Guitar Nerds Anonymous

Yeah I've been searching for "non working" bargains that I might be able to fix up. Nothing just yet.

Had a very detailed and prolonged dream last night involving a JTM45. I need to get out more.

Just ordered an old DOD Classic Fuzz. Dunno why. It was cheap.

How many glasses of wine have you had? 😉

Haha! None. I’m sick as it happens. Got some weird dizzy, wobbly shaky virus thing going on. Spent all day lying on the sofa, sweating, watching the TdF and browsing guitar bits.

Speaking of amps, has anyone tried a Boss Katana? They're the talk of the town on Guitarist Ireland FB page?

Chap in my last band had one. To the extent that he knew how to use it (debatable), it was loud, cheap, and didn’t sound too bad.

Can’t speak much for the onboard effects, as he never really got to grips with them. Should expect them to be half-decent though, given it’s Boss.

Still waiting on my Tele body. Hopefully I'll get it mid-August. So far I'm planning on Suhr Woodshed pickups and a black pick guard. I'll bolt it together and a friend of a friend will set it up and sort the nut. Might stain the neck and get a couple of coats of tru oil on it this weekend before I go away.

Got the Classic Fuzz. It's fun. Sorta Big Muffy. Loads of low end. Got some fun sludgy stoner doom type sounds going on and when stacked with the Klone and Rat adding moar gain and loads of mid, got some nice chewy infinite sustain Sunn0)))))) vibes happening. Not bad for £50 posted.

Have a mate’s 90s Japanese Jag needing a set up. Anyone got any tips for dealing with the weird floating bridge?

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Buy a Staytrem immediately...

They look good together...

I recently set up a Mustang, which is similar. I have to say, I subscribe to Kurt Cobain’s opinion of whoever designed them.

What's the deal with the bridge? I watched Adrian ACPG's staytrem installation video, which is fine... but i'm still hazy about how that fixes the fundamental wobbliness of the bridge design. How can you set intonation when the whole bridge moves back and forth a good couple of CMs? Do you just balance it somewhere and hope it won't move?

And what does that little chrome sliding button thingy behind the bridge do? Nothing as far as I can tell.

As far as I can tell it's to do with modern bridges being made out of cheese... They just don't stay put, I went through a Mustang and a Jag bridge and they both moved after a few days... The Staytrem has been flawless...

The sliding button is supposed to be a tremolo lock, I can't detect any difference when it's engaged either...

How can you set intonation when the whole bridge moves back and forth a good couple of CMs? Do you just balance it somewhere and hope it won't move?

This is one of the things that I love about the Jag. The bridge isn't designed to remain static, it's designed to move. It's one of the things that gives it that beautiful tremolo.

However it IS meant to have an ideal midpoint between the two polars (bridge all the way forward, bridge all the way back) and that'd be where you'd set the intonation. It'd also be where (if your trem lock is set up properly) the trem lock would hold the bridge in place.

I've explained this poorly. But check it out:

https://hazeguitars.com/blog/setting-intonation-on-a-jaguar-jazzmaster-or-mustang

Well worth trying this before putting in any of those fixes people always suggest. One last thing - jaguars were designed to be run with thick strings (12s, 13s) and if you run it with those, a lot of the problems people see (with the bridge, strings jumping out of the poles etc) are instantly resolved. Not an option for everyone, but the Jag really benefits from them I think.

One thing I've found - many people change the scratchplates for plastic ones without a metallic backing, and it makes the pickups super noisy. If that guitar is noisy when not playing, put a bit of copper tape on the rear of the scratchplate - I've some spare if you need it - and it'll silence it like a dream. My Jag is a Japanese one. It's the best guitar I've ever owned.

Thanks dudes, just been reading this which has been helpful:

https://mmguitarbar.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/demystifying-the-fender-jazzmaster-and-jaguar-pt-2-bridge-over-troubled-vibrato/

It's not my guitar btw. I'm just setting it up for a mate. It needs a full set-up having been botched by a local shop. Most of the ills can be fixed by fettling the nut I think. The action at the first fret is way too high which is making nut-position chords horribly out of tune. I'll sort the neck relief, intonation and saddle height as well while I'm at it.

It's a great sounding guitar though. Weighs a fucking ton which I wasn't expecting.

That's the blog I was searching for, it's the bible when you're setting up a Jag. One thing it doesn't say is - coconut oil is excellent for keeping the bridge quiet if it's creaking.

Same here, I expected it to be really light, the body is farken huuuuge... And yeah, echoing what @BleakRefs has said, I love the way they sound so much!!

What do you guys reckon to the Bluesbreaker JTM reissues amps?

I put my old Gold Top through one about twenty five years ago and my penises exploded... Both of them...

One on Reverb for £850...

You could get a Super Champ for that...

I'm deffo buying the next one that pops up for sale in Australia...

I've set up a few jags/mustangs/jazzmasters. the neck angle is very much the key to a lot of it, they were originally shimmed at the factory but I believe this is bypassed these days. shim it so the neck is on a slight tilt and it will all start to make sense. heavier strings too, as all ready stated.

a poorly set up one of these is rubbish but properly set up they're miles apart

@rickster, have you changed your phone number? dropped you a line about a gig this morning.

Possibly! I'll text you now...