So, buckle up for story time if you are so inclined...this is about the guitar sale I probably regret most.
10 years ago, I bought myself a brand new HH Jag special, the all-black CIJ one:
It was my #1. It was the jaguar I had always wanted at that point - to be rid of the "finicky" bridge/vibrato (I was young and didn't know how to set them up properly), to be rid of that "intolerable" 60 cycle hum (I was going through an unfortunate pseudo-shredder phase and my high gain soloz were getting rekt!).
A couple of years later though, and my obsession turned more to the Jazzmaster. How had I lived with that "plinky" 24" scale? (I was definitely overly influenced by the blooz lawyer forums way too hard on this factor, and hadn't discovered OSG or Shortscale yet so I didn't have anyone to tell me it was "ok" to love the 24" scale!). After playing my Jag less and less in favour of my Warmoth JM, I decided to purge myself of the short scale and go all-out with the Jazzmaster. I sold the HH Jag, still perfect and pristine from having been babied (even at gigs), even though it was the best-playing and most comfortable guitar I owned. I had become convinced that it couldn't get JM tones, and that JM tones were all I needed in my life.
In the last 5 years though, after having learned how to properly set up a jaguar and mustang, and having discovered short scale acoustics were my jam, I rediscovered the short scale offsets. These days, all but two of the JMs/Partsmasters are gone, but I'm up to 8 Jaguars and Partsguars and three Mustangs.
Last year, I traded my last true Fender JM (a Classic Player) to reacquire another black HH Jaguar Special. But this one had some bumps and scrapes pretty much everywhere you looked - nothing earth shattering, but every time I picked it up, it just reminded me that I had traded away my perfect, pristine, awesome-playing beloved HH Special and had this stand-in now instead, which hadn't been cared for the way I take care of my instruments.
So, I decided to sell it for totally nonsensical and emotional reasons. But I really did love the format - the modding possibilities of the HH rout, the matching headstock, the neck profile, the hardtail for a different feel than my usual jags. I didn't really want to give that up, other than for the completely sentimental reason of missing the one that was mine.
A recent OSG thread reminded me of the cool, Japan-only colours that model had once come in. And lo and behold, one popped up on Reverb for a good price in my favourite of the lot: GMB, gunmetal blue, a sort of metalflake navy blue:
It was in great condition, too. So now it's on its way from Hawaii, and will probably be getting a roller bridge (or Mustang bridge if I decide to dowel and drill) and either a Les Trem II or the Bigsby B5 sitting in my parts drawer, along with a set of D'Urbano Big Birds (HB-sized Firebird pickups).
Blue offsets have always been my jam, and I'm super excited to enjoy an HH Special again, hopefully this time without thinking about "the one that got away" whenever I pick it up.
It'll definitely be getting a post in the mods forum when I get it decked out in the near future.
Correcting a mistake, NGD style: HH Jag Special Gunmetal
- Embenny
- PAT. # 2.972.923
- Posts: 10363
- Joined: Tue May 24, 2016 5:07 am
Correcting a mistake, NGD style: HH Jag Special Gunmetal
The artist formerly known as mbene085.
- HNB
- PAT. # 2.972.923
- Posts: 13540
- Joined: Tue May 10, 2011 7:55 am
- Location: Puyallup, Washington
- Contact:
- Embenny
- PAT. # 2.972.923
- Posts: 10363
- Joined: Tue May 24, 2016 5:07 am
Re: Correcting a mistake, NGD style: HH Jag Special Gunmetal
Yep, it's pretty much the Jaguar Cousin to the Lee Ranaldo JM:
The artist formerly known as mbene085.
- NICQ
- PAT. # 2.972.923
- Posts: 844
- Joined: Tue Dec 10, 2013 12:49 am
- Location: Vienna, Austria
Re: Correcting a mistake, NGD style: HH Jag Special Gunmetal
That has always been a unicorn in the offsetworld - that japanese ad still haunts me sometimes.. great find!
