Seeking opinions for a Warmoth Jag-stang

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stitch
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Seeking opinions for a Warmoth Jag-stang

Post by stitch » Sat Sep 18, 2021 2:23 pm

Been playing my classic player Jaguar HH for years, and I still really want a Jag-stang. I think all the Fenders one simply put are crap and I'd rather build my own. I am eyeing up ordering a body and neck from Warmoth, and want some opinions about how I should spec it.

Body
I'm painting the guitar myself, in an old chevy colour called Ermine white, and I am putting a silver pearl pickguard on it. I am looking at buying locally some vintage Dimarzio dual sound humbuckers, to do an HH setup in this guitar complete with coil tapping and all that fun stuff. I think I want to angle both humbuckers (pickguards are only $33, so if I hate it it's cheap to replace, and universal routing).

Neck
CBS Mustang/Jaguar spec, 24" scale, 22 frets, obviously stuff. I'm thinking flame maple with a black ebony board, mother of pearl dot inlays, wide & tall stainless frets, Gotoh/grover tuner size, a 10-16" fretboard radius with the largest nut available (1-11/16") and with a clear gloss finish over it all.

Now getting my specs aside, I am not sure which bridge I should opt for, a Mustang or a Tune-o-matic bridge. I have an old Adjust-o-matic bridge from my Classic Player Jaguar sitting around, since I converted my Jaguar to a staytrem. I don't know how much vibrato I'm going to use on this guitar, but I'd still like to have it there. With the 10-16" compound radius, 1-11/16th nut, and a TOM being 12" radius from what I understand, what would the best choice be?

Thank you in advance
My guitars
-Classic Player Jaguar HH
-Hagstrom Viking (Reissue)
-Jay Turser MG2
-Squier Bullet Strat HSS

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HarlowTheFish
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Re: Seeking opinions for a Warmoth Jag-stang

Post by HarlowTheFish » Sat Sep 18, 2021 4:28 pm

If you really want that compound radius, you want more like a ~20" radius at the bridge to get everything lined up. I know there's several ToM-type bridges from various brands that'll do around 16", which would work with something like their 9.5"-14" (IIRC that's what it is) compound radius, and Gotoh has one with height-adjustable saddles (though I haven't actually been able to find one for sale myself, for what it's worth).

If you're not gonna use the vibrato much, then you might as well go for a ToM kinda thing, but if you are, then you'd ideally want a roller bridge or floating bridge -- both are pretty limited as far as what radii you can find them in, so I'd settle on a bridge before settling on neck specs. I had to do this for my Mustang build because I wanted the AmPro bridge and that's only available in 9.5", so that's the radius I went with.

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stitch
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Re: Seeking opinions for a Warmoth Jag-stang

Post by stitch » Sat Sep 18, 2021 7:42 pm

If I'm going heavy for vibrato, I'll use my Jaguar which is set up with a Staytrem bridge and is perfect. I just want to have one, I don't care for hardtails. I'd prefer a TOM bridge for this guitar, so it contrasts with my Jaguar. I also am unsure of anyone who makes a Mustang bridge that might work for that, so I'm kinda stuck with a TOM bridge. I could skip the compound radius, but I like low action and I want to reduce fretting out, which is an issue my Jaguar has had.
My guitars
-Classic Player Jaguar HH
-Hagstrom Viking (Reissue)
-Jay Turser MG2
-Squier Bullet Strat HSS

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