Show your Squier VM Jazzmaster / Jaguar mods!

[Sinuata]

As the release of the new Squier offsets is expected this summer, the old VM models probably won't be getting much attention any more. So let's see your modded VM offsets before they're forgotten!
Here's my VM Jazzmaster:




I had kind of a "surf" theme in mind with this one. I don't actually play surf music per se, but I felt like I needed some unifying theme in mind, since I knew this was going to end up being a bit "busy", and busy guitars with lots of switches & chrome have a certain presence in the surf guitar world.

documentation of the mods:
Hardware / etc:
- sanded most of the glossy finish off the fretboard & back of neck. I don't mind the glossy headstock, but the fretboard is so glossy it's ridiculous. I left a little around the frets but it would be easy to do a clean job -- the glossy layer is super-thin and you barely need to touch it with some wet sandpaper to rub it off.
- cut the pickguard around the bridge so that it can be removed without unscrewing the bridge assembly. It's a bit ugly but not too noticable, and having to take out and later re-set the long screw that sets the bridge break angle every time you want to take off the pickguard is also ridiculous.
- added a Bigsby B5. The stock bridge works great with the Bigsby; because you can adjust the angle of the bridge, you can set it so that the strings go right through the holes in the bridge without touching the sides (as long as your Bigsby is centred properly). It also allows you to still string it up as a fixed-bridge guitar if you want. As you can see, I have the 5 high strings strung up to the Bigsby but the low E string is anchored at the bridge. I'm really liking it this way. I may however swap the Bigsby for a GFS vintage-style vibrato if/when I decide I want the Bigsby for another guitar -- I think the GFS's look is more suitable for this guitar.
- swapped strap pins for Schaller strap locks

pickups:
- added an SD P-Rails pickup to the centre position. Going with the "surf" theme, when I think of "surf" pickups I think Jazzmaster, Mosrite and Strat/Jag single coil. Okay, a rail pickup isn't a strat pickup, and a P90 isn't a Mosrite, but they're in the ballpark. I wanted hum cancelling between the neck & rail and between the bridge & P90, and it turns out that the "neck" P-rails is wound correctly for that purpose. Ideally I would have preferred a hotter wind, but it works pretty well. I was pleasantly surprised with the stock "Duncan Designed" pickups, so they stay.
- added individual pickup switches. I can select/deselect any pickups in parallel or series or a combination. This also is pretty awesome and not as cumbersome as it looks, although it is inelegant.

other electronics:
- rewired the original pickup toggle as a killswitch.
- pulled out the stacked pots & replaced them with regular pots. I actually didn't mind the stacked pots (they work better than the stacked pots in my Danelectro) but with the third pickup there was no obvious use for them and I generally prefer a master tone/volume setup anyway. Hey, it was time to simplify something! I had witch hats on them for a while, but I decided chrome barrels looked better.
- Added a 3-way switch to bypass the volume or tone control. In the centre position, the controls work normally; in the "neck" position, the tone control is bypassed; in the "bridge" position the volume control is bypassed. The reason for this is that combining pickups in series gets really loud, and really dark, while some of the parallel sounds are quite bright but much quieter. If I roll both controls down, flipping between the two side positions is like flipping between a volume boost/treble cut and a volume cut/treble boost; it's almost like preset vol/tone settings for parallel/series playing.
- in conjunction with this, I changed the volume/tone electronics a bit. The maximum brightness has to be pretty bright, so the pots are 1-meg. I need to keep treble when I roll down the volume, so the volume control gets a treble bleed -- I experimented and chose a 390pF condensor for this, which actually brightens the sound slightly as the volume is rolled down -- perfect. I also wanted a slight but noticeable volume boost when the volume is bypassed and a slight but noticeable treble boost when the tone is bypassed, even when both are at 10. I wired a 68kOhm resistor to the volume pot & a 470pF condensor to the treble pot, which seems to produce the desired effect. Yes, of course electrically it's a passive circuit and the "boost" isn't really a boost; it's just bypassing a cut... But psychologically, it's a boost.

Wow, I just kept typing -- sorry about that. I just finished the vol/tone wiring last night so I'm still on a modder's high.

[gremlin03]

really like the bigsby that just looks class, but that strat jack is just blurgh. Worst Idea squier ever had.

[Ceylon]

That one was just, hands down, fantastic! I love it!

[danbind]

That is nice!

[triviani]

Now that's a rad design,

that's the kind of thing fender should be looking for, not these new pawn shop series!

[Sinuata]

Thanks for the compliments!
Yeah, I don't like the look of the Strat jack very much either -- if I could think of a good way to plug / cover the hole, I'd get rid of it and move the output to the normal JM location.
Any other VM mods out there?

[sjperry54]

Great! You answered one of the questions I had on my mind. I've been wondering if a Bigsby would work on mine. I'm trying to decide whether I want it to have tremolo or be a hardtail with a string through half Tele bridge. Still not sure which way I'll go but at least I know that the Bigsby will work. One question though, Why have the low E strung through the bridge and not the Bigsby?

[The Dead Ranch Hands]

[The Dead Ranch Hands]

Thanks for the compliments!
Yeah, I don't like the look of the Strat jack very much either -- if I could think of a good way to plug / cover the hole, I'd get rid of it and move the output to the normal JM location.
Any other VM mods out there?

I plugged the hole with several layers of wood filler. Had to repaint, of course.

Another idea is one of these:

http://www.guitarkitsusa.com/m7/2607530 ... supro.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Just the right size to cover the hole. Kind of cool looking.

[Sinuata]

That looks great, DRH. I saw the thread about the paint job, but I didn't even notice it was a Squier.
I'm not willing to repaint (not this year, anyway), but maybe I'll fill the hole & cover the fill mark with a sticker or something. The switch plate is cool, but I think it would look just as weird as the strat jack in that location.


sjperry54, putting the low E through the bridge is just something I'm playing with now that I can do it. I like being able to use the Bigsby to bend everything except the bass note. It's a cool effect, and really good for unaccompanied playing. I think I'm going to put the A through the bridge, too.

[The Dead Ranch Hands]

That looks great, DRH. I saw the thread about the paint job, but I didn't even notice it was a Squier.
I'm not willing to repaint (not this year, anyway), but maybe I'll fill the hole & cover the fill mark with a sticker or something. The switch plate is cool, but I think it would look just as weird as the strat jack in that location.


sjperry54, putting the low E through the bridge is just something I'm playing with now that I can do it. I like being able to use the Bigsby to bend everything except the bass note. It's a cool effect, and really good for unaccompanied playing. I think I'm going to put the A through the bridge, too.

Probably a sticker would be the most subtle way of covering it, short of filling and painting. I'd go that rout, I guess.

Anyway, nice job on your JM. Interesting idea about the Bigsby only on certain strings.

[fullerplast]

Sinuata - Yours is similar to mine:



I flipped the stupid Strat jack cup upside down:

[fullerplast]

Here's another one:

[sjperry54]

Here's the only mod I've done to mine..... so far. I hated the concentric pots so I replaced them with a couple of 250Ks. It will eventually get a Novak Tele bridge pickup in a JM form, Tele string through half bridge with brass saddles, and a refin.

[The Dead Ranch Hands]

Before the refin: