I did my dry fitting today.
I had to do a bit of sanding in the neck pocket to open it up. The Squier neck measures 2-29/128" (or 5/128" more than standard) at the heel, and that's with the poly finish removed.
I need to take down the neck contour just a hair, there was a tiny gap at one corner of the neck plate.
Also, I couldn't quite fit the pickguard on with the top switches installed so I need to decide whether to open up the "rhythm circuit" routing a tiny bit in one corner, or redo the pickguard.
Here's a tracing of the cavity with the switch locations and pickguard outline. I have room to move down, but I feel like I'd also have to move left to keep things aligned the way I want. I may open up the cavity over the middle switch and redo the pickguard.
Lastly, I didn't lubricate the neck screws and broke one. I had a puck of beeswax less than one foot away, but I didn't bother to use it
. Luckily it broke off by the head, and I had opened up the screw holes in the body beforehand. So I was able to pull the neck off without too much trouble and had plenty of screw sticking out of the neck to grab with pliers.
In neck news, the poly finish is completely removed and tru-oil is going on. Getting all the poly off was a huge PITA, but the neck already looks and feels so much better.
Ok, time to talk about pickups. I'm hoping the get some feedback from all you awesome folks reading this.
For reference, I mostly play clean, up to slightly gritty. I like lots of reverb, delay and Vox amps. I'm more of a melody player, than rhythm. The type of stuff I play a lot is Man or Astro-man, Dick Dale, My Bloody Valentine, Sonic Youth, etc. But I already have guitars to hit those sounds, so am open to other sounds as well. Mostly, I just want something versatile that can go from glassy, twangy clean to full out fuzz.
For the record I have a set of AV65s in my Squier Jaguar, so don't want this guitar to sound too much like that one.
My switching plan is to have the bridge coils go to two on/on slide switches to do Jaguar w/ series mod switching to get either coil alone, or together in either parallel or series, then to a toggle for neck/middle/bridge.
For the bridge coils, here's what I know I want:
-Each coil should have a different magnet
-The coils should be wound asymmetrically, that is, at different strengths. From the research I've done, I've been led to believe that traditional humbuckers with asymmetrically wound coils have more clarity, also I think it gives more tonal options than having two coils with the same output.
-RW/RP from each other, to create a true humbucker effect when combined.
What I have questions on are:
Which magnets should I use on the bridge? I'm leaning towards A2 & A5. I do really like A3s though and don't usually like A2s (but I've never played an A2 Jaguar bridge pickup). A2/A3? A3/A5?
Which positions should the magnets be in? I'm thinking A2 for the outside coil and A5 for the inside coil. My thought is that the A2 should go in the brightest position. Any opinions on this?
Which coil should be stronger? I would lean toward one coil being slightly underwound. Would you go for one overwound instead?
For the neck coil, I'm thinking I may do an A3 coil. I've never heard of using A3 on a jaguar, but I have two strats with A3's and they are my favorites. I think the tonal qualities of A3 would help tame some of the excessive brightness that shortscales can have. I'd also be open to something totally off the wall here, even if it's from a different winder than the bridge coils.
As for combining the bridge with the neck, I think I'd be more likely to not use the A5 coil alone as much, since I already have that in my Squier. So I think I should have both of the other coils RW/RP from the A2 coil
As far as who will make the pickups, I am leaning towards using Roadhouse Pickups, I like that they mostly only make oddball pickups. It seems like they are into interesting tones. Their price for a set of 3 Jaguars is $210, which is right in my sweet spot. I do have a set of Rose Mariposa (A3) that sound really nice, so I would consider using them again. I'm not against buying off the shelf pickups, if it gives me the right combinations though.
This could be as simple as just getting a standard Jag neck/bridge pair (with one more neck pu) with whatever magnets I pick. I may be over thinking this, but as a professional designer I'm used to diving deep into the details and analyzing every aspect to death.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.