Fender American Jazz Bass Control Plate

[Mike Yocum]

I own a 2004 Fender American Jazz Bass, SN Z4210319. I would like to rewire the bass, because the S1 switch sticks (I've tried light lubrication, however it didn't seem to help). I bought a new control plate from Stewart MacDonald to do the rewiring, because I wanted to be able to easily replace the old assembly if need be. However, their control plate didn't fit my bass. The screw holes were off between 1/16-1/8".and there was a noticeable gap between the pickguard and the control plate. I wrote to Stewart MacDonald (who were great about letting me return it, btw) regarding this problem and they said:

"Fender specs can vary, which explains why the control plate won't fit your instrument. The plate we sell is a direct replacement for some Fender instruments, though obviously not yours."

So my question is, where can I get a control plate that will definitely fit my 2004 American Jazz Bass? I would be happy to buy a genuine Fender part if it would fit and I can find a retailer to sell it to me.

Thanks,
Mike

[Davo-London]

Make a paper template and send it round to suppliers and see if they can match it.

I've seen this problem too with Squiers. Although the Audere pre-amp I ordered from Audere in the US, which comes with the Jazz plate, exactly fitted a 2006 MIJ Jaco Jazz I owned. Now I think of it, that was lucky!

Davo

[Mike Yocum]

Originally Posted by Davo-London

Make a paper template and send it round to suppliers and see if they can match it.

Davo,

I appreciate your help and I may have to do that. The outline of the control plate matched fine; it was the screw holes that were off. Kind of like buying an iPod case and finding the hole for the headphone offset just enough to cause a problem on your iPod!

Thanks,
Mike

[J.D.B.]

I found my S-1 needed the hole in the knob shaved open just a bit, after that its fine. I used the edge of an X-Acto blade and shaved with it at 90 degrees to the plastic, like doing the knifework on a model to clean up the edge. Took all of thirty seconds.
Josh

[joeyl]

Originally Posted by J.D.B.

I found my S-1 needed the hole in the knob shaved open just a bit, after that its fine. I used the edge of an X-Acto blade and shaved with it at 90 degrees to the plastic, like doing the knifework on a model to clean up the edge. Took all of thirty seconds.
Josh

that won't work in his case

[Davo-London]

On the template you can indicate the screw holes as well. I didn't mention that sorry.

Davo