Fender Venus Pickup Mod

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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Paleboy
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Fender Venus Pickup Mod

Post by Paleboy » Tue Jun 12, 2018 3:32 pm

Hey guys,
I'm just kinda getting back into guitar playing after a decades long absence. I never really got into the "tech" side of things so this is all new to me. In fact, just consider me totally new as all my guitar geekdom has mostly been in my head.
Anyhow, I have this old Fender Venus from back in the day. The humbucker gave out and the phone jack is kind of crackly. I'd like to try my hand at breathing new life into it. Nothing too extensive (no routing). So, I'm thinking Jaguar pickups for kind of a base surf guitar tone that can get shoegazy with effects. Assuming this isn't a stupid idea, how would I go about putting a single coil into the humbucker slot? And would Jag pickups even work (be useful) without all those switches and buttons? Are there single coil/humbucker sets out there that would just drop in and give me a similar tone? I'm not opposed to changing out all the electronic and switches and am not completely unfamiliar with a soldering iron.
Any help/advice would be appreciated and I'm open to all suggestions. I know these are probably super noob questions (I know how annoying that can be) but I've done about as much research as I can stand and haven't found a whole lot on people who've done simple mods to this guitar (that don't seem to be trying to turn it into something that it's not).
Thanks in advance.

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alkalineHemlock
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Re: Fender Venus Pickup Mod

Post by alkalineHemlock » Tue Jun 12, 2018 10:26 pm

Luckily, jag pickups mount directly to the wood of the body, so if it fits lengthwise within the humbucker rout, you're good to go. However, this leaves a massive hole in the pickguard that's unfilled by pickup, so you may have to look into getting a custom pickguard for a nice, clean look. The pickups will definitely work with the venus' stock electronic setup, though, so no need to worry there.

You could also look into finding a humbucker sized single coil, if you're not completely attached to the jag pickup idea. Buddha pickups on reverb does a pretty solid one, but it's decidedly more "strat-y" than jag-y.

Also, weird idea, but it looks like the humbucker cutout in the pickguard is contoured to the two coils... maybe try a faux humbucker/split coil setup with two jag pickups mounted adjacent to each other in the same rout? Just a thought.

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timtam
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Re: Fender Venus Pickup Mod

Post by timtam » Tue Jun 12, 2018 10:49 pm

"I just knew I wanted to make a sound that was the complete opposite of a Les Paul, and that’s pretty much a Jaguar." Rowland S. Howard.

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Paleboy
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Re: Fender Venus Pickup Mod

Post by Paleboy » Thu Jun 14, 2018 4:00 pm

Great information guys. I really appreciate it. So, now for the followup questions:

"Luckily, jag pickups mount directly to the wood of the body, so if it fits lengthwise within the humbucker rout, you're good to go. However, this leaves a massive hole in the pickguard that's unfilled by pickup, so you may have to look into getting a custom pickguard for a nice, clean look. "

Assuming the routing does fit lengthwise (going to check into that), being that the pickup mounts directly to the body, do I have to worry about height or, rather, the distance between the coils and the strings? Assuming so (because why wouldn't I?), how does one go about remedying that particular problem? Simple screw adjustment or something else?

"6 However, this leaves a massive hole in the pickguard that's unfilled by pickup, so you may have to look into getting a custom pickguard for a nice, clean look."

No problem there. I was thinking about replacing the old one anyway since it's yellowed so much. That looks good on some things, IMHO, but not white pearloid. It's like classic Star Trek- an old version of the future. I was thinking a gretsch-style clear-with-silver backing pickguard would look nice. This would also allow me to widen the cutouts, if necessary, to allow for the shielding claw. Some say it's pointless, some say it's integral. Why not keep it if I can?

So, with the new pickup in the new single coil cutout, do I need to fill in the remaining space left in the humbucker body cavity? Or is it irrelevant?

"The pickups will definitely work with the venus' stock electronic setup, though, so no need to worry there."

My concern here is that, with the original jaguar having all these switches and knobs, is it going to be straightforward enough for me to rig it up to my single volume pot and 3-way toggle? Or are there going to be all these loose wires going nowhere? And, for that matter, not having even a single tone pot on this guitar, I wonder if the "default" tone is even going to be what I hope. I suppose time will tell. One day, who knows, maybe I'll get someone who knows their way around a router and end up installing a genuine jaguar wiring harness in there, switches and all! But not today.

