I also have to admit to absolutely loving the skinny, glossy necks fitted to my various Squier Classic Vibes so naturally, I got in a Squire CV 60’s Jazzmaster to try it out:
Body shape perfect, snuggles into me nicely and super comfortable sitting down- Leo had that bang on. Everything else, I hated, the plinking overtones (even with the trem stop), the ludicrous wiggling bridge, the awful vibrato/gearshift, the woeful string break angle , the shrill trebly twangy pickups, the laughable rhythm circuit etc. The neck and the body, I love.
So, I thought, what if Leo had gone to talk to a young Joe Pass (or certainly the pre Synanon version with hair). I reckon what he would have come away with:
- Single neck pickup, preferably warm and bassy like an ES-150 “Charlie Christian"
- No tremolo
- Simple controls, no need for the silly bass cut, we use the volume when comping
- Super comfy to play sitting down - he even got a patent for this did, Leo
So, I’m going for that imaginary spec with this hard tail:
Some height adjustable saddles like the originals but sans threads and in brass for extra mojo… Bridge post taped up and height adjuster on lowest with thread locker.
A P90 from Mojo (UK)
First is unscrewing everything…
Man, its ugly in here.
Bit of filling/cleaning up followed by the obligatory shielding foil tape-note all the debris under the foil, would it have killed them to blow out the wood detritus before smearing on the graphite paint? That said it was deeply satisfying to do the “foiling”.
The pickguard is a custom order from Brian Pilans UK eBay store and the screening shield is a stock Fender item but needed adjusting.
A neat soldering job for a change...used a stock 250K/0.047pF combo to keep everything mellow and treble free.
And Ta Da, we ‘re done!!
So, first thoughts, running stock D’Addario 11s with a wound g and through my ancient Polytone Mini Brute, this hits the sweet spot. Covers all my usual bases from hard bop swinging lines to cocktail bar solo chord melody with a simple twist of the volume knob. I do like this Mojo P90, very reminiscent of the P90 on my first ES-175, a 50’s model with a single pickup as favoured by Barney Kessel, lovely note separation on shell voicings and a nice tenor sax growl on solo lines. That said there's still a bit of “plinkiness” compared to my Offset Tele.
I’ll futz around with strings, having recently tried Thomastik 10 flat wounds in lieu of the D’Addario Chromes which I find too high tension and dull. Noise wise, I use P90s a lot and it’s there, but doesn’t bug me and I carry a Boss noise gate if things get ugly. That said, Mojo and a few others make Jazzmaster sized Humbuckers so they’re on the cards for further experimentation. If its a keeper, then I'll change that lurid cream cover and black knobs for some parchment items.
I have this Offset Tele in progress as a similar take on the same idea:
It’ll be interesting to compare these after I’ve tried this compact type Roswell Charlie Christian pickup on the Offset Tele,
It is actually just a glorified P90 as well and only bears a cosmetic resemblance to the real deal:http://www.ccpickups.co.uk/pickups.html# which sported two horizontal 4-inch steel magnets with three suspension screws for attachment. That said it’s got 38AWG winding wire, an Alnico 3 magnet and a civilised 3.2K output, perfect for no nasty pre amp overdrive…
Now I’m reminded of a thread on “modding” that was recently put up another forum: So my thoughts on why we “mod”: Well, take this beastie: I play jazz mostly, I play it sitting down and I find my expensive huge hollow bodies uncomfortable these days. Tried Teles : thinner but dig into my ribs sitting down, feeble intonation set up etc.
So, by taking an inexpensive stock guitar for a canvas, and a small amount of effort, I’ve got something that suits me while trying out some ideas. Something I cannot easily buy without spending custom shop money and finding out it doesn’t work for me. It’s all about finding our own voice, sometimes the £4k FendSon Flametop NOS Reliced Ukulele does it first time.
For others like me, we need something that’s not off the shelf. YMMV. I’ll live with this and if I like it fine, if not, into the workshop, add the matching bridge PU and it’ll get the Elvis Costello treatment, for £325 it’ll be a bit of fun and something interesting to bring to covers gigs, I know folk who spend that on pickups for their latest custom built £5K Eggle…
I have some other ideas, maybe a mahogany or walnut Thinline Tele with front/back contours ( and one of my many CV 60's necks..) and bit more flexibility for my session/Cornell Dupree moments? That said, next up is the Offset Tele again with a single PU, I’m looking forward to this journey of exploration…
BTW, used it a local jazz jam last night and one the of crusty (non-playing) punters scoffed,
“That’s not a proper jazz guitar”
I replied
“Cool, I’m not a proper jazz guitarist…”
