With all the Squire offset talk around here lately I thought I would share this and my experience. I had a Squire VM Jag a few years ago but sold it to help fund my beloved Hallmark 65 Custom but I recently found myself gassing for another Jag, so I pulled the trigger on a new Squire 70's CV Jaguar in black w/ red tort guard. I ordered the CV Jag as sort of a "project" being well aware of it's warts, flaws, etc and expecting to have to put some work into it to get it "right". Let's face it, it's a Jag made to a low price point.
So here's the good:
It's a looker, the black w/ red tort guard is stunning.
The new Mustang style bridge works very well.
The trem arm stays put.
The fret board block inlays are done better/cleaner than guitars costing 2x as much. The neck binding is pretty decent also.
The finish on the back of the neck is very smooth and the poly is relatively thin and not sticky. The tint isn't overdone either.
It has a real bone nut.
The neck angle actually provided enough string break over the bridge that it did not need a shim (which was a pleasant and welcome surprise) and the E strings cleared the trem screws.
The not so good:
It came with 9-42 strings (which is totally rediculous for a 24" scale Jag) and of course the nut was barely cut for 9's (slots were way too high anyway).
The frets were really gritty feeling and the fret ends were a bit sharp (I have seen worst though).
The pickups could not be raised to the proper height (the height adjustment screws went up but the pickups stayed down).
The stunning black finish is poorly rendered. If you look at it in the right light you can see sanding marks which are under the clearcoat and can't be buffed out. It would seem that the folks over in Indonesia applied the clear coat without adequately sanding / buffing the black finish. However, in all honesty I noticed it because I obsess on such things and unless you look in the right light it's not really noticeable and not enough to return the guitar.
So off to the Luthier for some fret and nut work, a set of pure nickel wound 11-48 strings and the pickup adjustment issue sorted. The hero of this story is Kevin Coyle at Coyle's Richboro Music who did a magnificent job sorting the Jag out (it's always a good sign when the tech sees a Jag and says "I love these guitars, this will set up great" and he wasn't lying. I got the guitar back and the nut was cut perfectly for 11's (and nicely finished/polished), after a level, crown, polish and perfectly smooth rounded hot dog ends, the frets are perfect. A pair of nylon thimble sleeves (like on the Fender Am Pro Jags and Stay Trem bridges) were installed to help stabilize the bridge (they really help). The pickup height adjustment issue was solved by removing the adjustment foam and putting in springs (works great now).
The guitar really plays great with low buzz and rattle free action. The "Indian Laurel" fretboard (which was extremely dry and had a gray palor out of the box)darkened to a nice chocolate brown with oiling and feels nice and smooth. What I learned about "Laurel" is it has more in common with Ebony than Rosewood as it is a harder, smoother and less naturally oily wood than Rosewood. The stock pu's are not bad (still dialing them in) and the trem actually is better than expected (a little stiff but surprisingly not clicky unless you push it it a little too far). So, all in all I am very happy with the Squire 70's CVC Jag. I did one mod/upgrade since getting it back from the shop. The stock tuners weren't terrible but they were a bit sloppy and just felt "cheap" so I installed a set of Gotoh Kluson style tuners which are much smoother and substantial than the stock pegs. Now come the pictures.

Last edited: May 01, 2023 19:00:26

It looks very nice.
I really like the bound neck.

Nice guitar, and it sounds like you’ve made some nice improvements. The nylon bushings for the bridge strike me as one the best ideas Fender ever had. These CV Squiers are an amazing bargain.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

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

You bought off-brand nylon?! That’ll, like, ruin your tone, dood!

I’ve wondered about those, but I had already pulled the trigger on the FMIC ones, so it was too late for me to save some buckaroos. IMO, this solves a lot of problems. The MIJ ‘66 Jaguar RI I used to have let me down on a gig, when then bridge tipped. I wasn’t even dive-bombing the whammy, the bridge just tipped over in the middle of a song. It was a trio gig, so I couldn’t hide behind any other guitar player, and just had to tough it out.

I was watching the bridge on my CV, earlier tonight, and with the way I use the trem’, the bridge didn’t rock a bit. I use the trem fairly subtly, so that might not be the case for most folks.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

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

The nylon bushings only takes about 80% of the space/play to still allow the bridge to rock a small range, all within the Tremolo arm range.
The bushings totally prevents the dreaded full bridge tilt from happening. I have the combined AM Pro bridge and nylon bushings on my MIM Jaguar and it's perfect.

BTW,using quality electrical tape wrapped around the bridge posts does a great job...I have done this on my 2 Squires.
You can adjust the tape wraps to get either a tight fit or slightly more play. I use a caliper to measure each post wrap to get them equal.

Last edited: May 03, 2023 06:07:52

synchro wrote:

Samurai wrote:

synchro wrote:

You bought off-brand nylon?! That’ll, like, ruin your tone, dood!

I’ve wondered about those, but I had already pulled the trigger on the FMIC ones, so it was too late for me to save some buckaroos. IMO, this solves a lot of problems. The MIJ ‘66 Jaguar RI I used to have let me down on a gig, when then bridge tipped. I wasn’t even dive-bombing the whammy, the bridge just tipped over in the middle of a song. It was a trio gig, so I couldn’t hide behind any other guitar player, and just had to tough it out.

I was watching the bridge on my CV, earlier tonight, and with the way I use the trem’, the bridge didn’t rock a bit. I use the trem fairly subtly, so that might not be the case for most folks.

With 12-52 it is not really moving on my Squire, just slight pleasant rocking movement. It’s a rocking bridge after all! Really see no need in bushings.

The problem is if the bridge actually tips, and doesn’t recover. I’ve experienced this myself, on another Jaguar. As I see it the problem isn’t that it rocks; it’s supposed to do that, but if it tips, and the bridge posts actually are in contact with the thimbles, then you have a bit of a problem.

As Iceratz points out, above, the bushing don’t prevent rocking, but limit it slightly.

I think it depends on strings, setup and arm usage. I never had this problem.

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