SQUIER VINTAGE MODIFIED JAGUAR HH 3 TONE SUNBURST

[negninegaw]

Anyone knows what wood is used for the body of this guitar?

[RUSSET]

I have a Vintage Modified Jazzmaster & it's body wood is Basswood. You can probably check the specs on the Fender website.

Tony.

[negninegaw]

Thanks, I was hoping it would be alder.
I like the shape of Jazzmaster and Jaguar more than that of a Strat.
I wonder if it would be possible to get a nice early Shadows' tone
with, say an alder Jazzmaster with a Strat like vibrato system.
I have seen pictures of such a guitar recently.
Any one here 's got one? Does it work for Shadows' sounds?

[RUSSET]

I wouldn't worry too much about Basswood & Alder. I believe Basswood is the Far East equivalent of Alder, anyway. The pickups & the Trem will be more important to get a Shads sound.
I used to have a Jap made Squier Jagmaster, which has the Jazz/Jag body & came with two humbucker pickups & a Strat-stye trem bridge. It was a really well-made guitar, but I didn't like the pickups, so I retro-fitted a pair of Seynour Duncan P90 style pickups to make it more like a Jazzmaster. I believe you can still buy a Squier Jagmaster, but it is Chinese made & a lot cheaper than the Jap ones. Not sure about the quality, though. I think it still comes with two humbuckers, so to get a Shads sound you would have to fit three Strat style single coils. That would mean doing some serious routing of the body.

[Bluesnote]

I find the basswood tends to make the Strat sound warmer than other woods. My Squier Bullet has Seymour Duncans on it and it definately has'nt got the cutting sound of the early Strats I once had which were made with different woods. That said, I like and even prefer the warmer sound I get from it
As far as I'm led to believe, alder gives out more treble than basswood.
The right pickups do make all the difference as you say Tony in the making of the Shads sound.plus the amplification and effects we have nowadays.
Thats why I go for more down range models of guitars, you can afford more of them too
And now I'm hankering after a Jag or Jazz Squier
Hugh.

[negninegaw]

I made a body comparison between Strat and Jazzmaster.
It is interesting to see that the Strat's bridge is farther back (longer strings?).
(The lighter frets are those of the Strat)

strat-jazzm.JPG

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[RUSSET]

If I recall correctly the Jazzmaster has the same scale length as a Strat, but the Jaguar has a slightly shorter scale. I daresay the Bridge & string length set-up of the Jazz & Jag has some effect on the tone. Remember too that the Strat has a string through body (block) arrangement which helps sustain notes, where the Jag/Jazz retains the strings on a plate at the end of the body, without a sustain block. I find that, played clean,without any effects whatsoever, the Jag/Jazz has a slightly more clipped sound than a good Strat. Not to say that this is bad, just different to the Strat, as it should be, otherwise it would be pointless bothering with another guitar as they would all sound the same.