Time for a ProgRep.
In late August, in preparation for a vacation, I took the War-Jag’ to a local luthier and had him rout the pickguard for conventional Jaguar pickups. He’s a busy man, and he was up front that it would take a while, but he did a great job. I got it back in November and set about remounting the pickups. The wells for the humbucking pickup height adjustment screws are right where the Jaguar single coil mounting screws need to engage with some wood. The only answer would be to plug these wells, using dowels, so that is exactly what I did. Time out for lessons learned …
This would have been a hell of a lot easier had I done this before I wired the guitar. I decided to try the compromise of the Strat style mounting which Warmoth’s pickguard was routed for, and at least in my case, this was wasted error. There’s nothing wrong with using Strat style mounting, but if that is the direction you choose, just get some Strat pickups and go all in. I got in a hurry, and ended up duplicating a lot of efforts. Conclusion of this lesson learned.
I bought some dowels of the right diameter at a nearby Ace Hardware, and found some slow-setting epoxy at the same place. Thanks to Iceratz for helping me to find the right epoxy. The dowels had to be cut to length, so I had to buy a razor saw and a small miter box. Once I had these cut to size, I came up with an elaborate mask to reduce the chance of dripping epoxy on my precious HoneyBurst finish. Thusly prepared, the epoxying process was pretty easy, although I had to use a screwdriver to insure the the dowels were completely seated.
10-12 hours later, when the epoxy was completely cured, I installed the pickguard and used a pin vise and a 1/16th bit to drill pilot holes. Once the pickups were mounted, I was able to balance the output between to two pickups easily,once I had the proper mounts. There was a wiring problem, but Winfield Thomas graciously lent a hand, and got the wiring under control.
So, at this point, the WarJag’ is playable, and even sounds like a Jaguar. I’m still adjusting the guitar, and adjusting to the guitar. Last night, I got the neck adjusted perfectly and it’s a very nice playing guitar, although there are some minor fret problems yet to be addressed.
The sound is much what I would expect of a vintage Jaguar. The AlNiCo 2 Pure Vintage ‘62 pickups are great sounding. I am surprised by how much difference there is between the sound of the bridge and neck pickups. The bridge pickup is very bright, but the sound is not the piercing icepick sound I wish to avoid. The neck pickup is much warmer, and is a perfect counterbalance to the bridge pickup. The bottom end remains clear and never gets muddy. Perhaps it’s because of the one-piece body, but the sustain is excellent.
Strangely, the strangle switch doesn’t have much effect, but it has some effect, and the cap’ value is correct, so I’m at a loss regarding this. It’s a simple, simple circuit and there’s very little that can possibly go wrong. In any event, I can live with it.
I don’t believe that I have any one guitar which is head and shoulders better than every other guitar I own. My Guild is the best at being a carved top hollow body, my Country Gent is the best at creating a Chet Atkins guitar, and my Tele is best at being a Tele.
I now have two Jaguars, a Squier CV and this Warmoth build. Both are excellent guitars. The Squier seems to have more body to the sound, perhaps the pickups have greater inductance. On the bridge pickup, the Squier sounds almost like a Telecaster; it’s an excellent Country guitar, as well as great for Surf. The Warmoth is brighter, and a bit thinner sounding. It’s a classic Surf guitar, and has an excellent middle of the road sound for Blues or Soft Rock. I haven’t cranked it through overdrive, as of yet, but I expect that it can get pretty rowdy if it wants to. Beyond that, it has as beautiful of a finish as any guitar I’ve ever seen.
Was it worth it? That’s the biggest question, and the most difficult to answer. Let me start by saying that Warmoth held up its end. The Strat pickup mounting should have been no surprise, and I should have asked more questions. According to Warmoth they use a Strat style pickup mount, because they have seen Jaguar pickups which vary in size, and they chose to simply rout their pickguards for Strat mounts. I can see why they chose as they did, but it’s not my favored solution. If I had it to do over again, I would have gotten a different pickguard, perhaps a Fender OEM guard, and made it work. Had I addressed converting the guitar to Jaguar style pickup mounting in the first place, I would have been better off.
That having been said, while there are still some details to resolve, the guitar seems to be well on the way to being an excellent Jaguar. The quality of both the neck and body are excellent, and Warmoth’s finish work is as good as any I’ve ever seen. While the resale value of this instrument is probably quite low, I don’t buy guitars with resale value in mind. My sunk costs are roughly the price of a new U.S. made Jaguar, but the quality, at least IMHO, exceeds Fender’s Custom Shop. I’ve had a CS offset before, and there’s no contest between that guitar and this Warmoth.The Warmoth wins, hands down.
It’s not perfect; the block inlays are larger than Fender’s would have been, and the Grover machine heads are a bit crowded, but these are not important to me, and besides that, I’m not trying to pass this off as being true to any vintage specification.
So I’d say it was worth it, but for anyone seeking to build a Warmoth guitar, I would advise them to ask a lot of questions before breaking out the old Visa card, and to take your time. Virtually every poor decision I made was related to my impatience towards getting this thang finished, but in the end, the wait was worth it.
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The artist formerly known as: Synchro
When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.
Last edited: Jun 06, 2024 12:44:24
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