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You know how much we all hate when a vintage guitar is parted and sold in pieces? Well... I traded Mike two of my nice guitars for a bunch of vintage Jaguar parts that he had around and I am going to put it together as a Jaguar. (No he didn't part it up, he collected all the parts but didn't get around to assembling it. It has been in parts since 2017.)

The only parts that will not be vintage are the bridge, the tuners, pickguard, and the strap buttons. (Bridge will be a Staytrem, tuners are updated and aged Klusons, the pickguard is a aged mint Spitfire mint, and the buttons are dual design strap locks that I put on everything I own.)

It is essentially a 64 and 66 Jaguar. The body, neck, vibrato, neck plate, mute, copper plates, and pickups are 64. The control plates and electronics are 66. The body was refinned in "Volkswagen Green" nitro by Will here on OSG. The neck has original finish. It also comes in a vintage case. The plan is to take it and put it back together. LOL Nothing crazy. I might try a red tort guard maybe, but that is done so often I want to give mint a try. Here are pictures.

IMG_20210613_142810 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210613_142819 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210613_142748 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210613_142743 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210613_142754 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210613_142804 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210613_142902 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210613_153806 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210613_142738 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Oh and it is an A neck which should be interesting. My first experience, but to be honest 1.5" isn't that skinny. I was nervous at first, but one of my basses has a 1.5" nut and it doesn't feel too tiny so I am feeling good about it. Also I have always wanted a Sherwood Green guitar so it tics some boxes for me.

Also tribi had said that the difference in short vs long scale isn't that big of a deal in another thread so I wanted to give Jaguars another chance.

I'm very glad to see this project make its way into the hands of a more capable steward. I took a couple of years gathering 3/4 of the parts and then took another couple gathering the last 1/4, and the actual build just never seemed to happen. I'll be very happy to see it finally come together!

And yes, it feels much nicer when vintage parts are made whole instead of going the other way around.

This will be cool to see come together.

My #1 is 61/62 Jazzmaster I put together from parts in 2010 back when ebay had a lot of parted out JMs floating about. Been my main guitar ever since.

That looks like fun!

Excited to see this come together!

The worst part is waiting… but Mike is waiting on two guitars so maybe he has it worse?

That's awesome! Looking forward to see it assembled.

Well, this one's gonna be a win, straight off the bat.

Fore sure. Probably the easiest build I have done in theory. It is just hooking things together and putting strings on.

11’s or 12’s? I was thinking twelves since I use 11’s on Jazzies. Thoughts? I like more tension/less wiggly.

HNB wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 18, 2021 7:41 am

Fore sure. Probably the easiest build I have done in theory. It is just hooking things together and putting strings on.

11’s or 12’s? I was thinking twelves since I use 11’s on Jazzies. Thoughts? I like more tension/less wiggly.

Take one of your JMs, tune it down a half step, capo the first fret.

That's what 11s will feel like on the Jag. If you find it too low tension, 12s will be the way to go.

That's good because ever since Mike got his Firebird all he wants to do is play that and he doesn't care about his Jaguars anymore.

Congrats! I've been waiting out of interest for some time for Mike to put that one together - looking forward to seeing it all put together! FWIW, I go with D'Addario EXL-115 11s on all my guitars, both full scale and short scale and don't notice any difference in tension. I've tried 12s in the past and it's like playing steel cables/barbedwire.

LOL. I have EXL 11's and a set of 12's. I will start with 11's and see how it feels.

The pile of pieces came today! Here is a mock up.

IMG_20210621_173510 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210621_173507 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Got right to work doing the things I can do currently. First I plugged some extra holes on the headstock. Tuners cover them, but whatever. LOL

IMG_20210621_180224 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210621_180701 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Then I got the tremolo with ground wire and thimbles installed.

IMG_20210621_182003 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Then I worked on those dumb little triangles. I had a terrible time with those, but I think they will work ok. I wedged them into the body as best I could and put solder around the corners to hopefully keep them in place. All the plates are at least connected to each other.

IMG_20210621_191422 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210621_191417 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

I sprayed contact cleaner in all the pots and sliders. I tightened the roller pots because they were loose and adjusted the roller wheel because it was dragging on the plate.

IMG_20210621_173342 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210621_173520 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

IMG_20210621_173528 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr

Lastly I took the pickups mostly apart. I need to attach new leads to them and didn't want to do a patch job. New cloth wire is coming in.

IMG_20210621_190223 by Christopher Louck, on Flickr