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Best Mods Recommendations for Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Short Scale

B

bfilmsoz

Dec 3, 2012
6
2
#1
I purchased my Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar Short Scale about a month ago and find it a great bass to play overall. I find it be very top heavy [lots of neck dive] was thinking of replacing the machine heads, found these budget ones on Fleabay :

Invalid Link Removed

Also the bridge pickup is kindoff anemic, have looked at a ton of pickups and am leaning toward the Seymour Duncan SJB-3.

I would greatly appreciate peoples recommendations, and am interesting in seeing any/other mods people have done to their Squier SS basses.
 
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#2
I havent modded mine yet. Its been a real trooper of a bass as is. The only gripe I have and havent gotten around to yet is the feeble J pup. I have the DiMarzio Ultra Jazz in mind for when the time comes that I actually want to do it. I use the P pickup 99% of the time.
 
#3
I'm doing one mod, and having one done that is in the putting it all back together stage. Here are a couple of pix of the one being done. Stripped body, Lace Alumatones, strat jack, thru body bridge, Hipshot UltraLites, custom made pick cover, StellarTone ToneStylers, matching headstock. Reprinted burgundy mist. Custom made Squier Jaguar decal.



image-3893589556.jpg



image-1887087886.jpg



image-3992957975.jpg


The other one is less ambitious. Repainted Taos turquoise, matching headstock, custom decal, custom pick guard, replace pickup covers with white, StellarTone Dual Tone, VBT controls. Using stock pickups since the "P" is good and I only use the "J" to add a little high or mid.
 
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#6
It's so easy to fall prey to the "must mod it" mentality. This is a very good bass as is. Yeah the J pickup is a little weak, but i don't like the sound of any bridge p/u solo'd and it's useful as is to crisp up the tone when blended with the neck. I cleaned up the fret ends, put some GHS flatwounds on it and set it up to my taste. That's it - and that's all I plan to ever do to it.
 
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#8
swamp2 said:
It's so easy to fall prey to the "must mod it" mentality. This is a very good bass as is. Yeah the J pickup is a little weak, but i don't like the sound of any bridge p/u solo'd and it's useful as is to crisp up the tone when blended with the neck. I cleaned up the fret ends, put some GHS flatwounds on it and set it up to my taste. That's it - and that's all I plan to ever do to it.
Click to expand...

Here here. The GHS flats is my only "mod". Really love the vintage tone that they create with the stock P pickup. Has a great true P bass tone. I didnt care for the GHS flats at firsrt. The E seemed to be DOA. But after they broke in they sound and feel great. I cant see myself changing them unless they really died or one broke. Thats gotta be at least 5 years away for that to happen. :D
 
#9
I put GHS Boomers on mine, thinking they would be alot like the stock strings. They are, bkut louder. I had to learn how to adjust the bridge for them. I did not like the neck dive, but the 4" Levy's Leather strap I got a deal on helps. I'd be scared that if I replaced the bridge pickup like lots of people in the mega-threads did that I wouldn't notice the difference.
 
#10
I'm not sure why this simple trick eludes most people. There are screws on both sides of your pickups. You can use these to raise or lower the hight of the pickup, making it closer or further away from the strings. If you think the bridge pickup is too weak, simple raise the pickup and make it closer to the strings. This will increase the output of the pup.

As far as reducing the neck-dive. I'd be interested in seeing if anybody has any solutions myself. Thick guitar trap and maybe an insanely heavy bridge?
 
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#11
My plan was (and may still be):

- Rear route and refin with a laminate top (Zebrawood with maybe a color tint).
- Nordstrand np4a Precision pickup.
- Nordstrand m4.4 Musicman pickup.
- Audere Preamp.
- Hipshot ultralite tuners.
- Sandberg bridge (or similar)
- Hardware to match bridge and tuners.

And would look something like this:

?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi1368.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag189%2FJACink%2Fbluezebrablack_zps32e9d039.png


or this:

?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi1368.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag189%2FJACink%2Fbrownzebragold_zpsf2ba89b2.png


or maybe even this:

?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi1368.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fag189%2FJACink%2Fgreyzebrablack_zps6a5bbe04.png



But I can't tell you if this will cure the neck dive :)
 
#13
13lues said:
I'm not sure why this simple trick eludes most people. There are screws on both sides of your pickups. You can use these to raise or lower the hight of the pickup, making it closer or further away from the strings. If you think the bridge pickup is too weak, simple raise the pickup and make it closer to the strings. This will increase the output of the pup.

As far as reducing the neck-dive. I'd be interested in seeing if anybody has any solutions myself. Thick guitar trap and maybe an insanely heavy bridge?
Click to expand...
Raising the pup height on this bass doesn't help it. I did that with one I had and it was still weak.
 
#15
felis said:
Were you able to re-wire it to improve it?
Click to expand...
No I didn't. The guitar techs at Sam Ash advised against it do to polarity issues and technical jargon I didn't quite understand. I basically resorted to considering the bridge pickup as an additional tone control for the neck pickup, which mentally, I couldn't resolve so I eventually traded it for my American Standard Jazz bass, which I am very happy with.
 
#17
Mine had some neck dive and it was hard for me to justify shelling out half again the purchase price for lightweight tuners, especially when I would be lucky to get $100 if I sold it. So... this will horrify the purists but it did completely eliminate the neck dive for free (the stock tuners have reversible worms as it turns out).
 

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#18
Olde Axeman said:
Mine had some neck dive and it was hard for me to justify shelling out half again the purchase price for lightweight tuners, especially when I would be lucky to get $100 if I sold it. So... this will horrify the purists but it did completely eliminate the neck dive for free (the stock tuners have reversible worms as it turns out).
Click to expand...
Haha. Did you actually do that? or just edit the image?
 
#19
No, I actually did it. I did photoshop a picture of the headstock before I cut it to see what it would look like, and the altered photo is what I uploaded, but the actual headstock looks pretty much identical to the pic.

Here's the really weird part. I was selling an Acoustic amp head & cab to a guy and he saw the Jag in the corner and loved it. Asked to play it and then insisted that I sell it to him. I told him if he wouldn't try to haggle me down on the amp that I would sell him the Jag SS for $100 extra. That clinched the deal.

That's why I had to use the photo since the bass was gone. The headstock mod did cure the neck dive though, and at no cost, which was the whole point of the post.

An unexpected side benefit to the mod was that the Jag subsequently fit perfectly in a Strat guitar case after surgery. The Squier Jag SS is hard to find cases for without resorting to a long scale case.
 
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