I took the mute off my Jag...And it added years to my life!

[RumorsOFsurF]

I haven't played my Ice Blue AVRI Jag much since I got it, due to a really messed up nut, and setup frustrations.

I bought a Tusq nut on Ebay, and installed it today.  I was pretty nervous, but it was very simple.  Unfortunately, I dinged the fretboard a little on the side.  Nothing big, just a scuff.

Since I had the strings and bridge off, I decided to take the mute off for now.  I've tried and tried to get the bridge posts to stop buzzing on the mute plate, but nothing worked.  I got really frustrated with the whole thing.  I was going to suffer an early death if I kept messing with it, so the mute's going in the case.  I'll tinker with it more later, but I really want to play this thing!  The buzz has totally turned me off, so the guitar has sat around for a month.

I played it for about an hour tonight, and I reaffirmed why I own a Jag. 

The both pickups on setting is the sound.  Also, the trem on this particular guitar is nicer than any of my Jazzmasters.

[sookwinder]

Nolan....  buzzing of mute on bridge can be a function of a couple of things.

1.  was the bridge too low    ...  and by default is there enough shim in the neck to account for raising the bridge.

2.  were the two screws that hold the mute in place screwed down far enough....  all my muts are quite stiff  (ie they click back and forth but dio not rattle at all).  I do not have any occurance of the bridge rattling with the mute. 

You should be able to click the mute back and forth without the bridge fitted and it should stay in each position and take a little bit of force to move it back to the other position

[RumorsOFsurF]

When I received the guitar, it had like 5 shims in the neck pocket! 

The person who owned it before Blacktiger had also filed the nut slots out, and any open note sounded horrible.  The trussrod nut was cranked way down, as well, so the neck had a nice back bow. To compensate for all of that, the bridge was extremely high, and the action was like a lap steel.  :-\

I took all the shims out, and replaced them with one that was slightly thicker than a factory one+ 1 factory shim.  I set the bridge up pretty well (high), and adjusted the mute, per Doug's instructions.  I still couldn't get the mute plate to stop vibrating against the bridge posts.

[sookwinder]

Nolan, when you say vibrate do you mean:

1. the bridge is actually touching the mute and so vibration occurs between them      or
2.  The mute is not touching the bridge in any way  (not the legs , not the channel) but it vibrates in sympathy .


If it is (1) then there is something wrong...  the mute should not touch the bridge at any point....  you may need to screw the mute screws down even further or there is some missalignment somewhere

if it is (2) then again you may need to screw the mute screws down even further

[RumorsOFsurF]

I'm pretty sure it's #1.  I can't screw the mute down anymore, or it won't toggle.  The bridge is pretty high, too.  It's almost as if the bridge moves up against it when it rocks with the tremolo, and then it stays there.  I can get it to stop vibrating, but it starts again as soon as I use the trem.

[sookwinder]

I did have a dodgy  mute for the long neck jag I built  ....  I needed to file out the hole for one of the bridge legs... maybe your mute is similar...

I bought a replacement from GPR and it fitted perfectly and never touched or rattled.

[RumorsOFsurF]

I put the mute back on tonight.  I had to use my dremel to enlarge the bridge post holes in the mute ever so slightly.  That cured the buzzing problem.