Squier Jazzmaster, it's a set up!

[jazzbow]

A recent trip to GigGear.co.uk - Electric Guitars, Acoustic Guitars, Amps, Bass Guitars, Drums, Keyboards, PA, Pro Audio and Other Musicial Instruments All From Our Online Music Shop in Essex, UK, to try out some of those nice new styled Telecasters resulted in a purchase of the new J Mascis Squier Jazzmaster (JM JM). This is styled after the Fender Artist series of the same name from 2009ish. Both models share the same features, this being; tune-o-matic bridge, aluminium scratch plate, ‘hot’ pickups, vintage tuners, trem (squire without trem lock though), maple neck, 9.5” radius rosewood fingerboard, fat frets and basswood body. For a solid body guitar any hardwood will do for the body but frequency response is different in every wood species. Basswood, or Lime as it called in the UK, is more mid to high frequency responsive. So for a loud out front lead instrument it’s ideal.
So I wasn’t intending on buying a new guitar but the JM JM caught my eye and I had to have a go. I haven’t had much experience of playing offset guitars except for Fender made in Mexico JM’s in two separate big chain superstores here in the UK. These were so poorly set up and the sales staff so indifferent I was completely disappointed.
Giggear in Harlow, Essex, have their own inhouse luthier so all the instruments are very playable with this JM JM being no exception. Add to this very friendly and knowledgeable staff leads to a great experience.
The ‘Jazz’ neck circuit setting was very pleasant through a clean valve amp while making a fair effort of thickening the tone of the plain G, The lead circuit was twangy but very brittle/trebly sounding. I didn’t try it on the overdrive channel as I knew the basic sound was already there and besides I wanted to see if the pickups could handle extended and embellished chords (which IMO it does). Everything worked and the neck is very comfortable, I noted a bit of string rattle on the plain strings when fretting on the 1st fret, a quick check showed a slightly higher 2nd fret which is no problem to correct. The overall feel of the guitar was otherwise great and it has oodles of sustain with the supplied roundwound 9’s. Ker-ching! £349 sterling lighter I was well pleased mate!



Here she is, note the aluminium scratch plate, ooo! A whole lot of guitar for little money.



Chinese factory QC tag, note the precise measurements of the 1st fret action. 1st fret string clearance is very important for the overall feel of the string action on the neck. Many low to mid priced guitars don’t have this done at the factory or for that matter at the retail outlet and many novice guitarists are unaware of how this improves playability.

[jazzbow]

First things first, get rid of those skinny strings. 9’s, pah! Do I love those slotted Fender tuners, slacken the strings enough and the strings ‘pop’ out, genius. Truss rod is slackened until the fingerboard reads flat with the notched straight edge. Note the neck is still attached to the body, it is easier to work on a bolt on neck when it’s unbolted but I prefer light fret dressing with neck bolted on.


Taped fingerboard with masking tape. Important tip, conventional decorators masking tape tackiness is quite strong and can lift wood fibre and laquer finish, I place strips of this tape on cotton tee shirts or sweat shirt material to lift some cotton fibre onto the tape glue. Providing you do not press the tape too hard onto the fingerboard- wood fibre/laquer damage will be minimal. The curious metal straight edge thingy is a fret rocker which is used to determine where the high points on frets are.

[jazzbow]

With the fret rocker placed over three frets, you try to rock the tool coming down the length of the fret, if it makes a tapping noise it means its pivoting on a high point, we mark the high point area with permanent ink as an indicator (be wary, laquer and wood don’t like ink). Note the 2nd fret and 3rd fret, blue ink is a high point and the silvery fret is level in relation to its neighbour.


Now we use a good quality three sided fine mill file, we file down the blue indicated areas constantly checking with the fret rocker as we go. When we level all frets we go back to the 1st fret and repeat the process once more. You could use files and sandpaper coming down the length of the finger board but in this instance I find this method more precise for a light dressing (IMO). Note Jazzbows neatly manicured fingernails!........Nice.

[jazzbow]

Now all the frets are checked using various straight edges. As some of the frets are somewhat flattened we use 600 grit W&D hitting the edge of the fret while sanding up and down the fret length. This removes any scratches and restores the fret profile. Check fret edges for sharpness, the frets on this JM JM were a little sharp and were rounded and smoothed with a fret edge file.


There are many ways to polish frets. Polishing with 0000 grade wire wool, metal polish etc. Now the tape is carefully taken off with minimal wood fibre lift and the fingerboard and frets are fed/polished to a nice sheen! We are using Gorgomyte which is a great product and Jazzbow recommends it!

[jazzbow]

Here we go, all polished and fed! Yummy! In the picture we can see the gorgomyte wadding is all black from polishing, the towelling is black with buffing and leaving a nice satin sheen on the rosewood fingerboard.


