A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
User avatar
Rgand
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1171
Joined: Sun Mar 05, 2017 3:55 pm

Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity

Post by Rgand » Fri Apr 14, 2017 7:07 am

Thanks to this thread, a friend of mine bought one to mod. Thank you for the heads-up.

User avatar
Mad-Mike
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1619
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2006 1:04 pm
Location: Somewhere
Contact:

Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity

Post by Mad-Mike » Fri Apr 14, 2017 9:23 am

Hellopike wrote:
Mad-Mike wrote:Looks like when these start appearing for $54.00 at the thrift shops, I might pick up a few and build a few more Jazzy's for my artillery.

Think that'll happen with these? New Guitar prices keep going up and as a result so do the used prices. And yeah you can find affinity strats for about $50, but that's no guarantee the JM will be- take the affinity telecaster for example. They hold their value more than the ubiquitous Strat...
I think it might, I see the Teles go for cheap sometimes too. Of course, by $54.00 - I'm meaning finding the beat to crap ones at Pawn shops that some bratty kid put stickers all over, broke off switches/pots, is missing a string or a few, and looks like someone poured superglue on it all over the place - not one of the nicer ones. It seems Pawn shops are great prlces to find project guitars to rehab. I almost never buy anything "nice" in those places.

User avatar
Mad-Mike
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1619
Joined: Mon Oct 02, 2006 1:04 pm
Location: Somewhere
Contact:

Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity

Post by Mad-Mike » Fri Apr 14, 2017 9:26 am

vale wrote:^^^ Mad-Mike, you just wrote the bible! huge thank you for that post.

it sounds as if we have pretty similar neck tastes & needs. am always surprised by how many different permutations of single pickup/humbucker/tremolo/no-tremolo/etc/etc for there are for every guitar, & yet usually the neck stays stubbonly one-size fits all. that's the bit i interact with most & have least abilty to tweak myself, so that's where i need the options to be able to get something i like.
i basically buy guitars for the neck feel first, body shape second, & the electrics & hardware doesn't even figure because i have my own fixed ideas about that stuff so it invariably gets stripped & parted out.

in a way it's a good thing, as my neck fussiness means i have all but given up window-shopping for new things really & just stick to something i had tweaked to my tastes neckwise. which saves time & energy.
but on the other, it would be nice to have one other guitar i really liked the neck of, just to alternate.

so your mini-guide as to which affinities might suit me is really appreciated as it gives me starting points where i had none.

it look as if the affinity jazzmaster (going but known nut with) is going to be the later standard depth. but if it is roughly swappable with old affinity necks (bridge may need replacing if neck is much lower) that's useful to know.
i also wonder if it means that (if the old & new affinty necks are similar in construction (truss rod depth) that a new neck could be safely shaved back to the thinner old depth without risking stability. that would also be usful to know.
that would save a lot of agony if so.

food for thought.

I think the neck size change was something done out of fashion. Fender, and some of the other guitar companies, tend to make slight changes in thickness and outline to their products over the years to follow certain trends, fashion, or because they changed production to a different facility with different tooling. Since the Affinity guitars are starting with CY series (Chinese Yako) - I'm betting the necks are just cut using a different machine now to fit the current taste in thicker necks. It sort of swings back and fourth on what's preferred. Plus the Affinity series is getting gigged quite a bit now by some local musicians sbecause of what Hellopike mentioned, and that's the rising prices of guitars in general (although finding a VM Jazzy for $217 I'd think maybe that's just in some places when it comes to used).

User avatar
Canis Latrans
PAT PEND
PAT PEND
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Jan 21, 2014 1:33 pm

Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity

Post by Canis Latrans » Mon May 29, 2017 1:56 pm

Hey OP, i ordered one of these, alas, it'll take two moths (!) to arrive because something something squier factory. I plan to have a laminated walnut pickguard made for it. Is the guard exactly routed like a regular JM's? i know you posted pics, but they don't show up.

User avatar
Rgand
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1171
Joined: Sun Mar 05, 2017 3:55 pm

Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity

Post by Rgand » Mon May 29, 2017 8:31 pm

A friend of mine got one and we took a look inside in prep for modding. It looks like it's routed the same as my Warmoth JM. Exactly, though? Can't be sure of that. Before you order, have the pickguard manufacturer send you a paper pattern that you can check against yours. The pickguard holes may need to be moved to fit your new guard but it sure looked like it was standard JM routing. The control cavity may be a slight bit shallower due to the body thickness being thinner.

User avatar
sirspens
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 786
Joined: Sun Nov 08, 2015 8:26 pm
Location: Austin, Texas
Contact:

Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity

Post by sirspens » Sat Jun 10, 2017 5:13 pm

Canis Latrans wrote:Hey OP, i ordered one of these, alas, it'll take two moths (!) to arrive because something something squier factory. I plan to have a laminated walnut pickguard made for it. Is the guard exactly routed like a regular JM's? i know you posted pics, but they don't show up.
I ordered an American Jazzmaster pickguard from WD to make this into a Jazzblaster, and it fits pretty good (except those exposed screw holes from the bridge that I show). The screw holes don't line up exactly, but that is to be expected.

