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Well, my collection of fucked up Mustang control plates keeps growing. I knew the Allparts ones were no good, so I thought I'd try a WD one, but it's equally awful. Why is it so hard to find the correct shaped Mustang plates?

ThePearDream wrote: ↑

Fri May 19, 2023 8:28 am

Well, my collection of fucked up Mustang control plates keeps growing. I knew the Allparts ones were no good, so I thought I'd try a WD one, but it's equally awful. Why is it so hard to find the correct shaped Mustang plates?

So, I'm in the process of refinishing a Classic Vibe Mustang, so this piqued my interest. Can you explain what makes the AllParts and WD plates awful?

GilmourD wrote: ↑

Fri May 19, 2023 9:28 am

ThePearDream wrote: ↑

Fri May 19, 2023 8:28 am

Well, my collection of fucked up Mustang control plates keeps growing. I knew the Allparts ones were no good, so I thought I'd try a WD one, but it's equally awful. Why is it so hard to find the correct shaped Mustang plates?

So, I'm in the process of refinishing a Classic Vibe Mustang, so this piqued my interest. Can you explain what makes the AllParts and WD plates awful?

more details here in an old thread.

On a completely related note, I decided that the Fender brand Jaguar switch plate I bought for my Jaguar (top) was too mishapen to use, and bought a replacement (bottom) on the same order as the Mustang plate. Every corner on the Fender plate is over-rounded, leaving big gaps for finish to show through. The countersinks are off-center too. Glad I caught this now.

Oof. That top one looks like it was shaped by hand using a belt sander!

ThePearDream wrote: ↑

Fri May 19, 2023 11:36 am

On a completely related note, I decided that the Fender brand Jaguar switch plate I bought for my Jaguar (top) was too mishapen to use, and bought a replacement (bottom) on the same order as the Mustang plate. Every corner on the Fender plate is over-rounded, leaving big gaps for finish to show through. The countersinks are off-center too. Glad I caught this now.

WOW! Even my CV Jag plate looks like the proper shape. Are you sure that's a real Fender plate cuz that's bad!

GilmourD wrote: ↑

Fri May 19, 2023 12:45 pm

WOW! Even my CV Jag plate looks like the proper shape. Are you sure that's a real Fender plate cuz that's bad!

It's definitely a real Fender one. Unfortunately, I bought it last year, so it's too late to return. I guess it's my fault for assuming the one in Fender packaging would be high quality.

Control plate or not, I wanted to do a deeper dive with the DiMarzio K10 and plug it into my pedalboard and a clean amp.



Still sounds good, great actually. Definitely higher output than I'm used to, but not crazy high. Figuring that there wasn't much need to cut treble from a humbucker like this one, I wired the tone knob as a bass cut, using a C500K pot. Without changing my amp EQ, the bass knob ranges from slightly boomy, to slightly thin, with a lot of tones in-between. And it sounds great through dirt .

I was considering having my CV Bass VI refinished, but decided not to put that kind of money into a Squier. I'm 100% confident that I can make a better Bass VI body and neck myself, once I get my shop up again. This body has some decent grain anyway, so I don't mind leaving it alone. But, I still wanted to spruce it up a bit, so I decided to go more 70s, with a black guard. The first vintage Fender I ever played was when my buddy in HS bought a 70s Jag with a black guard. This looks a lot like that, sans the warped pickguard.

I also removed the overwound stock bridge pickup, putting the middle pickup there, to get RW/RP neck-bridge combo. Then for a new middle pickup, I put in a G&L S-500 pickup, hidden under the cover from the old bridge pickup.


The S-500 was ~7mm taller than a Jaguar pickup, so I routed the middle pickup cavity by the difference.



I used a stepped drill bit (by hand) to open up the pole piece holes in the old Jag cover. The pole spacing was off by 1-2 mm, but once the holes are open enough to fit the larger poles, it is equally off to the stock pickups, whose pole pieces are also slightly off, so everything looks mostly normal.

The G&L is a neck/bridge model, polarity is South up. I wired a separate ground wire to the G&L's shield plate, in case I needed to swap the coil leads for phase, which I did in fact have to do once it was strung up (with roundwounds). Middle/bridge is also RW/RP.



Just to start, I set the Jag pickups to a normal factory height, then adjusted the G&L down until the volumes matched, which was considerably lower, which puts it out of the way.