With these new styled JM’s ( Squier, Mascis and MIM) they have an angled neck pocket which increases the string break angle over the bridge. Vintage JM’s didn’t have this and light gauge strings were prone to slipping off the saddles. Note the date stamp, it’s nice to see Fender are doing this with their Squier brand. Also note what is a very thin coat of paint, not your usual far east treatment of chuck it on and polish it off. Yes we have added a rosewood shim to raise the break angle further, the adjustment thumb wheels on the T-O-M are practically inside the body route and we want to raise them clear of the scratchplate.

[jazzbow]

Well Jazzbow don’t like satin laquer on guitars, especially on necks. So with metal polish wadding we are careful to only polish the neck area and not the back of the headstock, a nice contrast when finished. Note that Jazzbows hand is moving so fast it is a blur!


Oo! Shiny’s always dandy! We have to be careful when polishing tinted laquers as, well, you guessed it, we can polish out the tint and leave a lighter coloured wood showing through. Not good.

[jazzbow]

Now we sort out the lead circuit pots and caps. A quick tip for removing knobs from split shaft pots; Using a thin material, such as a tea towel, we place it all around the knob, twist the material until it’s really tight, now place the fingers of your free hand around the scratchplate adjacent to the knob for support and lift the knob up until you can prise it off with your fingertips.


Here we have the pickup selector, not quite switchcraft quality but it’s good enough! Note the pickup wire, it’s covered in plastic, then has a braided earth shielding and finally a cloth cover for the ‘hot’ wire. Good quality stuff. Also the scratchplate is completely shielded.

[jazzbow]

Here’s a look at the original pots. They are Alpha branded, good quality but we chose to replace them with CTS pots. Note all the wiring is really well done, faultless!


CTS pots installed and checked for right amount of clearance so that the control knobs are fitted near flush to the scratchplate front. Vintage JM pots on the lead circuit are both rated at 1meg (1000kohm) which makes for a trebly/brittle sounding pickup., I cannae tell what the values are for the Alphas but they were well twangy! The pots installed here are 500kohm volume and 250kohm tone, this will make for a darker tone and an orange drop capacitor is fitted. The rhythm circuit sounds ok and remains untouched but will be replaced in the future.

[jazzbow]

The pickup. A fatter coil than a strat pickup and two magnets either side of the steel pole pieces, very similar to a P90. Pickup height adjustment is done by compressing the foam rubber underneath the pickup. Raising the pickups means waiting a day or so for the foam to return to its original uncompressed density. The entire electric cavity isn’t shielded by brass plates like the vintage JM’s but it is covered with shielding paint. There isn’t any issues with earth buzzing so that stays. Note Jazzbows extra foam inserts in the pickup cavity to help raise the pickups.


Ooo! One of the most satisfying moments of owning a brand new guitar!

[jazzbow]

Now we adjust the pole pieces to the same radius of the fingerboard and the pickup height is adjusted to 1/10th of an inch between the bottom of both E strings to top of pole pieces when the strings are fretted at the last fret.


Here is the bridge at its repositioned height, both thumb wheels are out of the routes. 12th fret action is set as 1.75mm bottom E and 1.30mm top E. There is a very slight bow in the neck and the new strings are 11’s and intonated.

[jazzbow]

Here she is, all finished. A very nice playing guitar, slippy frets and C shape neck is a delight to play. The pickups sounds a lot like me P90 Yamaha with loads of tones to choose from. Fiddle with your knobs ( ) and you can get a passable jazzy sound, swishy splosh with lots of reverb, wax my board dude! Max the distortion and you've got a balls out rocker. A guitar for all seasons………Nice

[Help!I'maRock!]

wow.

you can come over anytime and work on my guitars.

[jazzbow]

Originally Posted by Help!I'maRock!

wow.

you can come over anytime and work on my guitars.

NYC? Oh yeah, pay me ticket an' I'll be there

[macshark]

Wow. What a great, and educational post. Thanks for sharing - now I gotta hear it in action...

[amhabz]

nice, biggest thing I noticed comparing to my MIM JM, is you can get at the bridge adjustment and the truss rod with out taking the whole guitar apart, that in itself would be a big plus.

[Evan]

Brilliant. Thanks for posting.

You had a lot of blue on those frets. Is it common to have such uneven frets on a new neck?

Are you going by some guide that tells what the action should be at frets one and twelve?

[Meggy]

Cheers Jazzbow - it is a brilliant thread, and very instructive for those of us who like to do a bit of work on our guitars from time to time. That Jazzmaster is a very cool guitar for the money I think - the good build quality you point out is very evident.

Anyway, please do more of this sort of stuff in the future, it's great to have some discussion of how to get guitars we already have playing well up here, as well as the usual "which guitar should I buy" type questions.

[mangotango]

Great stuff Jazzbow but....you were in Sunny Essex, all the way down from the frozen North - and you didn't call in?

[tejastani]

What is "metal polish wadding"?

[jazzbow]

Originally Posted by Evan

Brilliant. Thanks for posting.

You had a lot of blue on those frets. Is it common to have such uneven frets on a new neck?

