New Lefty Jaguar Project

[BrendanP]

I just bought a "loaded" lefty Jaguar body on Ebay.    Not as "loaded" as I would like, but I already have a Mustang bridge and have lined up a lefty trem arm. I will be ordering a neck soon, so here's my question: Can someone with a CIJ Jaguar check with width of their fretboard at the widest point on the heel?  It may seem like a silly question, but I've had a lot of experience with MIJ/CIJ strats and found that many of those leave the factory with something other than 2 3/16" wide at the heel. I know that seems odd.  Even though they all fit their original bodies perfectly, I found this issue when swapping necks between guitars. I actually have a '57 MIJ RI neck here that's a full 2 1/4" at the heel. I know I can wait until the body arrives and measure, but that's 10 days away.  No, I'm not going to order before getting it, just wondering if that's going to be an issue.  If it's wider than 2 3/16", I'll go with USACG since they will alter the heel width if necessary. If not, I'll go with Warmoth since the D/A truss rod is appealing. ( this after buying a thick neck with a vintage truss rod that refused to give any relief at all)

I'm stoked! This will be my first short scale.  I'm not a big fan of thin necks and may go with a boat profile. It's definitely getting neck binding which I've never seen on a lefty. I was a wee bit concerned that the tighter fret spacing might feel a little cramped for me, but was relieved to see "big folks" here navigating Jag fretboards just fine. Still, I thought I would make it a little more comfy by going with a straight 9.5" radius and 1 11/16" width at the nut. Some Jags came with a wider neck option, yes?  Anyone play one?  If I go Warmoth, they are cutting the nut. Corian fine, or would I be better off with graphite? Will stock string tees cause trem issues, or should I pony up for some staggered Klusons?

Here she is.  I'll post as this mutt progresses:

[davidgoerndt]

I'm building a lefty jag, where did you get a left tremolo?

[BrendanP]

I'm building a lefty jag, where did you get a left tremolo?

It came with the body.  I was going to make a JM last year and tried to get a lefty tremolo from Ishibashi since they sell Fender Japan parts. They tried, but Fender Japan told them that part was not available for individual sale. The vintage US lefties used a RH tremolo. I built a lefty guitar a few years ago that used the RH tremolo and it worked great.

What are you going to do for the chrome switch / knob pieces? 

[mraphro]

It's definitely getting neck binding which I've never seen on a lefty.

  i think you have.... 

looks good to me 

[BrendanP]

It's definitely getting neck binding which I've never seen on a lefty.

  i think you have.... 

looks good to me 

Damn, how did I miss that!  I saw them live, but after that guitar was retired.

I should be ordering the neck as soon as the body arrives on the 1st.  I unloaded 2 guitars to put this Jag together and having nothing with a trem at the moment.  It's killing me.

[davidgoerndt]

I'm building a lefty jag, where did you get a left tremolo?

It came with the body.   I was going to make a JM last year and tried to get a lefty tremolo from Ishibashi since they sell Fender Japan parts. They tried, but Fender Japan told them that part was not available for individual sale. The vintage US lefties used a RH tremolo. I built a lefty guitar a few years ago that used the RH tremolo and it worked great.

What are you going to do for the chrome switch / knob pieces? 

I'm thinking of doing  laser cut stainless steel, then polish. The parts are the same as a righty but reversed.

[BrendanP]

I ordered my neck today.  I was leaning toward Warmoth due to their pricing on binding.  When I found out that they didn't offer binding for the 24" scale necks, I sent an email to Ken Warmoth to see if he would bend the rules. (suggested elsewhere on this forum). He sent me a response that explained that the demand for the 24" scale necks is very low and they just haven't sunk the time and expense into tooling for it.  I'm hoping they'll do that someday, but I guess that won't happen until Fender produces a short scale guitar that's a hot seller. USACG offers binding, but at $175 ( they can do it, but they're not set up for it, hence the $$$), I decided to shelve the binding option and go with SS frets. Since USACG made the "holy grail" of strat necks for me, I decided to go that route.

After talking to Tommy at USACG, it sounded like their volume of "shagwire" necks was fairly low too.  I believe  this was the first lefty request they've had for this type of neck. They only had a thin C profile programmed for it, but as always, Tommy found a way to make it work for me. It was so cool that I'm sitting on the phone trying to recall all the neck profiles I've ordered from them and he's got my orders on the screen telling me the exact neck specs I've bought. It looks like I'm getting my fat soft V  profile after all. Dark rosewood, SS6105 frets, 9.5" radius and a big headstock.  Now I have to sift through some headstock pics to determine the right shape. Does this look right?  I printed this out and it is the EXACT dimensions of a Jazzmaster neck template I own. The template builder did a crappy job on the body accuracy, so I was never sure how accurate the headstock was.  Did the JM and Jag share a headstock shape? I thought they were a little different.

[CROSS_guitars]

The jaguar and jazzmaster are very different to each other.
That pic looks like the jaguar design.

Just out of interest, where did your template come  from?

[BrendanP]

The jaguar and jazzmaster are very different to each other.
That pic looks like the jaguar design.

Just out of interest, where did your template come  from?

Guitarbuildingtemplates.com

When I finally got around to using it, the neck pocket route was completely off.  The image above came from a file I found while Googling "Jaguar blueprint".

[CROSS_guitars]

Ok. I had a feeling it was from guitarbuildingtemplates.

When you made the body, apart from the neck pocket, were there any other issues with the design?

I'm about to build my project from this template, so, it would be great to know?

[BrendanP]

Ok. I had a feeling it was from guitarbuildingtemplates.

When you made the body, apart from the neck pocket, were there any other issues with the design?

I'm about to build my project from this template, so, it would be great to know?

When I found the problem with the neck pocket, I set it aside and did some research on other forums. IIRC, someone on shortscale.org build a body with this template and found it was off on the pickup and control routes. There were also numerous complaints about their other templates as well.

[CROSS_guitars]

I emailed the guitartemplate guy a few months ago, because I needed to know what pickguard would fit it. He said the US one will fit.
Now I'm not so sure.

[danbind]

This thread just kind of ended. Did you ever finish the guitar? I am considering starting a lefty project myself.

[BrendanP]

This thread just kind of ended. Did you ever finish the guitar? I am considering starting a lefty project myself.

Sorry for the late response, I've been away for a while. I did finish it and it's a keeper. I installed the Fender AV pickups. USACG did an awesome job on the neck. It's a fat boat profile and for me that really works well with the shorter scale. Did you get started on a lefty?

[Diaga]

Any pics?

This site is definately lefty deficient.

Still got about 3 weeks until mind arrives!