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Impulse bought a vm jaguar. It was new but marked as used. Awesome guitar and very complimentary to my jazzmaster. I'd like to upgrade a couple things on it, but unsure of where I want to go. I was thinking a hardtail bridge and upgrading the jaguar bridge with something. Maybe rewire with some new pickups and components.

What do you guys think?

Pic:
https://imgur.com/gallery/c7GZR

xrleroyx wrote:Impulse bought a vm jaguar. It was new but marked as used. Awesome guitar and very complimentary to my jazzmaster. I'd like to upgrade a couple things on it, but unsure of where I want to go. I was thinking a hardtail bridge and upgrading the jaguar bridge with something. Maybe rewire with some new pickups and components.

What do you guys think?

I haven't tried this particular set, but if you want good handwounds on the cheap, try Rose

http://www.rosepickups.com/apps/webstor ... ow/5915576

Rose pickups are great, didn't know he was winding jag pups now

i bought a new pickgurad, wiring kit/pots and pickups for my vmjm. after having the neck shimmed and a nice setup i'll probably leave everything else as is for a bit.

if you want to upgrade the bridge on the cheap I think the warmoth mustang bridge is probably the way to go. i don't know that i see the point in doing hardtail but you certainly could.

what color did you end up picking up? those vintage modified guits play so well, especially after a solid setup.

I have too many trem guitars, and the trem is trash. I got the sea foam green one! I'm thinking about getting some tort for it. I'll have to get a pic up soon. I'll look at that mustang bridge. Any experience with staytrem?

I bought a Staytrem and some AVRI Jag pickups for mine. Both were really good improvements, the AVRI pickups sound soooooo much better than the VM Jag pickups and they are only 80 bucks a set. The EQ on the AVRI pickups is so much more even, they sound way fuller but don't lose the high end sparkle. They are also much lower gain than the VM ones so they are much clearer. The Staytrem fixed the rattles.

I think you gotta keep the offset tremolo with the Jag, that tremolo system is like the biggest part of what makes offsets great.


I also did the Johnny Marr wiring which was really cool (but it was a pain in the ass because the Fender diagram has some poorly marked things on it).

Is it shielded or not ?
If not, get some copper tape and shield the fuck out it. This will basically eliminate hum and is a very good thing to do (quite easy, too, if you plan properly and cut the pieces of copper tape nicely). If you do that, try to get the version that has conductive glue or something. Makes it easier.

I'd recommend keeping the tremolo, but that might be a personal thing.

If you have some rattle/etc. from the bridge, check your setup first and if it's still there the two easiest options are :
- some loctite
- a Mustang bridge, but you need to be sure that the curve is the same as your neck

Beyond that, if you don't use the strangle switch you can replace it with a phase/out of phase switch for one of the pickups.
And it's always nice to have the wiring set so that both pickups switches down gives you the two in series (instead of parallel when they're both up). This goes well with the phase modification, too.

I did all this to mine (CIJ version, so the basic Mustang bridge was a perfect fit), btw.

I used this as a guide for the wiring :

I'll look into shielding, that's for sure. I use my avri JM for all my offset tremolo needs. I like the idea of a no frills jaguar. Interested in the Johnny mart mods too. Can't wait to see what I come up with for this one!

Keep the awesome suggestions coming!

Yeah, I forgot to mention I bought some shielding tape, too. I'll throw up a new thread once I get around to doing the mods -- waiting for my pickups to arrive.

Would it be blasphemy if I just put in a 3 way switch?

Staytrems are great. I've put them on all my offsets and love them. If requested they can add nylon sleeves so it won't rock, which I would think would come in handy if you're doing away with the tremolo.
Personally I kinda like the pickups in my VM Jag. They're definitely a little rough around the edges but I like that about them. I bought some replacements and still haven't put them in yet.
Honestly shimming the neck on mine was the best thing I did. Once I did that I could lower the action and put some nicer strings on it and it plays like a guitar worth twice as much.

Surprisingly I have no issues with action whatsoever on this guitar. It plays extremely well and it's very resonant. Plays like a much more expensive guitar. I'm a fan of low output pickups, and these are a touch hot. I might get a staytrem for my avri and use the TOM on the jag.

xrleroyx wrote:Would it be blasphemy if I just put in a 3 way switch?

No

I think thats way better than the toggle switches

The Marr switching is a 4 way and pretty cool

If you get the staytrem bridge, I suggest picking up the staytrem tremolo upgrade for like 30£ more. You replace the collet and the trem arm so it doesn't fall out and it also stays where you leave it. Relatively cheap and easy upgrade. I think the plastic nut should be changed too, also kind of cheap and easy

I'm also about to modify my jaguar, like a pickguard, pickup, trem collet, and also nut change. If you want a tort guard we can just trade?

Brandsmannen wrote:I'm also about to modify my jaguar, like a pickguard, pickup, trem collet, and also nut change. If you want a tort guard we can just trade?

Do the series mod, and if you're not a fan of the strangle switch do the phase mod too. Really interesting results, and you just need some wire and a soldering iron...