Belated NGD

impmann

Some of you may have seen my Partcaster Jazzmaster I started building on another thread - it was 90% finished and was playing but I wasn't happy with it. So I took a trip to my local PMT (Northampton) to try whatever Jazzmasters they had in stock, to see if it was just that I didn't like Jazzmasters...

I tried a Squier VM Jazzmaster and tbh, I thought it felt like a toy, plus it had a dreadful dead fret on the neck. I also tried their Classic Player Jazzmaster - it sounded great, and I loved the neck. Sadly it was pink. And pink is not a colour I can even consider owning. It also had a dreadful feeling trem... cutting a long story short, they ordered in Black version for me try from one of their other stores.

I went back to try it - and if I'm honest, I wasn't really looking to buy it. I had internally made the decision to sort out the partcaster I had - and then I played it. This was a brand new one, straight out of the box - not one from another store, as they said that one wasn't too great. The neck was nicer than the pink thing, albeit with a stripy rosewood board. The pickups sounded great, but again, the trem was 'dead' feeling. I reasoned that I'd be putting my AVRI trem on it long term... and in a moment of madness (it was the day before my birthday... ) I said yes and placed my now-crying Credit Card on the counter...

It then got put back in its gig bag and I handed it to my wife to take home, as I was off to see John Cooper Clark... We then went away for a week the following morning. So the first time I played it properly was yesterday afternoon... Oh dear, or words to that effect, the bridge rattled and buzzed worse than most standard Jazzmaster bridges and it was fairly clear as to the cause - the hole for the adjuster screw was too high relative to the saddle meaning that the saddle was 'floating' above the ledges it was supposed to sit upon. In other words, rubbish build quality. The trem spring had been slackened off so much that it was no longer holding the plate up, and that rattled/creaked. I toyed with taking it back... but that neck was really good and it looked great, so today picked up some tools and sorted it all out.

First to go was that shitty AOM bridge. The bridge radius was wrong for the neck anyway, and to be honest, they look all wrong on a Jazzmaster to my eyes. I heated up the anchors with a soldering iron, then dropped a machine screw into the hole and wound the post back in. The post pushed down on the machine screw and this pushed the anchor out of the body. This is a little stressful as I didn't want to damage the glass-like finish on the guitar... but all was good. 

I had bought a Mastery M1 for the partscaster along with the Mastery thimble kit. I had briefly installed it on the partcaster and it had improved that massively, so I reasoned that it should improve the CP. The thimbles were too small for the AOM anchor holes so after some headscratching, I read on the Offset Guitars forum of someone using copper shielding tape to bridge the gap. This provides electronic continuity for the earth lead and is soft enough to squish into the grooves left by the AOM anchors. A spot of tape later and it was done... 

WOW what a difference!! The guitar now is alive in my hands - the vibration transfer is so much better. As a result, the sustain is better and the harmonic content is wonderful. In short it has elevated the guitar to a whole new level - it is incredible to play and tone is fantastic. I am a very happy camper!!

If you have a CP Jazzmaster or Jaguar, and want to fit a Staytrem, Mustang or Mastery bridge to it, I'd recommend it without hesitation as I think the TOM/AOM robs the guitar of so much!

Next on my list of things to do is to replace the trem - I have an AVRI trem unit that will be going on, with a Staytrem arm once they are back from moving business premises. The standard CP trem seems a bit 'meh' to me - the screw in arm has a lot of slop (I've improved it with a small spring from a US Strat under the arm) but it still clonks and creaks. 

Anyway, some pics for your delectation...

JookyChap

Happy NGD - I've kinda been unimpressed by the CPs for all the reasons you mention, but nice to know a little work can fettle them good

The Mastery still looks like it fell off a Mountain Bike, mind

meltedbuzzbox

It looks great mate

Kudos for being brave and performing that bridge operation.

Niallmo

Nice! I used to have an MIJ Jaguar that was pretty good. Gassing for one of these now. Think I prefer the Jazzmaster layout. I fitted a buzz stop to mine that sorted out any bridge issues.

Loobs

Very cool. I would totally rock that. 

meltedbuzzbox

Niallmo said:

Nice! I used to have an MIJ Jaguar that was pretty good. Gassing for one of these now. Think I prefer the Jazzmaster layout. I fitted a buzz stop to mine that sorted out any bridge issues.

The CP moves the trem unit closer to the bridge which makes a steeper break angle on the strings.

It doesnt need a buzzstop but oddly enough one can just about fit on the CP model.