The route is for humbuckers, so if you plan on putting JM pickups in, you are probably going to have to do some routing.

As for the neck, I am a fan of very thin necks, and this neck does NOT disappoint.

(Sorry I had to disappear for a while. I just started my own Architecture firm, so I am no longer working two jobs. Also, the pictures are back up. I changed hosting plans and everything is back to normal now.)

User avatar
Embenny
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 10363
Joined: Tue May 24, 2016 5:07 am

Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity

Post by Embenny » Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:43 am

Man, it's going to be hard to resist buying one of these to make a strato-master. SSS would drop right in...
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

User avatar
Rgand
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1171
Joined: Sun Mar 05, 2017 3:55 pm

Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity

Post by Rgand » Mon Jun 12, 2017 7:29 am

mbene085 wrote:Man, it's going to be hard to resist buying one of these to make a strato-master. SSS would drop right in...
Resistance is futile.

Go for it. :w00t:

User avatar
sirspens
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 786
Joined: Sun Nov 08, 2015 8:26 pm
Location: Austin, Texas
Contact:

Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity

Post by sirspens » Mon Jun 12, 2017 9:31 pm

mbene085 wrote:Man, it's going to be hard to resist buying one of these to make a strato-master. SSS would drop right in...
Yes. Yes it will.

User avatar
higgsblossom
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1066
Joined: Thu Jan 09, 2014 2:55 am
Location: Mannheim, Germany

Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity

Post by higgsblossom » Wed May 16, 2018 10:54 pm

Finally a guitar that can be used for the Filtertrons I have lying around. They are great pickups that don't get better in a box, so... that justifies buying yet another guitar, right? :D
"500€? That's the price of a J Mascis Jazzmaster!"

User avatar
Rgand
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1171
Joined: Sun Mar 05, 2017 3:55 pm

Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity

Post by Rgand » Thu May 17, 2018 6:44 am

higgsblossom wrote:
Wed May 16, 2018 10:54 pm
Finally a guitar that can be used for the Filtertrons I have lying around. They are great pickups that don't get better in a box, so... that justifies buying yet another guitar, right? :D
I have a couple pickguard screws lying around and THAT's enough to justify another guitar. :w00t:

User avatar
NICQ
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 841
Joined: Tue Dec 10, 2013 12:49 am
Location: Vienna, Austria

Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity

Post by NICQ » Thu May 17, 2018 11:13 pm

I bought a Jazzmaster Affnity and turned it into a Stratomaster - had to route a small bit for the neck pickup to fit and enlarge the switch cavity to accomodate both - the 5way strat and neck on/off switch

The pickguard is just temporary - it's a thin adhesive tort blank for an acoustic that I cut out roughly

Image
Image

here's the whole Stratomaster bunch:

Image

User avatar
-=Todd Fox=-
PAT PEND
PAT PEND
Posts: 37
Joined: Tue Jan 30, 2018 8:20 am

Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity

Post by -=Todd Fox=- » Fri May 18, 2018 12:01 pm

marqueemoon wrote:
Mon Apr 10, 2017 9:03 pm
preservation wrote:if i can find this body on the Stratosphere i'm gonna freak out
Ha. Same.
https://stratosphereparts.com/2017-fend ... tar-black/
Get your freak on.

Although at $120 I'm not sure you're saving much from the whole guitar at the $199 list price.
A product of a late 70's homesteading experiment.
You can't spell avarice without AVRI.

User avatar
marqueemoon
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 7343
Joined: Mon Jun 20, 2016 9:37 pm
Location: Seattle

Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity

Post by marqueemoon » Fri May 18, 2018 8:40 pm

-=Todd Fox=- wrote:
Fri May 18, 2018 12:01 pm
marqueemoon wrote:
Mon Apr 10, 2017 9:03 pm
preservation wrote:if i can find this body on the Stratosphere i'm gonna freak out
Ha. Same.
https://stratosphereparts.com/2017-fend ... tar-black/
Get your freak on.

Although at $120 I'm not sure you're saving much from the whole guitar at the $199 list price.
Yeah. I'm not as enthusiastic about this as I once was. If I'm gonna do a project I want it to be exactly what I want, and for me that means a tremolo.

User avatar
2after909
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 300
Joined: Thu Dec 23, 2010 11:01 am
Location: Brooklyn, NY

Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity

Post by 2after909 » Tue Jul 24, 2018 8:31 am

I posted asking if anybody's tried a neck swap on these, and, if so, whether a Fender, Warmoth, or Allparts neck will fit these bodies, but then I found the awesome XII conversion thread, which answered my question. I gotta get one of these...

Post Reply