First thoughts through my Tweed Princeton: It sounds big and full. If the Jag pickups in a Bass VI are a classic black and white movie, the G&L is in full color HD. They sound good together too, like some old Technicolor movie. Bridge position is much improved too, with the non-overwound pickup.

Ooh, I like that! The pickup looks cool too! Your description makes me wonder what a Jag would sound like with both pickups replaced with 2 of these G&Ls...

Shadoweclipse13 wrote: ↑

Thu May 25, 2023 8:46 pm

Ooh, I like that! The pickup looks cool too! Your description makes me wonder what a Jag would sound like with both pickups replaced with 2 of these G&Ls...

I'd expect it to sound great! In a Jag I'd probably use the rhythm circuit rollers for master bass contour and maybe a series bass contour? I guess I'll be trying out some G&L in a short scale at some point now. Anybody have a spare F100 pickup?

I will say that the strangle switch doesn't put much of a dent in the G&L, and it sounds fuller strangled, than the Jag pickups do, un-strangled. It's tempting to add an actual bass cut knob and use the strangle switch for some kind of series option.

So, this one is all done now, and it is a good one. Better pics later.



The vintage DiMarzio K10 works great in this guitar, no mud here. It's clean tone is good, but definitely not going to be mistaken for a PAF. This is a rock and roll pickup through and through. It's Super Distortion heritage is obvious when you add a dirt pedal, I tried a bunch the other night and it loved them all.

I wired the volume without a treble bleed, so you can turn down slightly for a little bit of high end cut. The bass cut knob is useful across most of its range. I think I'll be using this configuration again in the future for single HB setups.

I'm really happy with my bridge design too. it's comfortable and I like the way it looks. The Gotoh saddles intonate perfect.

I had previously used this Allparts 24" neck on my IBM Jag-Stang, so the fretboard is a little broken in already and easy playing. This guitar is so much fun to play. The only problem with this guitar, is that it's basically the same color as my Jazzmaster, so it can't stay too long. I'll probably list it for a "dreaming" price so I can keep playing it a little longer.

Oh, it weighs 2.9kg (6#6oz).

I'll be calling any of these Swinger based guitars "Saturn" after the Saturn V rocket, which is also a reference to the Bass V ancestry of Swingers. I'm already thinking about what color to do the next one, so I can keep it.



Matching headstock, cause why not?

ThePearDream wrote: ↑

Fri May 26, 2023 10:58 am

Shadoweclipse13 wrote: ↑

Thu May 25, 2023 8:46 pm

Ooh, I like that! The pickup looks cool too! Your description makes me wonder what a Jag would sound like with both pickups replaced with 2 of these G&Ls...

I'd expect it to sound great! In a Jag I'd probably use the rhythm circuit rollers for master bass contour and maybe a series bass contour? I guess I'll be trying out some G&L in a short scale at some point now. Anybody have a spare F100 pickup?

I will say that the strangle switch doesn't put much of a dent in the G&L, and it sounds fuller strangled, than the Jag pickups do, un-strangled. It's tempting to add an actual bass cut knob and use the strangle switch for some kind of series option.

That sounds awesome! After I read that yesterday, I had your description in my head for a bit, and now I'm wondering if I actually want to put a set in my Strazz body, instead of the traditional Strat pickups I've got. I'm less and less interested in traditional Strat pickups, and something modern and hi-fi might be just the thing...

Shadoweclipse13 wrote: ↑

Sun May 28, 2023 10:28 am

That sounds awesome! After I read that yesterday, I had your description in my head for a bit, and now I'm wondering if I actually want to put a set in my Strazz body, instead of the traditional Strat pickups I've got. I'm less and less interested in traditional Strat pickups, and something modern and hi-fi might be just the thing...

I think your Strazz world be a great application for these G&L pickups! By default they are pickguard mounted in a Strat sized hole, which makes it easy to switch to them. You may need to deepen the pickup routing area though.

ThePearDream wrote: ↑

Sun May 28, 2023 1:21 pm

Shadoweclipse13 wrote: ↑

Sun May 28, 2023 10:28 am

That sounds awesome! After I read that yesterday, I had your description in my head for a bit, and now I'm wondering if I actually want to put a set in my Strazz body, instead of the traditional Strat pickups I've got. I'm less and less interested in traditional Strat pickups, and something modern and hi-fi might be just the thing...

I think your Strazz world be a great application for these G&L pickups! By default they are pickguard mounted in a Strat sized hole, which makes it easy to switch to them. You may need to deepen the pickup routing area though.

That's not a huge deal as I fucked up and need to repair the body anywho!