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While it's nowt too exciting, after rediscovering how much I love offsets after I got the CV Jag, I tracked down a sunburst VM Jazzmaster (advertised as a CV, but the trained eye can telllllll) in Madrid. Didn't wanna F with narrow-tall frets again, so figured this'd be the fun-ffordable option, GF has a Vintage Modified Jazzmaster too (GFVMJM), and I get on with the neck fine.


Stock "big scab" torty guard and spare Mustang bridge I had; Staytrem collet and arm still at my place



I bought it in mind to recreate that late '50s OG vibe as above, so got a US-compatible guard delivered from the Netherlands as the colour looked the best, vs. the cheaper Chinese ones on eBay:



Looks good, but needs filing-down around the neck pocket to fit. As I'm at my gf's place (GFVMP), I had to order some files (to also sort out the nut) which took a lil' while to turn up.

In the meantime, I found a super cheap still-in-plastic Fender Player guard with the lovely tort on Reverb and it dropped straight onto it, love how it looks; it calms down the kinda ugly grain on the body:





Will probs sort out the gold guard soon to try it out, but I do really love how it looks with that niiiiice tort.

Nice! Congrats! I do love a gold guard, they just work incredibly well on Jazzmasters. How does it sound?

That will look amazing with the gold guard.

Nice one. Radius mismatch doesn’t bother you then?

Noirie. wrote:Radius mismatch doesn’t bother you then?

I honestly don't know where this bridge came from (so what radius actually is), but it felt fine.

Until, during the changing of the guard, the fucker came apart:



So I swapped the saddles, springs and screws over.. which still wouldn't change the radius, thinking about it. Still feels fine, but might pick-up a 9.5er for good measure at some point.

Thom wrote:How does it sound?

It's nice! I'm still not a massive fan of the overwound bridge pickups Squier have put in these modern versions, as they make the pickups feel pretty unbalanced imho. I read that the original Fenders pickups all came from the same bin, regardless of the position they went into the guitar! IDGAF about vintage-correct, but I like my top end.

Soooo, I might try and source a used VM neck pickup to put in the bridge position; likely cheaper and a better match than just buying some cheaper aftermarket pickup. Ideally, I'd have a bridge pickup somewhere between the stock one (11k-ish) and the neck (6.5k-ish)

I was planning on doing with the CV Jag too (found a cheap set of CV pickups thanks to Hurb), but I do really like those pickups as they're quite bright already.

We'll see!

I think Paul's passed-out on his keyboard

Might be the bridge you got from me. So it’s 7.25�.

You can cut up bits of coke cans and shim the saddles with those bits.

Gold guard!

damn that looks really good with that new tort guard. good score, I love mine and would never part with it. sleeper pick, imo.

I did an Kevin shields with mine and jacked the trem arm up as high as it could go for the worbles. super fun, the pickups sound cool with fuzz, bridge pickup is a little twangy for me with a clean tone though, didnt know the bridge was that hot.

Doog wrote:Soooo, I might try and source a used VM neck pickup to put in the bridge position

Don't forget you won't get hum cancelling in the middle position, although that may not matter to you.

Yeah, man I'm so surprised how much difference a good dark tort made, especially against that wacky grain.

Sooooo, I filed the gold guard down last night, forgetting the bastard bridge cup holes though so couldn't FULLY install it; couldn't be arsed to go through the whole process AGAIN. Dunno if I'm really sold on it against this sunburst, esp. against the aforementioned luxury tortoise and with this terrible flash photo :

I'm usually a big fan of a gold pickguard on a Jazzmaster, but I have to say on this occasion I think maybe the dark tort works better. The white border just looks right to me. Plus, I agree that it seems to kind of calm down the ropey wood grain behind the sunburst.

The only solution is to buy another Jazzmaster to go with the gold guard.

It does look better on some of the solid colours. I used to own this ‘59 and it looked great with a gold guard.

Needs aged pickup covers, witch hats and a to complete the look

Freddy V-C wrote:I'm usually a big fan of a gold pickguard on a Jazzmaster, but I have to say on this occasion I think maybe the dark tort works better. The white border just looks right to me. Plus, I agree that it seems to kind of calm down the ropey wood grain behind the sunburst.

100% what I was telling myself! It all comes together nicely with that defining line to 'cut it out' against the "budget shed" grain.

Freddy V-C wrote:The only solution is to buy another Jazzmaster to go with the gold guard

Mate, don't even joke; I was already like "hmmm maybe I could get another body and change necks and guts as my fanciful whim takes me..

NickD wrote:It does look better on some of the solid colours. I used to own this ‘59 and it looked great with a gold guard.

Yeah, it's lovely for sure. I feel like a non-grainy 'burst really looks the best for gold, ah well:



Maybe at some point I'll track down a less grainy body to fully realise my bullshit.

Or just get a white one and relive my podgy late adolescence but fully commit to the J Mascis thing this time

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Doog wrote:Or just get a white one and relive my podgy late adolescence but fully commit to the J Mascis thing this time

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Nice behind the nut action.