My Jaguar Has Lipsticks Now!

Discussion of newer designs, copies and reissue offset-waist instruments.
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BTL
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Re: My Jaguar Has Lipsticks Now!

Post by BTL » Thu Jul 15, 2021 12:44 pm

It's a beautiful guitar and I hope you get the pickup situation sorted.
Owner, Lowe Custom Guitars

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Strango
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Re: My Jaguar Has Lipsticks Now!

Post by Strango » Thu Jul 15, 2021 5:27 pm

What a beautiful guitar! What model is it? Good luck with the pickup.

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Re: My Jaguar Has Lipsticks Now!

Post by Novae » Thu Jul 15, 2021 6:17 pm

MayTheFuzzBeWithYou wrote:
Thu Jul 15, 2021 10:10 am
Looking good! :w00t:
I always wondered why Curtis' Lipsticks for Jag are so rare on here... as his concept is great! So thank you for changing this!
Lipsticks would be a nice addition to my Thinline Jag if I only could get brushed ones like on the Dead on 67 Baritone I once had (nothing wrong with the chrome ones - but in my case I'd need to match the brushed plates and Mastery).

Did you try the Mint guard with the stock pickups/covers? with parchment or at least not so yellowed ones it would work (at least for me - but I went with black in the end). These Vinteras are great guitars! :-*
I didn't have the lipsticks when i was trying out the mint guard. I still much prefer the tort on this guitar. It's a weird combo but i just like it a lot. I think mint is the obvious choice and therefore a bit boring for me personally. I'd love a black jaguar with a parchment or mint guard with a matching headstock though...

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Re: My Jaguar Has Lipsticks Now!

Post by Novae » Fri Jul 16, 2021 12:46 pm

Strango wrote:
Thu Jul 15, 2021 5:27 pm
What a beautiful guitar! What model is it? Good luck with the pickup.
Thank you! It's a MIM Fender Vintera 60's Jaguar in Ocean Turquoise Metallic.

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Re: My Jaguar Has Lipsticks Now!

Post by Strango » Mon Jul 26, 2021 9:39 am

Nice, those look great. I'm getting ready to be in the market for a Jag and those are awful tempting.

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Re: My Jaguar Has Lipsticks Now!

Post by Novae » Thu Sep 09, 2021 3:30 am

Good news! Received a replacement pickup and it is at the luthier's shop at the moment waiting for installation. Measured at the expected 3.4k. It's almost done. Just gotta wait a little longer until i can go pick it up...

Edit:

I've been playing the guitar with just the bridge lipstick while i was waiting for the neck pickup issue to be sorted out. It really hit the spot for me tone wise. I have so much control over the dynamics and the guitar seems to be even more sensitive to pick placement along the strings compared to the original pickups. The cleans actually sound interesting to me now. I typically dislike completely clean tone but with this pickup it's actually interesting sounding, especially with appropriate effects in the chain.

I'm most likely going to record a demo when the guitar is done. So many people have been asking for one and i can't find any demos really of this set of pickups on YouTube or anything.

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Re: My Jaguar Has Lipsticks Now!

Post by smora » Thu Sep 09, 2021 10:33 am

Wow, that looks great! I've thought about getting these for my own Jag. I've had Novak Jag-V's since the late 2000's and they've never given me any problems, so that's really unlucky what happened to you. I did order a JM-180 I think around the time you posted this thread. He mailed me a package, but forgot to send the actual pickup. He told me he had foot surgery and had to keep his leg elevated most of the time, while still trying to fulfill all his orders. That and the pain medication and I can understand why he was making mistakes.

Do these lipstick pickups tame the attack of the Jaguar at all? That's the part of the Jag sound I wish I could tone down sometimes. If these can mellow that part of the sound I'm going to have to check them out.

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Re: My Jaguar Has Lipsticks Now!

Post by Mechanical Birds » Thu Sep 09, 2021 11:45 am

Novae wrote:
Wed Jul 14, 2021 8:02 am
I've dreamed about this for a while now. Everything is stock except the pickups and knobs and also the 3 switches in the lead circuit were swapped. I went for the Curtis Novak Lipstick Jag vintage low output ones. Here's a pic the luthier took outside his shop.

Image576gw547hr5g7 by Novae IMGS, on Flickr

Unfortunately the neck pickup is faulty and is much lower output it's supposed to be. The pickups were advertised as 3.4k for the neck and 4.0k for the bridge. The neck pickup reading was 2.27k. It sounds quite dark but it works and i can use it since i love using the rhythm circuit with the stock pickups for that really dark tone. The bridge pickup is fine and sounds lovely. It's just a bummer that i'm not sure if that neck pickup is truly supposed to sound the way it sounds right now. It bothers me. I'm still waiting for a response from Curtis himself regarding this. Hopefully i'll either get a partial refund or a new pickup, but we'll see.