Love the GubMetalBlue.. will be a great guitar with FB-style pickups and trem
Love the GubMetalBlue.. will be a great guitar with FB-style pickups and trem
- kalipigeon
- PAT. # 2.972.923
- Posts: 1423
- Joined: Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:31 pm
- Location: Little Rock, AR, USA, Earth
- Contact:
Re: Correcting a mistake, NGD style: HH Jag Special Gunmetal
I have a gunmetal red burst, and these really are some great guitars. I've modded it like crazy over the years from stock, to P-Rails, to Jaguar single coils. Next stop, Fidelitrons from a reissue Coronado.
Congrats on your new blue, it's a great color.
Congrats on your new blue, it's a great color.
- Trout
- PAT. # 2.972.923
- Posts: 1081
- Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2014 4:32 am
- Location: Sweden
- Contact:
Re: Correcting a mistake, NGD style: HH Jag Special Gunmetal
Sweet stuff! I have the black HH and it’s a killer. I had a les trem on it for a while but took it off. Wasn’t enough space for it imho. There is a Ocean Turqoise metallic one for sale here but as I recently bought a body from rexter I just can’t go for another one
#sitdownrock at https://staffanandersson.bandcamp.com/album/det-hemliga-namnet
- Embenny
- PAT. # 2.972.923
- Posts: 10363
- Joined: Tue May 24, 2016 5:07 am
Re: Correcting a mistake, NGD style: HH Jag Special Gunmetal
Nice!kalipigeon wrote: ↑Wed Dec 26, 2018 7:34 amI have a gunmetal red burst, and these really are some great guitars. I've modded it like crazy over the years from stock, to P-Rails, to Jaguar single coils. Next stop, Fidelitrons from a reissue Coronado.
Congrats on your new blue, it's a great color.
I've had a few sets of pickups in my HH Specials over the year. GFS Retrotrons, Vintage Vibe alnico-rod HB-sized P90s, Burns Trisonic Minis, TV Jones Classic/Classic Plus...
Filtertrons definitely work well in them. I found that the bridge tone was perfect, but the neck pickup position on these jags is just a little too close to the bridge for my taste. I like a neck filtertron to be really sweet, and on my Jag, they had just a touch too much of that "middle pickup" flavour, which also made the middle position less sweet than on my Gretsch Bo Diddley which ended up being the permanent home of those pickups.
Then again, I was using the Tv Jones adapter pickup ring which centers the pickup in the humbucker rout. If you're wood-mounting those fidelitrons (the only option), I would cut a pickguard that places the pickup at the far neck end of the humbucker rout. That would probably give the best results.
Oh, did you find the Les Trem bar was not in an ergonomic position on this guitar? I also have a Bigsby B5 and vibramate, so I could try that first, but I was thinking of putting it on my Blacktop Jag along with the pair of firebird pickups that are on their way...the Les Trem looked like a more elegant and lighter weight solution than the vibramate and Bigsby so I'm curious as to the specifics of what you didn't enjoy about it.
And yes. I can totally empathize with the syndrome of "shit, I just bought ____, but this other guitar looks really good..."
Thanks! I know the exact Japanese ad you're talking about. I've wanted one of these for a long time. This was definitely the standout colour for me, but the few examples I'd fine online would either be beat up, unjustifiably expensive, or only available when I was broke (often a combination of the three). The stars finally aligned on this one!
The artist formerly known as mbene085.
- Trout
- PAT. # 2.972.923
- Posts: 1081
- Joined: Tue Dec 02, 2014 4:32 am
- Location: Sweden
- Contact:
Re: Correcting a mistake, NGD style: HH Jag Special Gunmetal
The trem itself worked like a charm but I found it to be in the way. Can’t really say why, just didn’t suit me at all.
#sitdownrock at https://staffanandersson.bandcamp.com/album/det-hemliga-namnet