Do you ever wish your offset was different?

[graceless]

The pickup selector location on my Jazzmaster. I play mostly sitting down, and if I lean over while holding the guitar it switches to the neck pickup. Maybe it just has a mind of its own and knows what tone it likes best, though.

I can't stand this. Seems whenever I have to adjust a pedal with my hand it knocks it into the neck pickup selector. The jaguar control plate design is unequivocally better in every way IMO

[SignoftheDragon]

I mean, I kinda wish my MIJ Jazzmaster would morph into a 1954 Stratocaster

...but that's mostly for financial reasons

We'd have to kick your ass right off this forum.

No offset? No play.

[SignoftheDragon]

I wish my Surfcaster 12 came in white.

I take it back- I wish my black Surf12 was white.

[marqueemoon]

The pickup selector location on my Jazzmaster. I play mostly sitting down, and if I lean over while holding the guitar it switches to the neck pickup. Maybe it just has a mind of its own and knows what tone it likes best, though.

I can't stand this. Seems whenever I have to adjust a pedal with my hand it knocks it into the neck pickup selector. The jaguar control plate design is unequivocally better in every way IMO

The whole control layout on a JM is a little visually awkward, as is the pickguard.

Both the lead pickup selector switch and knobs aren’t properly centered, and that whole area of the pickguard around the bridge pickup on the bass side.

It’s a classic look at this point, but the Jag layout is much better.

[garyfanclub]

The whole control layout on a JM is a little visually awkward, as is the pickguard.

Both the lead pickup selector switch and knobs aren’t properly centered, and that whole area of the pickguard around the bridge pickup on the bass side.

It’s a classic look at this point, but the Jag layout is much better.

Interesting, I've never noticed this.

The silver lining here is that the JM's lead circuit volume knob is just about *perfectly* placed for pinky volume swells!

[welshywelsh]

I wish I had a matching headstock on my LPB Marr Jag.

[Kinx]

I wish my 72 had a B neck profile instead of A neck . I love it, but B necks are still somewhat more comfy to me.

[higgsblossom]

I regret that I was a coward and bought a Sunburst Pawn Shop Bass VI. The CAR was way more beautiful. I thought it was too shiny for me. I was wrong.

[muffonrat]

I wish my mustangs had a wider neck!
Really like the sound with traditional pick ups, the small and light body but the width near the nut feels really cramped
Other than that I am very happy with all of my guitars offsets or not

[MayTheFuzzBeWithYou]

Sometimes I wish I had the decal on my Rexter-Firemisty Master reversed (gold with black outlines instead of black with gold outlines).

...I changed about every (reversible) thing about my Thinline Jag and would still sometimes wish for a nice Tort and a (2 color) Sunburst to really match it - or a second - black one to fulfill that need while the Sunburst stays a Black-guard with whatever Pickup combination I want to try next...

[LBx]

I had be happy if my MIJ just wriggled out of the poly and into some nitro.

I feel exactly the same about my CIJ.

[mgeek]

I wish the neck on my ‘63 was straight. It was stored for 20 years before I got it and even after a dozen pro setup attempts it still buzzes on the 3rd fret G and D unless the action is higher than I want it. Years ago I looked at sourcing a ‘63 neck but they were all getting sold for Strat replacements.

What if you got the neck planed and refretted?

I did that to another vintage Fender that was slightly worse than this. It had a slab board (1961) and was playable with a slightly higher action than I like for a little less than a year. It ended up worse than it was before when it was barely playable with high action and now it’s completely unplayable. That guitar now has a non-vintage Fender neck.

This neck is a 1963, so it’s veneer. Not going to ruin it. It’s playable. I had a luthier with 40 years experience say that it’s “Not that bad, I’ve seen worse!” and that my action was really low. So it’s higher now. Not as high as the 1961 had to be before it got a new neck though.

All my guitars got the action slightly raised after that for consistency, except for the J Mascis, it needed to be lowered.

I'm dead against the planing thing... seems barbaric, and even if it works you end up with a fretboard that varies in thickness over the neck... would do my head in.

Have you considered some sort of heat treatment? I've had a lot of luck doing that with old guitars without trussrods. Even twists. You just clamp it up til it's straight, then take it a tad further beyond where you want it to end up and ... I wrap an electric blanket round em and leave it overnight. Might take a couple of goes but it does the trick. Can't really ruin anything either

[fuzzjunkie]

What if you got the neck planed and refretted?

I did that to another vintage Fender that was slightly worse than this. It had a slab board (1961) and was playable with a slightly higher action than I like for a little less than a year. It ended up worse than it was before when it was barely playable with high action and now it’s completely unplayable. That guitar now has a non-vintage Fender neck.

This neck is a 1963, so it’s veneer. Not going to ruin it. It’s playable. I had a luthier with 40 years experience say that it’s “Not that bad, I’ve seen worse!” and that my action was really low. So it’s higher now. Not as high as the 1961 had to be before it got a new neck though.

All my guitars got the action slightly raised after that for consistency, except for the J Mascis, it needed to be lowered.

I'm dead against the planing thing... seems barbaric, and even if it works you end up with a fretboard that varies in thickness over the neck... would do my head in.

Have you considered some sort of heat treatment? I've had a lot of luck doing that with old guitars without trussrods. Even twists. You just clamp it up til it's straight, then take it a tad further beyond where you want it to end up and ... I wrap an electric blanket round em and leave it overnight. Might take a couple of goes but it does the trick. Can't really ruin anything either

When I tried to fix the Tele neck I was unaware of any heat treatment repairs. Both the guys I took it to, who were local experts working in vintage guitar shops, said that planing and a refret was the best option. There was an attempt to reset it by clamping and adjusting the truss rod without heat, but that failed.

Since then I have heard of heating and resetting guitar necks, but not with an electric blanket. I thought an oven set on low heat was involved? Anyway, after I was recommended to just live with it or find a replacement neck, I haven’t wanted to risk roasting it in an oven.

[mgeek]

When I tried to fix the Tele neck I was unaware of any heat treatment repairs. Both the guys I took it to, who were local experts working in vintage guitar shops, said that planing and a refret was the best option. There was an attempt to reset it by clamping and adjusting the truss rod without heat, but that failed.

Since then I have heard of heating and resetting guitar necks, but not with an electric blanket. I thought an oven set on low heat was involved? Anyway, after I was recommended to just live with it or find a replacement neck, I haven’t wanted to risk roasting it in an oven.

sorry for the late reply, not logged in for a while

Sometimes 'proper' ways have become accepted but when you examine it there's no good reason for that?

I used to hang around on the Reranch forums, bunch of old boy luthier types who were quite set in their ways on there, and the received wisdom was that if you heated it and bent it, you were trying to go against what the wood wanted to do, and it would find a way back to that position...whereas if you plane it it's already done it's shift and should be stronger

Sounds good in theory but a lot of the time when guitar necks bend it's because they've been left tuned to pitch in a loft or something, it's nothing to do with the wood being left to its own devices and shifting of it's own accord - heat time and pressure bent them in the first place, so it stands to reason that doing the same in reverse will cure it.

Likewise, if a neck has backbowed - that might be the wood drying out to the position it wants to end up in, but if time heat and pressure can pull a neck forward when left in a loft, then doing that deliberately can undo the drying out position the wood has taken on.

The method of heating is unimportant I'd say... I'd never heard of someone using an oven til today, coincidentally, there's a stewmac neck heater thing, some people use a hot car in the summer. Electric blanket and an iron works fine for me.

[DeathJag]

Leave it in a hot car in Summer! Down here it would melt the frets haha!