Johnny Marr Sig Jaguar

[tdbajus]

Can you tell me if Bare Knuckle is selling the Marr special set?

Because it seems like they don't, and they could cash in selling it..

I think it was mentioned earlier on in the thread that they'll make them if you request them. Shoot them an email and see

Finally had a chance to try one today. A few thoughts:

1) the new, properly radiused bridge is very nice to play. The vintage frets are a bit too low for my tastes, and the neck is maybe a bit too thin for my tastes.

2) the bareknuckle pickups are both the best and the worst things ever. The Series/Neck/Parallel/Bridge switching would be wonderful, except the the neck is not RWRP, so the hum gets twice as loud when you use either series or parallel. Absolutely ruins it. I was under a fluorescent light in the shop, and it was so noisy it actually made it hard to tune. If you order a set of these pickups, make sure they wire the neck properly, because this guitar deserves to not sound like a bag of chainsaws.

3) the two strangle switches on the upper bout are interesting, but I won't be losing sleep over not having them.

[HP Hovercraft]

I discovered that Jaguar mutes do not fit over the bridge posts on a Johnny Marr Jaguar.

[Despot]

Finally pulled the trigger and picked up one of these today in the January sales ... glad that I did too. I saw the post above about the hum - I knew that the pickups are not reverse wound/polarity relative to each other, but I haven't found huge issues with hum on this guitar. In fact compared to my old MIJ Jaguar this is a whole hell of a lot better - the brass shielding in the cavities and proper quality wiring certainly help (over the stock MIJ wiring).

I find the four way switch much better/easier than the old switch system - but I guess coming from Jazzmasters and Gibsons (with a regular toggle switch) this just feels more familiar.

The thing that has surprised me most though is the factory setup (as the store swear they didn't touch it). The neck came with perfect relief - just a little bit bowed past straight. The action was also adjusted to as low as it could go without fret buzz - and the intonation had been set perfectly for the flat wound 11s that came factory fitted! I'm beginning to think that this is something where Fender just have more sense than Gibson - the same store that sold this to me are one of the main suppliers for Gibson here and the Gibsons you try in the store always have the same factory set-up - action far too high, to the point that the guitars feel like they've been set up for lap slide! However in the past year every new Fender or Gretsch that I've played in a store has come perfect or as close to perfect that two minutes with an allen key got it right for my tastes - I remember praising Fender for this last year when I picked up an Electromatic Gretsch - it was damn near perfect out of the box. Same here.

The flat wounds that came with this were also a bit of a shock - I've never played flat wound strings before ... and I kind of like them.

[Despot]

I should point out that I never thought I'd end up buying a signature guitar ... I've always disliked the idea of having some players name on the headstock ... but this one just makes sense. I could have bought a second hand AVRI Jaguar, put a four way switch in place, perhaps replaced the pickups with something more to my taste, replaced the bridge with a mastery ... all to get the guitar playing/sounding how I want. All of which would have drastically increased the price over what I paid for the Marr, which fixed all the 'issues' I usually have with stock jaguars.

The fact that it comes in white on white was just a huge bonus.

[egosheep]

Has anyone taken photos of the pickups to see if they are real-deal Bare Knuckles or some kind of "Bare Knuckles By Fender" thing?

[mrfett]

i haven't seen any but i'm doing a custom pickguard and can take some pics when i open it up if you want. going to be a few weeks though.

[tdbajus]

Has anyone taken photos of the pickups to see if they are real-deal Bare Knuckles or some kind of "Bare Knuckles By Fender" thing?

God, I'd replace one of them in any case- the fact that they aren't hum-cancelling is insanity. Great sounding pickups until you are playing under a fluorescent light (why would a music store have fluorescent light?). I've never played in England- is the power there 50 cycles rather than 60? I've been told by unreliable people that buzz isn't as much of a problem there. Is that true?

But yeah, I'd have to send the bridge pickup to Novak and have him rewind it the same, but RWRP.

[seancomm]

I discovered that Jaguar mutes do not fit over the bridge posts on a Johnny Marr Jaguar.

This saddens me.

[Despot]

Has anyone taken photos of the pickups to see if they are real-deal Bare Knuckles or some kind of "Bare Knuckles By Fender" thing?

They're made by Bare Knuckle, not Fender. As mentioned above Bare Knuckle will sell you an identical set if you ask for them by e-mail, but they're not listed on their site.

[Despot]

Has anyone taken photos of the pickups to see if they are real-deal Bare Knuckles or some kind of "Bare Knuckles By Fender" thing?

God, I'd replace one of them in any case- the fact that they aren't hum-cancelling is insanity. Great sounding pickups until you are playing under a fluorescent light (why would a music store have fluorescent light?). I've never played in England- is the power there 50 cycles rather than 60? I've been told by unreliable people that buzz isn't as much of a problem there. Is that true?

But yeah, I'd have to send the bridge pickup to Novak and have him rewind it the same, but RWRP.

I'm not sure about 50/60 cycle power here (Ireland - same as UK in terms of electrical supply), but I know that the lack of RWRP hasn't caused me any problems or issues here - playing at home or playing in practice spaces (under flourescents strip bulbs). Maybe you're right.

I've only ever had one guitar with hum issues - and it turned out to be a pretty simple grounding issue (and since fixed runs quiet with Lollar JMs fitted). Perhaps there was a ground problem with the guitar you tried?

[mrfett]

Yeah I'm not bothered by excess noise in the parallel position.

[egosheep]

I emailed bare knuckle. They said all the pickups are indeed UK made in their shop. Kind of surprised that Fender isn't hyping this fact more, the fact that it has boutique pickups is really cool. The way it's currently marketed just makes it seem like Bare Knuckle is the name of the Marr pickup(to the less informed).

[Despot]

Well, there coud be another reason...

Fender sell pickups.

Do they really want to give increased exposure to a competitor for after market pickup replacements? The Marrguar will sell itself on the basis of the switching options, fatter neck, colour options and the improved bridge/trem. I reckon they really don't need to do a hard sell on it.

[egosheep]

Anyone given any thought to putting a 5-way switch on their JMJ? To add an out of phase setting?

[egosheep]

Just noticed that the JMJ is not on Musicians Friend anymore.
This old link still works:
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/ ... ric-guitar

But it's not showing up in searches.

Out of production already??