synchro wrote:

As any SG 101 member not living in a cave probably already knows, I have been making preparations to build my dream Jaguar. It’s a dream Jaguar for several reasons. For one thing, I’ve dreamt of getting a Jaguar since my earliest months playing, and I’ve owned a couple of Jaguars, but never bonded with one, until I bought a CV ‘70s Squier Jaguar, which proved that I could make peace with a Jaguar.

This is also a dream Jaguar, in that it will have the feature set I want, with nothing I don’t want. My one and only experience with Fender’s “Custom Shop” left a bad taste in my mouth, and they’ve seen the last of my dollars, which means that I either have to pay a builder, or do it myself. I chose the second route, with Warmoth doing the heavy lifting. At the end of the day, the cost will be comparable to a U.S. made production Fender, plus the sweat-equity of wiring and assembling the guitar.

While I have a degree of skill and experience in wiring, it’s not my favorite aspect of working on guitars, so most of the sweat will be in creating the relatively complex Jaguar circuit, and hopefully ending up with a neat, professional job, that has consistent, low impedance, ground paths.

At this point in the build, all I have in hand is a collection of parts. I’ll mention just a few highlight. The control plates were provided by Surf-mensch, Mel Waldorf. That means a lot to me. The tremolo is an AVRI unit, which I find to be reliable and of high quality. The brass plates are FMIC and include the cushion material for provide spring tension against the pickups. The Machine heads are Planet Waves Auto-Trim lockers. These will not necessarily have a vintage appearance but IMHO, these are a great product. I will be using Fender nylon bushings to limit bridge movement. The bridge will be a StayTrem 9.5” radius model and the tremolo arm will also be from StayTrem.

The lead time for the StayTrem items was listed as 26 weeks, at the time the order was placed (mid March), so I may not see these items until late summer or fall. I may end up buying a Mustang bridge as a temporary stopgap.

The body was ordered in mid March, with a projected 16-18 week lead time, so I could see that in late June, or early July. The neck was ordered in late March, with a projected 10 week lead time, so I would expect that sometime in June.

Here’s my pile of parts, including the essential abalone picks.

This is the screenshot of what a one piece alder body is projected to look like, with a Honeyburst finish.

With the lead times involved, this thread may be dormant for a while, but you gotta start somewhere.

Awesome! Looking forward to how this progresses…

Where are you getting the body made? And the neck?

Thanks!

Cool. A bit surprised about Warmoth lead times as I expected them to have bodies and necks in stock. Or is the finishing process that matters most?

I'm copying this post from the original (hijacked) thread. It contains some pertinent information about the pickguard and neck and sets the stage for a follow up question that I will post below.

synchro wrote:

SilverFlash wrote:

synchro wrote:

I ordered a tortoise shell pickguard, along with the body, but I’m open to other ideas. I wouldn’t mind a brown pearl, or possibly a material I found at Pickguard Heaven, called Tiramisu. https://pickguardheaven.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/color-145.jpg

Tortoise shell was my first thought. I must say your "pile of parts" and Honey Burst body fired my imagination. I just visited the Warmoth site and had some fun looking at the various top and pickguard colors. The only other pickguard color that jumped out at me was Red Pearl. It would be neat if Warmoth implemented an interactive feature to overlay the body color with the selected pickguard. That would be a lot of fun.

Since I've asked about the body, I might as well finish the job and ask about your choice of neck. It will probably be quite a while (if ever) before I start a custom build of my own, so in the meantime I will enjoy your ultimate Jaguar build vicariously. It will be great to see your final product.

I will definitely start with the Warmoth tortoise-shell guard. Warmoth does not promise that any other guard fits, beyond those that they sell. I doubt that their guards are any different than any other makers’ but they probably want to avoid getting in a finger-pointing contest with some pickguard maker over a fit issue. That Tiramisu guard appeals to me, so I might order something like that. I’m a really sucker for pearl guards and that looks like a pearl that would be compatible with the Honeyburst finish.

The neck was the most expensive part of the build. The CV Squier I own is a ‘70s style Jaguar, with block inlays and a bound fretboard, and that look has really grown on me. So I ordered a C shaped neck in Birdseye Maple, with an ebony fingerboard, block inlays, and a tinted gloss finish. The idea is to build a Jaguar which is compatible with an overall stock appearance, yet has very nice wood, etc.

-Tim
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SilverFlash wrote:

synchro wrote:

I ordered a C shaped neck in Birdseye Maple, with an ebony fingerboard, block inlays, and a tinted gloss finish.

A couple of follow up questions about the C shaped neck, please. Warmoth uses code names for its Neck Back Profiles. Which did you order? I would assume it was the "Standard Thin".

And second question, which Fretboard Radius are you going with?

I went with the Standard Thin profile. I couldn’t find the page that describes neck profiles (they seem to keep that page well-concealed), so I asked the rep which was closets to the common Fender C shape, and I went on his recommendation. He sent me a link to the page which describes the neck profiles, before I pulled the trigger, and I verified that the Standard Thin profile was to my liking.

I chose the 9.5” profile. Most of my guitars are 9.5” or as flat as 12” radius on some of my archtops. I chose 6150 stainless frets, BTW.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

SilverFlash wrote:

Thank you, synchro! Oh boy, I like the way you think! I look forward to seeing your vision of the perfect Jag come together.

