NGD: Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar 2017

Discussion of newer designs, copies and reissue offset-waist instruments.
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Novae
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NGD: Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar 2017

Post by Novae » Sun Jan 16, 2022 5:24 am

Bought this VM Jaguar used yesterday. It's a little beat up and has some switched out parts. Bought it since I needed a second guitar because I'm experimenting with tunings more and more. Switched out parts include: Mint pickguard, Fender V-Mod pickups, Fender Classic Player Vibrato and a Mustang bridge. The original pickups were thrown in and a set of 11-48 strings, which happen to be my preferred set! Other OG parts were gone.

So here are some notes:

Neck: Slimmer than my Vintera Jaguar, feels wider but probably just feels that way rather than actually being wider measurements, but I could check later. I don't like this neck profile as much. I have small hands but still somehow prefer thicker, more rounded necks with some shoulder to it. Fretboard is really nice, dark rosewood with some red hue in it. Gave it a good clean and some oil. Frets don't bother me at all. Can't really tell much about them other than they feel fine to me. Truss rod access at the headstock instead of neck heel is convenient but not so pleasing to my eye, but for this guitar it's a good thing to have. Tuners work (that's really it). Neck has a shim, but it's pieces of paper staggered on top of each other to avoid a gap towards the other end of the neck pocket. This won't do long-term, so I have a Stew Mac 0.5 degree shim on the way.

Pickups: The V-Mods that are installed sound really good with a Ram's Head Big Muff and a RAT. These pickups shine with distortion. They're higher output than the typical vintage style Jaguar pickups. I prefer lower output, but these are nice to have for higher gain sounds. The clean sound does not do it for me, at least not right now. I've become used to really low output lipsticks that have a lot of dynamics. These sound like "bottoming out" when hitting the strings hard enough without the strings/frets actually bottoming out. I lowered the pickups, especially the neck to just tame it down a bit. Works a bit better for me now. A Tube Screamer very easily starts giving some drive with these. I tend to use it more as a mid boost with enough drive to give color to the clean signal, but without any distortion really.

Bridge and vibrato: The mustang bridge has some electrical tape around the posts, but it still rocks when the vibrato is used. I like a rocking bridge, but I suspect my Vintera from the factory has less than normal amount of rocking range on the bridge. This mustang bridge would rock more than my Vintera's stock bridge if I removed the tape on it. Interesting little detail... The Classic Player vibrato feels surprisingly smooth, if not better than the Vintera unit. Should be the same part since they both have screw-in arms and are both MIM parts. Arm has too much play as is, so I put some electrical tape on the threads on both units.

Body: Has good weight to it without being too light or heavy. Maybe heavier than my Vintera actually. The sunburst finish is pretty good. This one is a deeper one with more black around the edges. It has a touch too much red on it though.

Misc. notes: Sounds darker acoustically than my Vintera with the same gauge strings.

I was very hesitant to buy a budget guitar again after owning a few cheaper instruments over the years and wasn't happy with 90% of them. I had a Squier JMJM way back as my first electric 8-10 years ago. I will never forget the neck on that. The quality was there overall too. That gave me hope when I saw this VM Jaguar for sale. Heard good things about them too.

This is a great guitar for the price, but you might need to upgrade the pickups and/or the vibrato + bridge. Stock bridges can be made to work properly with proper neck angle and shims (and Loctite!) though, which is far more important for these guitars than just swapping the bridge out.

ImageIMG_E3808 by Novae IMGS, on Flickr

ImageIMG_E3811 by Novae IMGS, on Flickr

ImageIMG_3818 by Novae IMGS, on Flickr

Are these some kind of mini pots? I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to pots...
ImageIMG_3820 by Novae IMGS, on Flickr

ImageIMG_3824 by Novae IMGS, on Flickr

ImageIMG_E3814 by Novae IMGS, on Flickr

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MKR
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Re: NGD: Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar 2017

Post by MKR » Mon Jan 17, 2022 8:14 am

nice guitar. I love the mint pickguard on it. Looks so nice and classy.

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Novae
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Re: NGD: Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar 2017

Post by Novae » Mon Jan 17, 2022 10:49 pm

MKR wrote:
Mon Jan 17, 2022 8:14 am
nice guitar. I love the mint pickguard on it. Looks so nice and classy.
It's definitely a good one! Funnily enough, there was one for sale in all original condition with a tort guard, but this one was more interesting to me and better parts from the get go, so no money needed to put into it ;D

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GreenKnee
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Re: NGD: Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar 2017

Post by GreenKnee » Tue Jan 18, 2022 2:24 am

I've always loved this look. A mis-match matching headstock completes it. I was really tempted to copy Bill Frissel's Jaguar with my own AO, but went pink instead 8)

Image

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Novae
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Re: NGD: Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar 2017

Post by Novae » Tue Jan 18, 2022 1:19 pm

GreenKnee wrote:
Tue Jan 18, 2022 2:24 am
I've always loved this look. A mis-match matching headstock completes it. I was really tempted to copy Bill Frissel's Jaguar with my own AO, but went pink instead 8)

Image
Wow, I actually thought of that for fun yesterday and was a bit freaked out when I saw this afterwards :D Maybe I should try it haha

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Novae
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Re: NGD: Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar 2017

Post by Novae » Wed Jan 19, 2022 8:12 am

Well, I couldn't resist trying this out :D Looks great to me. It's such a nice neck and the vibrato/bridge set up is so much smoother in this Squier VM body. There is a gap between the bass side of the neck pocket and the neck itself. It moves a bit side to side when I pull on it a bit, but needs a little bit of force to actually move it. It's not the best fit in that regard, but shims to the sides would make this a usable combo. I almost don't want to put the neck back on the right body, but I think I should do that ;D

Pics!

ImageIMG_3848 by Novae IMGS, on Flickr

ImageIMG_3843 (1) by Novae IMGS, on Flickr

ImageIMG_3840 by Novae IMGS, on Flickr

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Re: NGD: Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar 2017

Post by GreenKnee » Wed Jan 19, 2022 8:27 am

Oh wow! That's the look right there. Looks super cool, Bill himself would be impressed I'm sure :)

Maybe I need to get Jag number 4 so I can recreate the look too ::)

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Re: NGD: Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar 2017

Post by Novae » Wed Jan 19, 2022 10:48 am

GreenKnee wrote:
Wed Jan 19, 2022 8:27 am
Oh wow! That's the look right there. Looks super cool, Bill himself would be impressed I'm sure :)

Maybe I need to get Jag number 4 so I can recreate the look too ::)
I actually listened to his music for the first time and checked out a live performance too. Great player.

I swapped the neck back but it was fun to try out! I'd love to buy a second OTM Vintera neck and put it onto that sunburst body, but they probably won't show up for sale anytime soon. Might need to just paint a headstock at some point instead :squint:

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