Thanks again.

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Re: Fender Venus Pickup Mod

Post by timtam » Thu Jun 14, 2018 5:17 pm

If you look at the current thread on the new jag Tidepool you can see that a jag SC is substantially wider than a HB above the pickguard, as it has both ....
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/vie ... 6&t=108820

Under the pickguard, allowing for HB screws, the Venus HB rout may be too narrow for a jag pickup ...
Image

The Jag pickup's mounting is basic to say the least, and may or may not work for you in the Venus. Jag pickups come with longish screws that go into the floor of the cavity. Whether they will work for you will depend on the depth of the Venus cavity. In any case it's a poor piece of low cost engineering. To push the pickup upward as the screw is adjusted for height, a jag has a piece of rubber/foam sitting in the cavity that does the job of the spring on a humbucker mounting. I have recently taken to replacing that whole mounting system with an M3 rivet nut drilled into the floor of the cavity, and M3 humbucker screws with springs. Or instead of the rivet nut you could use a PCB plastic or brass standoff with M3 thread. You may want to pack the rest of the HB cavity with some sort of filler but it's not really necessary.
"I just knew I wanted to make a sound that was the complete opposite of a Les Paul, and that’s pretty much a Jaguar." Rowland S. Howard.

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Mechanical Birds
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Re: Fender Venus Pickup Mod

Post by Mechanical Birds » Fri Jun 15, 2018 7:54 am

Install an offset tremolo and make this guitar truly truly awesome

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alkalineHemlock
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Re: Fender Venus Pickup Mod

Post by alkalineHemlock » Fri Jun 15, 2018 12:10 pm

Okay, so, I believe, as long as a jag pickup will fit in the existing routes, all that you need to do is source some extra-long mounting screws, and a good deal of pickup mounting foam. This should get you the height you need. If foam isn't cutting it for you, springs could work in this situation, a la telecaster neck pickups.

The extra wood missing from the bridge route really shouldn't matter, but it could POSSIBLY give it a slightly more hollow sound. I know that my friend hates my jazzmaster for sounding hollow due to the amount of empty space beneath the pickguard, but I honestly don't hear it at all.

As for the pickup wiring, they have the standard "one ground, one hot" wiring scheme as any other pickup. It's all the switches and stuff that add the complexity of the jaguar to the guitar. So, in theory, it's as easy as "pickup-to-switch-to-pot-to-jack". As for the simplicity affecting the tone negatively... who can say? I'm sure there are jaguar jr. type builds out there, but I haven't any experience with them myself. I'd imagine it's just like having the pickup going with the tone pot at 10 all that time, though, so it might get a bit bright. It might be a good idea to just shove a tone pot in there, but that's up to you.

Timtam, it looks like the rout will JUST fit, but I haven't measured. Good catch. It's possible that he could mount it at a slight angle too, though, to compensate for any fitment issues?

(Also, a Gretsch clear pickguard would look pretty awesome, you should totally go for it.)

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Paleboy
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Re: Fender Venus Pickup Mod

Post by Paleboy » Fri Jun 15, 2018 6:53 pm

Super cool answers, guys. I'm getting excited again. I'm starting to understand things a bit more. Things are starting to click. I hadn't realized that it's all the extra electronic paraphernalia itself that provided the tonal options and whatnot. I'd been thinking about it more of like a computer without a keyboard, like the pickup had a brain or something.

At the minimum, I'm thinking adding a tone pot is in order and, since i'm changing up the pickguard, now would be the time to think about how I want to lay things out. And while I'm pondering routing, even if jags don't fit as is, it wouldn't be a stretch really to just widen the cutouts just a bit more- IF necessary. I guess I'm giving up the idea of keeping the guitar unadulterated. It's got dings and dents anyway. It's not like it's ever gonna be a million dollar classic, right? Might as well make it my own.

As long as no one tires of my noobie questions and, likely, soon-to-be misplaced pride for my accomplishment, I'll keep posting. LOL.

Any downside to mounting a pickup at a slight angle? Maybe the same as the neck pickup? Or, maybe I already know the answer to that one: So long as the pole pieces line up with the strings, all should be fine. Time will tell.

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