BTW, I also have a Daphne Blue CV ‘70s Squier Jaguar. I like it quite well and desire to make it the best that it can be. I, too, have upgraded it with a Staytrem bridge. My next modification will be to upgrade the Tremolo tailpiece assembly. In keeping with its budget origins, I have ordered a Fender Classic Player Jazzmater/Jaguar Tailpiece Assembly along with the screw in arm. My plan is to replace the arm with a Staytrem if it gives me any problems. (In hindsight, I might wish I had sprung for the more expensive AVRI, but I honestly didn't understand all the differences between the AVRI, the Japanese, and the Player Mexican (made in Korea) versions. But I digress, my point is that what I've experienced with the CV Jaguar would lead me to build something extremely like yours, down to the bound neck and block inlays. With that said, I'd better stop before I highjack this thread.

No worries about a hijack. We’re here to talk about Jaguars.

My Daphne Blue CV Squier was a major inspiration for this build. Before buying it, I wouldn’t have even dreamed about a bound fingerboard or block inlays, but that guitar has really grown on me. I’m just hoping that the custom build turns out to play and sound as good as the Squier.

I’m curious about how that Classic Player tailpiece turns out. From what I’ve been told, even the less expensive tailpieces can work well if you smooth any rough edges of the bent area on the plate with the 45 degree bend. That’s the fulcrum for the trem’.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

chiba wrote:

Definitely following this thread ... I've been thinking about doing a Warmth JM build because ... well, just because Outfitting a guitar from the get-go with exactly what you want from stem to stern is an intriguing project.

Speaking from experience with stuff like this - don't be surprised if your neck needs a little fretwork to be perfect. I know from experience Warmoth will get it done well, but once everything is bolted together, the frets may need some tweaking.

That’s something I’ve wondered about. Even on their site, Warmoth allows for that possibility. In retrospect, I think that buying the Squier Jaguar, and then building from Warmoth parts will prove to be a good move, because I will not feel any time pressure to finish the build. I am rat-holing some inexpensive strings, in anticipation of a lot of tweaking. With auto-trim, locking machine heads, I’ll probably be going through a lot of strings during that process.

While I’ve done a lot of basic setup work: action, intonation, truss rod adjustments, etc. I’m no expert on fretwork. Years ago, I had a number of beginner guitar students, and sometimes I had to do ad hoc repairs to the student model guitars they brought in. Fortunately, my teaching studio was right next to the repair bench, so I walked popped frets back into place, adjusted truss rods, set the action on flattop bridges, and even did some rudimentary fret leveling, but this was primitive in nature.

Over the next few months, I hope to obtain some good tools for fretwork and hopefully refine my skills by shaping and polishing the frets on the CV Squier. The fretwork on that guitar is functional, but it isn’t pretty.

There’s an old joke that Cocaine is God’s way of telling you that you have too much money. I’ll update that joke to state that Stewart McDonald is God’s way of telling you that you don’t have enough money.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Congrats! Looks like it will be a nice and pretty build! I have used unfinished warmoth bodies a few times on both my own and builds for bandmates, and they were always great and basically ready for finishing. I'm sure that the finished body and neck will be great, too. The downside for their jags and jazzmasters is just that you have to use their pickguards since those bodies are different. At least, if you decide on the material from pickguard heaven, it can be cut to match the pickguard that you've already bought. I've built a couple of jags but didn't use warmoth on those specific builds.

Your parts all look great, too!

-Eric

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Really looking forward to see how your build progresses. The nylon bushings for the bridge posts work great. I put a pair in my 70's CV Jag and they really stabilize the bridge but don't completely immobilize it and allow up and down adjustment (I used electrical tape in a VM Jag I used to have and the tape eventually got gunked up in the thimbles and made it hard to adjust). Couple questions: I couldn't tell from the pictures which Fender Jag pickups you are going to use? With regards to the Warmoth neck, what nut width did you choose? Again, looking forward to seeing this project come together for you.

Surfadelphia wrote:

Really looking forward to see how your build progresses. The nylon bushings for the bridge posts work great. I put a pair in my 70's CV Jag and they really stabilize the bridge but don't completely immobilize it and allow up and down adjustment (I used electrical tape in a VM Jag I used to have and the tape eventually got gunked up in the thimbles and made it hard to adjust). Couple questions: I couldn't tell from the pictures which Fender Jag pickups you are going to use? With regards to the Warmoth neck, what nut width did you choose? Again, looking forward to seeing this project come together for you.

I have a set of Pure Vintage 65s, that I bought from Deathtide. I thought I’d try these, although I’ve heard some good things about the Pure Vintage 62s. From what I understand, the AlNiCo II PV 62s are a bit warmer than the AlNiCo V in the PV 65s. Tomāto, tomäto. I’m not sure which I’d like better. I will say that the pickups in the CV ‘70s Jag’ are pretty decent, especially if you take advantage of the strangle switch.

I went with a 1 11/16” nut width. That’s consistent with the rest of my guitars, all of which are 1 11/16”, except my Country Gentleman, which is 1 3/4” and, ironically, my Bass VI, which has a narrow, 1 5/8” width, at the nut.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Surfadelphia wrote:

Thanks for the info. Was pondering possibly upgrading the pickups in my 70's CV Jag at some point but don't want to waste $$$$$ if there isn't going to be a decent upgrade tonally (which of course is very subjective). I agree the stock PU's are not bad and I'll continue to dial them in along with my amp.

It is, as you say, very subjective. I’ve played Jaguars that were bright, to the point of harshness. That is not to my taste. My take on a Squier CV pickups is that the neck pickup is probably a bit warmer than what you would find on an American Original. If you engage the strangle switch on the neck pickup, it lets you know that it’s not a Strat. The bridge pickup seems pretty much what I would expect from a Jaguar, which is to say bright. Without the strangle switch, it’s a fairly bold, and reminds me of a Tele. With the Strangle switch engaged, it gets pretty bright.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

Last edited: Jun 05, 2024 23:43:20