull out all the guts and install the AVRI Jag shielding plates throughout as well as change all the wiring to cloth covered plus pots and switches. Obviously a Jag pickups shouldn't pick up sound this way. Man, what a PIA!

Danny Ellison aka dubtrub

JakeDobner wrote:

... You can buy complete Jag wiring kits on the net for like $50, and they are the best components you can get.

Are these the same as AVRI wiring?

EDIT: Has anyone else with one of these guitars experienced this problem? This is the first I've heard of it.

This is Noel. Reverb's at maximum an' I'm givin' 'er all she's got.

Last edited: Mar 28, 2013 21:16:27

CrazyAces wrote:

Danny,
Did the new Duncans come with the claw attached already or did you have to use your old ones?
If those claws are not tight to the bottom of the pickup or slightly askew that is often the biggest cause of your problem.
I'd suggest melting some paraffin wax between the bottom of the pickups and the claws. A heat gun on low will do the trick but be careful not to melt or distort your pickup covers.

I'm thinking you're on to something there. No they didn't come with claws attached. I got a good solder joint with the grounding wire but I've been focusing on the claw as the culprit. I'll open it up again and try wax or something to secure and possible movement. Keeping my fingers crossed!

Danny Ellison aka dubtrub

Glad you tracked it down. That's usually the problem.
A similar thing happens to Tele bridge pickups as well. The bottom plate comes loose, just a little, and the pickup becomes microphonic.
A little bit of this can be good and is often why players think a vintage pickup sounds so good but too much, as in your case can be distracting and cause squealing and feedback.

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I wouldn't break the ground connection to the claw. You want metal pickup parts grounded or you will run into hum and contact noise problems.
wax coating the claw itself won't help. The central focus should be eliminating as much space as possible between the claw and the bottom of the pickup. One of the best methods to achieve this is to put a small piece of masking tape on the bottom of the pickup, just enough to cover the bottom of the polepieces, apply some wax to the bottom of the pickup, attach your claw, attach your ground wire (make sure you're not soldering to wax, you want a good solid connection to bare metal)then heat the bottom of the pickup/claw with a heat gun on low, a hair dryer or a soldering iron. You want the wax to fill any air gap between the claw and the bottom flat work. Once this is done it may solve your problem but it cant hurt to do a quick potting with the claw attached after you've performed the above treatment.
On a related aside, budget guitars can have pickups with less quality control like loose windings on the coil. If and when this is the case potting will not solve your problem completely. You may have to upgrade the pickups.
Welcome aboard!

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AXXA wrote:

It seems like the OP is saying tht breaking the claws ground is what made his Jag quieter? Am I understanding that correctly? I'm a little new to this stuff by the way.

Detaching the ground wire to the claw worked in my case. The claws now serve no purpose other than aesthetics. They are basically the same as a Stratocaster pickups now. They sound great and microphonics is minimal to nil. I used the guitar yesterday at band rehearsal playing at a very moderate volume through my 65 Bandmaster and the p'ups were fine. There's nothing more I intend to do.

Danny Ellison aka dubtrub

I've just completed upgrading my Squier Jag to a full blown copy of a 62 reissue Jag. The only thing that is still Squier is the body and rhythm control parts and pickguard. I am totally in love with this guitar. With Seymour Duncan Hots, neck p'up has a great Strat sound for Blues, bridge p'up has a Tele bite for Country, and the dual p'ups sound for Surf. I do wish it had a 24 3/4" scale length though. I used an Allparts neck with the vintage frets and 7 1/4" radius. Purist police will no doubt slam me for using a Fender logo which I too am normally against misrepresenting a guitar as a Fender but it just did not look right with a blank headstock. I made all the brass shielding as well as the aluminum pickguard shield. I fixed the microphonic problem as described in my original post by bending in the claws to fit tighter on the p'up covers plus I enlarged the holes on the bottom of the claws to give more clearance from the pole magnets. All previously described cardboard and masking tape shimming was removed. I also reattached the grounding wire that I previously disconnected when I made masking tape shims. After studying the assembly of a real Jap p'up and claws I could see that the original problem was the loose claw was shifting around and touching the magnets. I've got less in this project than the cost of a used MIM Jag Classic. However I did already have several parts in my parts drawer.

Danny Ellison aka dubtrub

Last edited: Apr 16, 2013 18:34:45

1 point for olympic white..

Wonderful.

IMO.

Planning on changing the pickguard?

IMO.