Taking a punt - 80s MIJ Jag

Discussion of newer designs, copies and reissue offset-waist instruments.
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MattK
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Re: Taking a punt - 80s MIJ Jag

Post by MattK » Wed Aug 17, 2022 1:37 pm

I tried acetone, orange oil, eucalyptus oil, turpentine, alcohol … in the end had to go with a mild water based paint stripper which is very slow going because I want to get the layers off without getting into the original polyurethane. The layers all respond differently, which is messy and irritating, but the primer resists better and the original finish just laughs at solvents, which is great. But I’ve had to do it in about 10 passes for the sake of control. I’d say about 3 more hours of work to go! Will post pics later.
From the top down it had clearcoat, shading (ie the tile pattern), silver, clear, red, silver (ie a whole new CAR but a lot duller than the factory CAR), then grey primer. So I guess that’s seven layers. I thought it was just the grey pattern on top of the CAR and I could cut and polish it off!

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Re: Taking a punt - 80s MIJ Jag

Post by Nico » Wed Aug 17, 2022 5:37 pm

oh geez, so it's tiles over fake CAR... wow, he went all out for basically nothing.

I mentioned acetone because i'm redoing my Musicmaster bass that's bad refin of olympic white over olympic white. Took the acetone route and since there's a poly undercoat in the 70's, I scraped everything off with a razorblade. The poly is untouched and ready to refin. I was much easier than sanding AND I get to keep the base for a refin, so less steps for me to prep the body.

I thought that the terminator looking finish would be eaten up by acetone, that's all... your poly would just polish off, unaffected.

Can't wait to see the final results :)

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Re: Taking a punt - 80s MIJ Jag

Post by MattK » Wed Aug 17, 2022 7:46 pm

OK after about 6 hours of work I got the refinish off. Pretty delighted with the result!
Here's a very compressed version of the stripping process - you can see the layers coming off, the primer is an off-white colour with the original CAR underneath. It was unaffected by the stripper but had been scuffed up with what looked like 80 grit sandpaper, so I had to wet-sand it with 800/1200/2000 grit. Then a medium cutting compound from the local auto shop.
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And then a fine cutting compound and a wool pad on my handheld buffer. When I wiped off the residue I couldn't believe how good it looked.
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and I'm too tired to rewire a Jag so I'll take a break and leave you with this test-fit:
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so yeah I think it's going pretty good.

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Nico
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Re: Taking a punt - 80s MIJ Jag

Post by Nico » Wed Aug 17, 2022 7:51 pm

Wow, that's awesome

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Re: Taking a punt - 80s MIJ Jag

Post by Fiddy » Wed Aug 17, 2022 8:02 pm

Hell yeah. Good job, that's a lot of work. Nice bonus score too. Fits right in with the rest of the collection.

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Re: Taking a punt - 80s MIJ Jag

Post by RIORIO » Wed Aug 17, 2022 8:13 pm

Amazing save!!

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Re: Taking a punt - 80s MIJ Jag

Post by JSett » Wed Aug 17, 2022 9:33 pm

Fucking well done mate! That's a brutal amount of work, and a great result.

Dare I say it as well...that's not actually a bad shade of CAR either - not nearly as bright/gaudy as it can be sometimes, almost OCR
Silly Rabbit, don't you know scooped mids are for kids?

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Re: Taking a punt - 80s MIJ Jag

Post by marqueemoon » Wed Aug 17, 2022 9:52 pm

:w00t: Amazing work.

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Re: Taking a punt - 80s MIJ Jag

Post by tequila_in_teacups » Wed Aug 17, 2022 10:30 pm

Looking at some of those progress pics, I was not expecting such a good result. Great save!

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MattK
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Re: Taking a punt - 80s MIJ Jag

Post by MattK » Wed Aug 17, 2022 11:42 pm

All I can say is all credit is due to Fujigen and their bombproof finishes. I got a shock when I went through the first layer - a crisis of faith even - but after I realised there was more refin to go, I knew it'd be OK. And yeah Johnny I agree, it's quite a rich CAR and looks very close to my 87 F serial P Bass with the same FENDER neckplate.

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Re: Taking a punt - 80s MIJ Jag

Post by skeletonpower » Thu Aug 18, 2022 12:23 am

Damn! This came out awesome.

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Re: Taking a punt - 80s MIJ Jag

Post by MattK » Tue Aug 23, 2022 4:09 pm

"Mr de Mille, I'm ready for my closeup" (or, I tidied the floor and got out my "nice camera" for a few update shots).
Just to document how it arrived -
Image
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Headstock unchanged (but now strung with 12s)
Image

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Re: Taking a punt - 80s MIJ Jag

Post by MattK » Tue Aug 23, 2022 4:10 pm

So: in my parts drawer, from another MIJ Jag I had experimented with and later sold, I had
- an AVRI bridge pickup I got for $5 on eBay (no cover or claw)
- plates from a Classic Player Jag I bought from an OSGer probably 10 years ago
- another 80s MIJ trem tailpiece
- a Mustang bridge which I think is MIJ
- a bunch of cloth wire from the previous Jag I rewired
Since the wiring had been messed with and the pots replaced, I figured I would just do the whole thing anyway. The chrome plates were both corroded and looked like they were deliberately scratched up, so I have no problem swapping them out for the nicer CP ones, but I'll hang onto the old ones to see if I can restore them. And I was too scared to put the 64 pickup back in, I will set aside some time to clean it and see what I've got. I've ordered a cover and claw for the AVRI bridge pickup and stuck a Strat cover on it for now (sorry).
Image
Image
Image

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MattK
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Re: Taking a punt - 80s MIJ Jag

Post by MattK » Tue Aug 23, 2022 4:10 pm

After all that, what do we have? A pretty amazing Jag, I love it.
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The last pic is probably closest to its colour in real life. A nice deep CAR.
One thing I didn't expect: when I had my white 90s Jag, one thing I disliked about it was that the body had pretty flat sides, like there was a roundover radius on front and back with a flat section in between. This one still has flat on the sides but it's rounded over way more smoothly, a really comfortable guitar to hold. And with the AVRI pickups it sounds pretty full and has that hard flat attack that makes the Jag different to anything else. It needs half a turn taken out of the truss rod for more relief, and some frets are worn, but otherwise lovely to play. Very happy after all that work.

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Re: Taking a punt - 80s MIJ Jag

Post by Nico » Tue Aug 23, 2022 4:17 pm

Super nice! RW board is dark as hell...

As a personal info; was the claw on the bridge pup too narrow to fit on your new pup? Just curious. I can see you had both claws initially.

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