Guitar Nerds Anonymous

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.