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Vintage modified jaguar bass (squire)

#24
shoom said:
Does anyone know if the jaguar special HB bass is still routed for the normal P-Bass split pickup(s) under that pickguard? I have a sneaking suspicion it is as why build one body differently when there are 5 others in the range that use that rout? I've ordered one (last candy apple red in the country) regardless. I want to put either the SBP4 steve harris pickups or the Guitar Fetish pro - plus p bass overwound pickups in the normal spot. It sounds great regardless with the pup it has and the electronic system is actually worth having on there. Can't believe they can get the price so low on these when they would not require much less work than a guitar. I wonder if I get a 2nd pickup, how hard it would be to tie that into the EQ? any help appreciated/
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Get your router out.
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#25
Apolicious said:
I have to agree about the weak neck. I've been adjusting mine about 1/8th a turn almost daily. But it's not really a fair assessment, because it got shipped into a pretty rough environment. It's one of the reasons I haven't started a NBD thread. (also I'm stuck in USPS HELL with getting some proper strings.) It's a shame, because it's a FANTASTIC feeling neck.
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Maybe tightening the relief to flatten the neck and then backing off to your normal relief will get the neck to set faster. If not, the truss rod is slipping. But you've probably sold the thing by now. :D
 
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#26
okcrum said:
Maybe tightening the relief to flatten the neck and then backing off to your normal relief will get the neck to set faster. If not, the truss rod is slipping. But you've probably sold the thing by now. :D
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I just now noticed that you live in the Verde Valley. I do too! (I'm in upper Clarkdale. Whereabouts are you?) So you should understand what a hell of a monsoon season we had (did you get caught by that flood during Verde days? I narrowly avoided it by sleeping in an hour or four.) Just prior to that, once summer got into its groove, the neck was just fine. Some quality time with the swamp cooler, then some time with the clouds/rain, and bam - problem solved. I'm still just absolutely enamored with the profile, finish, and upper-fret accessibility.

It took some time, and some proper strings (DR Black Beauties - which, oddly enough, sounded dead as hell right out of the box - the exact opposite of what I'd expect from DR) but the neck settled into an extremely stable, reliable chunk of wood. There's an ever so slight hump on the treble side jump, but nothing I haven't seen on instruments costing far more. If I leveled/dressed three frets, it'd be completely unnoticeable. I meant to do a NBD post about it, but... I also bought another bass, and creating two threads would've been a lot of work so I just.... didn't.

Needless to say, I haven't sold it. In fact, it's cured my GAS for a four-string (all my other instruments are 5+.) In fact, I have so much faith in it that just tonight I converted it to a tenor bass (A-C) to better voice this Bach piece I'm working on, and it plays and sounds fantastic.

But that brings me to my only major gripe, and why I wouldn't recommend this bass to someone I liked: the electronics. Fender really blew the goat on this one, beginning with their own website. So there's no confusion, I'm talking about the Invalid Link Removed, model number 0328900506. It lists three controls: "Volume 1. (Middle Pickup), Volume 2. (Bridge Pickup), Master Tone." Three knobs, while mentioning it has a special active bass boost circuit. It obviously has four knobs, so one of them isn't listed.

(Also, can we take a moment to appreciate how unbelievably bad the second demo video is? If Sir. McCartney were dead he'd be spinning in his grave instead of shilling apple products.)

After spending several months with it, I can definitively say the control layout is P-pickup volume, J-pickup volume, active bass boost, and master passive control. You can argue all you want, but that is what I'm holding in my hands. And it's proven by its Achilles Heel; that active bass boost. With everything cranked, it sounds loud, full, and aggressive. But the second you roll off that bass boost it transforms from an active bass into a passive bass. I mean, there is literally one active circuit in the instrument, and that's the bass boost. Once you cut it out, it's completely passive. Try to dial it in? Watch your amp clip like Supercuts. (Sloppy, shameful, and exposes your cheapness.)

And that's what genuinely surprised me about this instrument; there are virtually no vintage tones available. Once you switch (or rather, roll) into passive mode and move it from the passive to padded input on your amp, the pickups are thin and anemic. This thing only sounds good with everything cranked, and it's an aggressive, modern tone.

But gat-dang does it sound good cranked. It's clear, string definition is retained, but it moves enough air to fill a room.

So, yeah. If you want a modern, aggressive bass, this is a great choice. Or, if you want a solid mod platform, you'll be hard pressed to do better than this. Just don't ask too much of it.
 
#28
I disagree somewhat with Apolicious. I play a more vintage style. The way I use mine is, I plug into the passive input on my amp and dial in the passive tone. Then I crank bass boost in as needed/desired. So, for me, it is basically a PJ with a plus (bass boost). What I do agree with is this: if you want to knock people down with window shakin' bottom end, it will do that, but you will then have a hard time using it passive without some major adjustments. But then, that's just par for the course when dealing with tonal extremes, IMO.
 
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#31
dabbler said:
I disagree somewhat with Apolicious. I play a more vintage style. The way I use mine is, I plug into the passive input on my amp and dial in the passive tone. Then I crank bass boost in as needed/desired. So, for me, it is basically a PJ with a plus (bass boost). What I do agree with is this: if you want to knock people down with window shakin' bottom end, it will do that, but you will then have a hard time using it passive without some major adjustments. But then, that's just par for the course when dealing with tonal extremes, IMO.
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And I respectfully agree with your disagreement. I tend to approach the tone dialing from the opposite end. I was born and bred on active tones, so I tend to favor the boosted tones, then see if I can coax a good passive tone out of it. So, for me, I want an instrument that can seamlessly switch between the two - which it cannot. I think we're in agreement on this.

That being said, I don't think that completely lets the Jag off the hook. There ARE instruments that can do this. I have a decade+ old budget Schecter that blends between active and passive flawlessly. I think what it comes down to with the Squier is that the output between the purely passive mode and a moderate bass boost is just too severe. (I may've mentioned this before, but when I want to roll off the bass boost, I have to switch from the -15dB padded input into the passive, and that still requires a volume boost.)

There's another factor which I think I've forgotten to mention, because I think it may be particular to my instrument; the pickup routing. The pickups are way, way too high. When I first received it and dialed the neck down, the strings hit the P pickup. I lowered/balanced it the best I could, but the pickups are still a bit too high, and they're as low as they can go. I'm giving Squier the benefit of the doubt and say this is a problem unique to my instrument. Crap happens, ya know? But I suspect that's why its purely passive tone is rather muted.

And it pains me to criticize it like this, because I really do love it, in spite of all its faults. I wish I knew more about electronics, because that really is my only complaint. I've mentioned before issues with neck stability. Well, I also retuned it A-C, and experienced a pretty severe rain storm a day or so later, and the neck is straight as an arrow. And that's not hyperbole - it's almost perfectly flat, with no buzz.

This is still a very confusing instrument, but it's growing on me. If I had the cash I'd gut the electronics and have a damn respectable instrument. It's basically an SX, but with a brand name.
 

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