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Fender American Standard Jaguar Bass
- Thread starter ironworm
- Start date
i think it's cool and the price was decent, a relic style is "in brand" for those
i had two, parted away but they have a special place in my heart
The guy who I bought it from bought that. It’s definitely not a refin, but I think the guy tried to relic it himself. It looks like he hit it with the end of a screwdriver in a few spots rather than drop a tool box on it. It does have some honest wear on the bottom, back and upper horn though.
I liked the Jag. A great body style. I just couldn’t remember what all the knobs and switches did
You know, it ends up being easier than you'd think. One switch turns the P pickup on and off, same for J pickup. Third is series/parallel and odds are you won't use it that much. Top plate is the active circuit. I don't use mine that much eith3er but it's an on/off switch with bass and treble controls and it's not hard to dial in. I view my Jag as a super Precision and use the P pickup pretty exclusively. But is a lot of chrome on the front of this bass!
My main issue is that all the switches on my Jag are getting noisy or don't work that well, which is a bit concerning on the active plate. I'm going to need to replace them soon and I'm not looking forward to that. The wiring inside this bass looks like something you'd find in a space ship.
I wired up a Jazzmaster IV Warmoth bass with the same slide switches. What I found easiest was to use use paper clips as jumpers so you can cut them to length and place them where you need to in the lugs. Super easy if you’re starting fresh. And if you’re soldering a wire to a jumper lug, just solder it to the paper clip.
I’m a P Bass guy by heart. The switches themselves felt too daunting for me.
I can’t imagine the soldering job needed for that bass.
The switch that's faring worst is for engaging the active circuit. I just popped the plate off, there are seven points of contact on it, with each point taking multiple wires. I can solder but this is way above my pay grade. Maybe there's some contact spray or something I can put on the switch before getting into surgery? I'm the original owner, also wonder if there's a warranty claim possible. This bass doesn't get hard miles, I'm 100% recording so these troubles really shouldn't be happening, especially on what was a premium US model.
I hear you! My other bass is the Precision and I just picked up a Guild Starfire 1, so simple single pickup P style is definitely my preferred set up sound-wise. The Jaguar just has really nice aesthetics, a great neck and options if you want them. If I had my signature version, I'd probably skip the active, go dual P like some sort of old B.C. Rich and keep the pickup switches.
If you have a new slide switch, it’ll be a pretty easy solder. You can use some flux to make it even easier.
Looking at the diagram, it looks like 3 jumpers, two grounds and 4 wires going to one lug. If you snip the 4 wires and strip them, you should be able to wind them up enough to use as one wire to the lug.
EDIT: never mind, that’s the pickup switches. Preamp switch has more, but the same thing should apply about snipping and stripping. It looks more daunting than it actually is.
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Allan Corona, who does a lot of Blink basses, did the body and pickguard. I purchased an American ProfessionalII neck for it.
I plan to add a concentric volume/tone pot to it, as in its current state, its tonal presence with those Quarter Pounders, is the equivalent of someone typing in all caps.
That’s awesome. I had his original signature jazz back in 2003 but stupidly sold it.
Mine was a little noisy when I got it, but I took it into the dealer and they fixed it overnight.
The active, P pickup only mode is a beast. Not for everyone, but it has its uses.
I am not a fan of obvious multi piece Fenders.
The fact is that Fender as recently as 1995 used to charge a $50 surcharge for burst as the best 2 piece matched pair was used for them.
Cut from Page 43 from Fender.FMIC.2015.February.Pricelist
There is no 2014 American Standard Jaguar model listed in the Fender.FMIC.2014.February.Pricelist
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Ok, some of you may hate this, but I couldn’t stand the terrible (possibly on purpose) relic job that was done to that Jaguar. This looks (in my opinion) and feels way better.
To be clear, the photo of the bass in its case is how I got it. Original owner and the guy I bought it from said that the original owner dropped a tool box on it, but it looked to me like it was hammered and stabbed a bunch to relic it. I’ve sanded the stab wounds almost completely flat, so now it’s got a nice smooth feel. I know poly doesn’t age this way, but it feels a lot better now.
To be clear, the photo of the bass in its case is how I got it. Original owner and the guy I bought it from said that the original owner dropped a tool box on it, but it looked to me like it was hammered and stabbed a bunch to relic it. I’ve sanded the stab wounds almost completely flat, so now it’s got a nice smooth feel. I know poly doesn’t age this way, but it feels a lot better now.
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