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Now cover it in stickers.

genius

MatthewK wrote: ↑Thu Aug 18, 2022 11:03 pm I have no idea how you would get the original colour OFF the body to be honest. There was even epoxy putty in a few places and I scraped it back, sanded it out and you would never know. You could probably hammer nails in using the body.

From experience - a heat gun and scraper then sanding. Lots of it. Days.

Modern paint stripper won't touch poly in general - as you found.

I watched an old youtube video where two teenagers started with an attempt to strip old paint off of a cheap strat body and refinish it and ended up just butchering it with a jigsaw because the paint was so difficult to strip off.

Yeah I stripped a poly Telecaster a few years back, easier because of the flat surfaces, but the finish had to be heated until it began to craze before it would come off.

Glamour time, I tidied the floor and got out my "proper" camera.
How it arrived -


Headstock unchanged (but now strung with 12s)

About 10 years ago I had a white MIJ Jag and tried some upgrades, still didn't connect with it so I sold it. So I had these bits to hand:
- an AVRI bridge pickup I got for $5 on eBay (no cover or claw)
- plates from a Classic Player Jag
- another 80s MIJ trem tailpiece
- a Mustang bridge which I think is MIJ
- a bunch of cloth wire from the previous Jag I rewired
Since the pots were replaced and I was switching the plates, I figured I would just rewire the whole thing. The chrome stuff was both corroded and deliberately scratched up, so I swapped them out for the nicer CP ones. I was too scared to put the 64 pickup back in, I will clean it and see what I've got. Ordered a cover and claw for the AVRI bridge pickup and stuck a Strat cover on it for now.

And here it is, all done. I love it.




The last pic is probably closest to its colour in real life. The body's really nicely shaped, much nicer than the 90s one I had before, and with the AVRI pickups it sounds pretty full and has that hard flat attack that makes the Jag different to anything else. It needs half a turn taken out of the truss rod for more relief, and some frets are worn, otherwise lovely to play. A keeper for sure.

Of all the guitars that shortscalers own, this one is the one I'm most jealous of.

Incredible. Absolutely beautiful.

What a transformation! Stunning and kudos for being skilled enough and having the patience to bring this back proper.

I had a feeling it would turn out nice but this far exceeds my expectations.

Question though, is the bridge all the way down? You might need to shim that neck.

yeah, phenomenal work. it looks great.

well you're all kind people and I'm glad to share!
plops yeah there is a little way to go in the setup. It had a shim when I got it but because I was switching the bridge I did my usual, which is just put the neck on, deck the bridge, wind it up slightly to give it some movement, then raise the ends until I lose string buzzes. That happened at the low height you see, and since I like low action I left it there. However it's a bit dead-feeling to play and looking along the neck there is very little relief. So my plan is to take a half turn out of the truss rod and see how that goes. With Mustang saddles it's not string-jumping though.

tasty choice with the mustang saddles and just an all around spectacular job you've done bringing that guitar back to life. i kinda want one in that color with the matching headstock now. =]

blown away, very nice!

thanks again! It's kind of wild that this was the only matching-headstock Jag available between, say, 1971 (matching headstocks discontinued) and 1998 (some AVRI runs?)?

Amazing! How'd you even get that bullshit off of there?

Gentle paint stripper, scraper, wet sanding, cutting compound then polish … and about six hours of pain … (there’s a montage on page 3)

I bet it would look really good with black pickup covers.

Amazing work. It looks so good.

Making friends with its 1985 sibling