NGD 2018 VM Jaguar Surf Green

Discussion of newer designs, copies and reissue offset-waist instruments.
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sludgelord
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NGD 2018 VM Jaguar Surf Green

Post by sludgelord » Wed May 04, 2022 10:46 am

Hi folks,

Long time lurker, first time poster.

I treated myself with this beautiful surf green Jag and finally earned the right to join this fine club of yours lol! :freako:

The guitar came with some mods. As you can probably see the stock pickguard was replaced by this red/brown tort. I'm not gonna lie the colour scheme is one of the reasons why I bought the guitar in the first place. It was an instant :-* The next mod included is the Kinman treble bleed, which I'm somehow indifferent to, but I guess there's no harm in that and I don't want to mess with the wiring as long as it's working.
Besides that it's completely stock and in perfect shape. The dark rosewood freboard is nice too. It came with the semi-hard gigbag shaped for Jags for mere 320€.

Soon I'll set it up a bit more to my liking. So far it plays well without buzzing or rattling, even intonates with elevens. Action though is nothing to write home about. Not good, not terrible... About 2mm above 12th fret. I already tightened the truss rod and ordered .25° and 1° shims from stewmac so the plan is to increase the neck pocket angle and lower the action while retaining break angles on the bridge/vibrato.
All-around I'm pretty happy with the purchase. Hope the shims will do good.
What's not to like? It looks dayum sexy ;D

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Rob
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Re: NGD 2018 VM Jaguar Surf Green

Post by Rob » Wed May 04, 2022 12:11 pm

It does look very nice. Congratulations -- and welcome!

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Re: NGD 2018 VM Jaguar Surf Green

Post by Caddy65 » Wed May 04, 2022 12:44 pm

Looks great. Congrats!

I have a 2014 VM Jag that I bought new back then, same color. Only mods I have done was to slightly shim the neck, install a Graphtech nut and a set of Fender PV ‘65 pickups. The rosewood fretboard on mine is very evenly dark.

Fun guitars for sure. Back during my senior year of high school in 1964 my lead player bought a new Jag and I bought a new Jazzmaster. Have liked them ever since.

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Re: NGD 2018 VM Jaguar Surf Green

Post by JPCordingley » Wed May 04, 2022 2:15 pm

Congrats on the NGD. It looks magnificent! I've been a bit of a convert to Squiers (and indeed offsets) the past few years. Currently in my arsenal I have a 2015 VM Jazzmaster I've had from new and a brand new 2022 CV Jag which I picked up last week. I've owned a couple of Fenders in my time - nothing really high end, an MIM Tele and an MP Starcaster and while they were very nice guitars, the Squiers definitely compete with them (might just be the honeymoon period talking but I feel like the CV Jag might be the best guitar I've ever owned).

I have played a couple of the VM Jags and been very impressed. Really hope you enjoy it!

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Re: NGD 2018 VM Jaguar Surf Green

Post by Todd Connelly » Wed May 04, 2022 8:54 pm

Very lovely! :-* Looking at that on this screen I would not have guessed Surf Green. On this screen that looks Daphne Blue to me. Weird! I would have loved to have found a Surf Green Jag when I got mine. I wound up with a Daphne blue CV Jag because it was in stock locally and on sale. Now all of my Squiers are blue. Deep blue Affinity Strat, Sonic blue VM Jazzmaster and now the Daphne blue CV Jag. Did yours originally come with a tort guard? I haven't seen one in the flesh but I've heard the VM tort was not well loved. But that is lovely! I wonder, have you checked the setup much yet? The intonation on that looks..........unique. On my VM Jazzmaster a .25 degree shim was plenty to get the bridge height where I wanted it. The CV Jag needed a 1 degree shim. No idea if a VM Jag will be similar.
Cheers.....................Todd

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Re: NGD 2018 VM Jaguar Surf Green

Post by sludgelord » Thu May 05, 2022 12:08 am

Todd Connelly wrote:
Wed May 04, 2022 8:54 pm
Very lovely! :-* Looking at that on this screen I would not have guessed Surf Green. On this screen that looks Daphne Blue to me. Weird! I would have loved to have found a Surf Green Jag when I got mine. I wound up with a Daphne blue CV Jag because it was in stock locally and on sale. Now all of my Squiers are blue. Deep blue Affinity Strat, Sonic blue VM Jazzmaster and now the Daphne blue CV Jag. Did yours originally come with a tort guard? I haven't seen one in the flesh but I've heard the VM tort was not well loved. But that is lovely! I wonder, have you checked the setup much yet? The intonation on that looks..........unique. On my VM Jazzmaster a .25 degree shim was plenty to get the bridge height where I wanted it. The CV Jag needed a 1 degree shim. No idea if a VM Jag will be similar.
Cheers.....................Todd
Yeah, the picture doesn't do it justice but it's green in fact. These came with white pickguards originally. Someone must have changed it along the road. And I suspect the current tort is one of the infamous VM because it looks somehow flat(?) like someone'd have taken a picture of a tort pickguard and printed it on a piece of 4-ply plastic. Besides some edges, especially along the upper control plate seem rough.

I'd like to replace the pickguard at some point with a proper tort, but seems like finding a fitting one with as little reshaping necessary as possible is a long shot.

The current bridge setup caught my attention too. Usually the saddles aren't placed anywhere near like this, but it works and chords sound alright even in higher registers.

I suspect the neck pocket hiding some secret. There's a noticeable gap on the bass side enough to insert a sheet of paper there. I'm a bit worried what's going on in there. Was it shimmed intentionally this way? So I hope this guitar will benefit from some inspection in that area. If the neck angle is incorrect no wonder the action is high-ish (but still playable) and probably unable to lower without fret buzz.

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Last edited by sludgelord on Thu May 05, 2022 1:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: NGD 2018 VM Jaguar Surf Green

Post by superficial » Thu May 05, 2022 1:00 am

It might just be the angle of the photo, but it looks like the top edge of the neck pocket might be wonky (I.e. the neck is straight vs body but the pocket edge gives the impression of an angle). I wouldn't be surprised if the neck pocket is hiding some factory sandpaper.

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Re: NGD 2018 VM Jaguar Surf Green

Post by sludgelord » Thu May 05, 2022 1:23 am

superficial wrote:
Thu May 05, 2022 1:00 am
It might just be the angle of the photo, but it looks like the top edge of the neck pocket might be wonky (I.e. the neck is straight vs body but the pocket edge gives the impression of an angle). I wouldn't be surprised if the neck pocket is hiding some factory sandpaper.
That's quite possible. Do you think I should try to (have someone experienced) make the pocket level before aplying an angled shim?

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Re: NGD 2018 VM Jaguar Surf Green

Post by sludgelord » Thu May 19, 2022 1:24 pm

Shimming time.
So I decided to shim the neck on my Jaguar. The guitar wasn't playing bad before either, but as many suggested, Jags really benefit from this simple mod.
I took the risk and went with full 1° shim from Stewmac. As you can see I achieved quite a breaking angle on the bridge and managed to lower the action a bit. Also the guitar does seem to resonate better but maybe I'm just trying to convince myself of that.
Now I have to manage getting the pickups higher. This would require putting some material under them, as there's no counter-pressure when I'm loosening the screws.
What do you think? Is the bridge geometry alright?

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