This will be a long answer, bear with me.
All guitars are manufactured to a price point. So generally everyone who buys and sells products are looking for 100% profit, soooo;
Customer buys Squier Jazzmaster for £349.
Shop buys from Fender UK for £175
Fender commission guitar in China and import to Europe for £95
Manufacturing cost (labour, materials, electricity) £45!
These are not 'real' figures but I'll warrant that this is close.

So corners have to be cut somewhere, check this out


This is a 'strat' type guitar from a UK catalogue company, £70 retail so manufactured price of about £7,


My fretting on the same fingerboard and the untouched original by its side, can you see the flatness and scratches on the original? All done at the manufacturing stage.

But if you want a guitar to manufacture and sell at a certain price point then you pays your monies and takes your choice.

I would say it is common for uneven frets to the same or lesser extent for mass produced new guitars. The only new guitars that have come through my hands that were spot on for playability would be the high end guitars.

Originally Posted by Evan

Are you going by some guide that tells what the action should be at frets one and twelve?

The standard for electric guitars are; Top E 1.5mm and Bottom E 2.00mm at the 12th fret. There are different actions for different guitars and for different styles. I have to get the action on my guitars lower as I have issues with left side numbness and weakness.

I hope this helps

[jazzbow]

Originally Posted by mangotango

Great stuff Jazzbow but....you were in Sunny Essex, all the way down from the frozen North - and you didn't call in?

Oh dear, sorry Mango, was doing Christmas at the time so having a 6'3" paper hatted grinning drunk wouldn't have gone down well with Mrs. Tango

[jazzbow]

Originally Posted by tejastani

What is "metal polish wadding"?

The new Art School Prog Rock Band, ha ha ha!

Seriously though, it is cotton fibre impregnated with liquid metal polish (which is a mild abrasive).

[Evan]

Originally Posted by jazzbow

My fretting on the same fingerboard and the untouched original by its side, can you see the flatness and scratches on the original? All done at the manufacturing stage.

say what? Is that the same neck from the 7-bob strat? Did you remove the rubbish frets and replace them with pretty frets in the same neck? Are you superman?

Originally Posted by jazzbow

The standard for electric guitars are; Top E 1.5mm and Bottom E 2.00mm at the 12th fret. There are different actions for different guitars and for different styles. I have to get the action on my guitars lower as I have issues with left side numbness and weakness.

I hope this helps

The bridge on my tele doesnt appear to allow raising the height of the string. Does that only leave trus adjustment as an option? Oh... And are you measuring from string to fretboard or string to top of fret?

Thanks for laying the beauty on us.

[Evan]

Originally Posted by jazzbow

This will be a long answer, bear with me.
All guitars are manufactured to a price point. So generally everyone who buys and sells products are looking for 100% profit, soooo;
Customer buys Squier Jazzmaster for £349.
Shop buys from Fender UK for £175

That whole post was much more informative than saying "you get what you pay for".

Thanks.

[Buster Loaf]

I agree. Very nice post.

[teamster]

Nice work laddie, I've wanted one of those Squire Jazzmasters
sure enough I'll have to start a bit of overtime, Looks to be worth it.
Many thanks for the info.

[Help!I'maRock!]

Originally Posted by jazzbow

The new Art School Prog Rock Band, ha ha ha!

Seriously though, it is cotton fibre impregnated with liquid metal polish (which is a mild abrasive).

yep.

i use NEVR-DULL.

[mangotango]

Originally Posted by jazzbow

Oh dear, sorry Mango, was doing Christmas at the time so having a 6'3" paper hatted grinning drunk wouldn't have gone down well with Mrs. Tango

Hey feller, she's a lawyer who's been the Significant Other of a musician for 34 years - so nothing phases her anymore.

Really good thread you got yourself here, and a pretty spiffy guitar too.

Ni-i-i-i-i-ce!!

[jazzbow]

Originally Posted by Evan

say what? Is that the same neck from the 7-bob strat? Did you remove the rubbish frets and replace them with pretty frets in the same neck? Are you superman?

Yep, replaced frets with phat frets a la heavy metal shredding meister, did that with a fret press and super glue for a more uniform fret radii and less 'dressing' required, and for the challenge. If you look closely you'll see that they're not that pretty, note the nick on the fingerboard, over zealous fret filling and I am not a superman, I am Jazzbow

Originally Posted by Evan

The bridge on my tele doesnt appear to allow raising the height of the string. Does that only leave trus adjustment as an option? Oh... And are you measuring from string to fretboard or string to top of fret?

Thanks for laying the beauty on us.

First off string to fret top, sorry if that wern't clear (7-bob strat? yew nuttah!).
There should be height adjustment screws on the saddles and being a tele do you have 2 strings per saddle piece? Post up a picture on this thread, can't assume anything until we see the problem.

[jazzbow]

Originally Posted by mangotango

Hey feller, she's a lawyer who's been the Significant Other of a musician for 34 years - so nothing phases her anymore.

Really good thread you got yourself here, and a pretty spiffy guitar too.

Ni-i-i-i-i-ce!!

Thanks maty, Yews well sorted then. Sweet as a nut,