A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity
- Rgand
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Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity
Thanks to this thread, a friend of mine bought one to mod. Thank you for the heads-up.
- Mad-Mike
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Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity
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.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...
- Mad-Mike
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Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity
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).
- Canis Latrans
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Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity
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.
- Rgand
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Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity
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.
- sirspens
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Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity
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.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.
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.)
- Embenny
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Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity
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.
- Rgand
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Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity
Resistance is futile.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...
Go for it.
- sirspens
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Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity
Yes. Yes it will.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...
- higgsblossom
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Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity
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?
"500€? That's the price of a J Mascis Jazzmaster!"
- Rgand
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Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity
I have a couple pickguard screws lying around and THAT's enough to justify another guitar.higgsblossom wrote: ↑Wed May 16, 2018 10:54 pmFinally 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?
- NICQ
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Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity
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
here's the whole Stratomaster bunch:
The pickguard is just temporary - it's a thin adhesive tort blank for an acoustic that I cut out roughly
here's the whole Stratomaster bunch:
- -=Todd Fox=-
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Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity
https://stratosphereparts.com/2017-fend ... tar-black/marqueemoon wrote: ↑Mon Apr 10, 2017 9:03 pmHa. Same.preservation wrote:if i can find this body on the Stratosphere i'm gonna freak out
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.
You can't spell avarice without AVRI.
- marqueemoon
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Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity
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.-=Todd Fox=- wrote: ↑Fri May 18, 2018 12:01 pmhttps://stratosphereparts.com/2017-fend ... tar-black/marqueemoon wrote: ↑Mon Apr 10, 2017 9:03 pmHa. Same.preservation wrote:if i can find this body on the Stratosphere i'm gonna freak out
Get your freak on.
Although at $120 I'm not sure you're saving much from the whole guitar at the $199 list price.
- 2after909
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Re: A Hacker's Guide to the Squier Jazzmaster Affinity
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...