Here's my thread when the pickups were installed and the problems began: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=119675

I love this guitar to death, even in this state... :? :-*
Omg looks so good!

I modded my first Jag to have lipsticks but bought the pickups before I really knew anything about them. They’re Kent Armstrong Pocket Rockets and they sound fine, can get real sloppy in a good way, but they’re smaller so there’s a huge bunch of space surrounding them between the guard so it looks kinda weird. I have a handful of the regular size Dano ones but have been putting off forever switching them out. Thinking about trying to find a CAR VM Jag to do it with, but seeing what you’ve done here is making me really seriously consider getting one of these to match my Thin Skin. If only it had binding!
Last edited by Mechanical Birds on Thu Sep 09, 2021 11:49 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: My Jaguar Has Lipsticks Now!

Post by Mechanical Birds » Thu Sep 09, 2021 11:48 am

Interestingly enough, when I googled ‘lipstick pickups in Jaguar’ my guitar is among the first couple pictures. It doesn’t look like this now since I put a vintage tort thing on it, but you can see the weird space thing I was talking about

Image

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Re: My Jaguar Has Lipsticks Now!

Post by Surfysonic » Thu Sep 09, 2021 11:51 am

Very nice! I'm glad to hear the issue with the neck pickup is getting resolved.

The stock tort pickguard looks great and if you're happy with it, that's all that matters. I say this while I've been back into a mint and parchment (more cream than parchment I guess) phase.

I love your replacement volume and tone knobs - they look perfectly killer on your Jag. Congrats again all around! 8)
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Re: My Jaguar Has Lipsticks Now!

Post by Novae » Fri Sep 10, 2021 2:29 pm

smora wrote:
Thu Sep 09, 2021 10:33 am
Wow, that looks great! I've thought about getting these for my own Jag. I've had Novak Jag-V's since the late 2000's and they've never given me any problems, so that's really unlucky what happened to you. I did order a JM-180 I think around the time you posted this thread. He mailed me a package, but forgot to send the actual pickup. He told me he had foot surgery and had to keep his leg elevated most of the time, while still trying to fulfill all his orders. That and the pain medication and I can understand why he was making mistakes.

Do these lipstick pickups tame the attack of the Jaguar at all? That's the part of the Jag sound I wish I could tone down sometimes. If these can mellow that part of the sound I'm going to have to check them out.
Yeah, seems like a very unfortunate time for him right now. He explained briefly about the situation and everything to me when we exchanged emails.

I wouldn't say they tame the sound, just shapes it completely. It's still bright and jangly but even more so. It's not ear-piercingly bright or anything. I think the top end is smoother and the high mids are not poking your ears as much. I think switching the pot values to a lower set could be the answer for you, unless you really want to try these pickups. Either way you'll get some results

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Re: My Jaguar Has Lipsticks Now!

Post by Novae » Fri Sep 10, 2021 2:31 pm

Mechanical Birds wrote:
Thu Sep 09, 2021 11:48 am
Interestingly enough, when I googled ‘lipstick pickups in Jaguar’ my guitar is among the first couple pictures. It doesn’t look like this now since I put a vintage tort thing on it, but you can see the weird space thing I was talking about

Image
I was aware of the different size ones and kept making sure the Novaks were the wider ones. I wouldn't have been able to deal with having that space there myself. It's nice to be able to adjust the height more easily with those but that doesn't need to be done often so it doesn't bother me that you have to remove the pickguard to adjust things. Lovely guitar!

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Re: My Jaguar Has Lipsticks Now!

Post by smora » Fri Sep 10, 2021 3:01 pm

Mechanical Birds wrote:
Thu Sep 09, 2021 11:48 am
Interestingly enough, when I googled ‘lipstick pickups in Jaguar’ my guitar is among the first couple pictures. It doesn’t look like this now since I put a vintage tort thing on it, but you can see the weird space thing I was talking about

Image
Wait, does that UFO tip fit on the standard Fender unit? I got one for my Mastery vibrato and found it a functional upgrade. I don't plan to change the vibrato on all my JM's, but it would be nice if I could still use the UFO tip.

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Re: My Jaguar Has Lipsticks Now!

Post by Mechanical Birds » Fri Sep 10, 2021 3:39 pm

Yeah! It’s standard thread size. Mastery has that goofy disclaimer saying it’s for use only with Mastery arms but it’s funny because it doesn’t say “this will only work with mastery arms.”

Like you said it’s functional, gives you a little chunk to grab onto. I love it and wanna put it on all my stuff but they’re expensive. Definitely a cool thing to have though!

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