Future Jazzocaster project.

[Volitions Advocate]

Hey all.
  My warmoth should be shipped from puyallup any day now. my fingers are raw because i've got no nails left to bite off.
BUT im working on the plan for my next build and I need some help with some routing and pup choices.

My plan was a Jazzmaster body and a reverse CBS all maple neck.  Not sure about the body wood.  I dotn want it to sound like a strat or a JM. I'm hoping for a little darker sound. I might just go with Korina again but we'll see how i like it when my 1st build arrives and i get it built and actually play on it.
I was going to get the blue sparkle finish and get a pearloid pickguard for it.  Maybe the white/black/white or the black pearl. im not srue but at this point thats not important.
Il'l get it with a wilkinson bridge. the whole point of this guitar is i need a guitar with a tremolo other than my cheap squier strat. It'll be guitar #6 in my collection only the 2nd of which with a trem bridge.

ANYWAY.  I'm not planning on doing the whole jazzmaster/jag wiring setup with the little dials and switches and stuff.  but i dont really want  the 3 single coils like a strat. I want a good powerful humbucker int he bridge. maybe with a coil tap. i dunno.

My first thought was get a duncan distortion int he bridge and a big fat P90 in the neck.  But the guy at the guitar store said I'd be out of phase in the middle position.  Now i dont really know what that means. other than it'll be noisy....  but a p90 is already noisy so what the heck do i do?

so i was thinking maybe those 2 pups.. with a 3 way switch where its Duncan distorion in bridge position.  P90 and coiltapped duncan distortion in the middle. and then just the p90 for the 3rd selection.. I dunno what does everyone think?  How should i rout the thing to get it this way?

any and all idea welcome. I need the help even though I'll have to sell all my pedals to afford this guitar if I want to get it within the next 2 years.


Also *ahem* any warmoth guys out there. My Korina LP dragonburst should be about ready to ship out.  Bob R emailed me and said it should be ready around june 25.  Its' the 28th.... and im freakin out.  I know im over reacting but any idea when its coming? Order # 120624 Cheers!

 

[Kostas]

This is my favorite body shape, always wanted an original Jazzmaster & Jaguar!

I will write how I would do it:
1) No pickguard! Flakes are absolutely amazing colors, no need to cover it up.

2) I would suggest Korina but since you already have one guitar with it, why not try something else?
Basswood with maple top is a great combination for high gain tones. I have this combination on my Anderson Drop Top, my favorite guitar for dirt sounds. Another choice is the all around Alder.

3) I prefer medium output pickups, if you have a good tube amp with OD channel, you don't need high output pickups to OD it. Usually medium output pickups have better clarity. Something I have seen in a Jaguar* was this combination: SD JB, Ken Armstrong Hot Lipstick, SD SP90. 5-way and a push-pull tone that splits the humbucker and you have many tones availiable. I don't suggest exactly these pickups, but I suggest this combination: HB (splitable), lipstick, P90. It's unique and a chance to have a lipstick and a P90 together in a guitar!

4) Vintage modern construction with a convenient vintage radius, from 10 until 12 you can't go wrong. Then it's shred territory...:icon_tongue:  too flat! Fat/59 neck profile, medium jumbo frets (few days left to see how stainless frets feel/sound...). All maple neck would be great as well an all rosewood neck. Pau Ferro is a beautiful wood too, no ebony for me...

5) I agree on the Wilkinson tremolo as I don't like Floyds. In a few days I will post my strat with the VG300, it needs exaclty the same bridge routing as the VS100 that Warmoth sells.

* Guitarist magazine March 1998: There is a review of a Fender custom shop Jaguar in Deep Purple Sparkle, with the above pickup combination I mentioned, 5-way and a Birds Eye Maple neck. Modified pearloid Jaguar pickuard and a Fender/Floyd non locking tremolo.

**If you have pedals you love their sound, don't sell them. You 'll regret it later. Try to keep those you really use.

 

[Volitions Advocate]

I dont think I've ever seen or heard a hot lipstick pup.  Interesting idea though.  I dont know that I'd go with a JB because thats what I've got in the bridge of my LP thats coming.
I am going to get a pickguard for it just because i think fender style guitars look better with them than without.  And since im not getting a transparent finish i wouldn't be covering up any of the wood figure so im okay with the pickguard.

    I'm not going to sell any of my pedals.  I couldn't do that. Its jsut been a temptation lately because I bought a Boss GT 5 and its pretty awesome. does pretty much everything all my pedals do.  but.... im keeping them all.

 

[DiMitriR33]

don't know what the guitar shop guy means by out of phase a 5 conductor humbucker(2 for each coil 1 for ground) can be wired to any thing in phase tapped or not. it will hum when mixed. it should hum less if the humbucker is split corectly but because the coil in th p 90 and the coils in the humbucker wont match exactly it will always hum. but i don't think this is a big deal.
a lipstick would look cool. i believe they are hot for a single coil but i don't have experience with them.
don't want a bright stratty sound, try a diferent neck wood. it is thought that the neck has the largest influence on sound other than the pickups. also you could try a gibson scale on the neck. the shorter scale means easier bends and maybe less breakage.
good call on not getting a floyd rose. i hate locking trems. why any one would make changing strings harder i'll never understand. plus the cheap ones are die cast. the screws pull out the threads if you use heavy strings.

 

[Volitions Advocate]

mostly for the neck i wanted maple just because of looks.. If theres anyway warmoth will do a different neck wood but keep a maple fingerboard than id be all for it.  I've never heard of this being done.

Yeah im not a floyd rose fan.  I never really use the whammy its more or less just for a few spots in some songs to add effect.  I'm no shredder.  But the wilkinson seems like a good sturdy bridge.  I hate the vintage one in my squier strat.  A buddy of mine has a USA strat (its nice) and its got a wilkinson trem in it instead of the vintage fender ones.  Its nice. Smooth.