Show your Squier Mascis JM Mods/Improvements!

[JSett]

Bit of an old update from my last post in this thread giving my Squier J Mascis Signature JM a Ren & Stimpy makeover - figured I should add it here:

I thoroughly approve of this. These Eediots guard my VibroChamp:

[Surfysonic]

Bit of an old update from my last post in this thread giving my Squier J Mascis Signature JM a Ren & Stimpy makeover - figured I should add it here:

I thoroughly approve of this. These Eediots guard my VibroChamp:

WANT!! I'd have to keep them up high from my pups, like Comic Book Guy on top of my Showman...



Now over here with my other geekery...

[JSett]

WANT!! I'd have to keep them up high from my pups, like Comic Book Guy on top of my Showman...

Fortunately my cats show no interest in any plushies or things over their usual 'toy' size so they've stayed in great condition. 30yrs old and still got the hangtags on (yes, I'm a nerd...aren't we all?).

Other, smaller, ornaments fare a little worse - especially now the Xmas tree is up

[forestgreen]

If OSG was on fire and I could only save one thread I think this'd be the one

[JSett]

Now over here with my other geekery...

Oh man, our entire apartment is like this. Literally stuff everywhere. In fact, here's just the front room (seeing as I'm stood in it)...

*Trigger warning for minimalists*

[Surfysonic]

Now over here with my other geekery...

Oh man, our entire apartment is like this. Literally stuff everywhere. In fact, here's just the front room (seeing as I'm stood in it)...

*Trigger warning for minimalists*

Outstanding!

[mcbrandt]

What are those Jeremy Klein Dream Girl ripoff decks on the wall?

[JSett]

What are those Jeremy Klein Dream Girl ripoff decks on the wall?

I used to run a skateboard company called Eat Shit Club and we did a run of adapted Klein shapes with an homage cat vomit graphic I drew...



They were all hand screened (9 screens total) with OG inks in Texas. They sold pretty well and I even had an order from one of Jeremy's family so I considered that a win. I had to fold the company after a couple of years though due a change in circumstances.

[Mechanical Birds]

Hey can I have one of my fellow owners take a couple measurements for me? I’m trying to get a Jaguar neck made with this profile and don’t know how to take them myself. I need the nut, heel and 1st and 12th fret thickness

Thanks in advance cool dudes

Plz and thank you in advance

[forestgreen]

Hope it's okay to necro-bump this!

With the Mascis coming back was hoping to see if people would be keen to show what they've done to their JM JM over the years

[F15hface]

What are those Jeremy Klein Dream Girl ripoff decks on the wall?

I used to run a skateboard company called Eat Shit Club and we did a run of adapted Klein shapes with an homage cat vomit graphic I drew...



They were all hand screened (9 screens total) with OG inks in Texas. They sold pretty well and I even had an order from one of Jeremy's family so I considered that a win. I had to fold the company after a couple of years though due a change in circumstances.

These are sick, I would so get one if you were still in business. It'd just be to cruise around Victoria Park come summer, but whatever.

Hope it's okay to necro-bump this!

With the Mascis coming back was hoping to see if people would be keen to show what they've done to their JM JM over the years

Are they definitely coming back? I know there was that threat but it didn't seem conclusive either way.

[bipedal2]

Nuts. I added a lovely AVRI Jazzmaster to my arsenal a few months ago and had been thinking it was time to sell my early-in-the-run SqJMJM because I couldn't justify having both. Then this amazing thread comes back into my life.

[forestgreen]

Hope it's okay to necro-bump this!

With the Mascis coming back was hoping to see if people would be keen to show what they've done to their JM JM over the years

Are they definitely coming back? I know there was that threat but it didn't seem conclusive either way.

Yeah I'm pretty confident - there was that random music shop in Melbourne for a bit but now they're on CME and Thomann

[unsui]

Subbed -

I had a CPJM with Antiquity IIs, but just didn’t get along with it.
Sold it and moved on to an awesome FSR Thinline Jag.
Found a used JMJM I found locally and now this thread has me modding it.
I’ve got a set of pickups coming from Q pickups on the way.
A custom set of Tiho’s Tele pickups are in my ‘75 and happy with them. Hopefully his 1958 JMs will be here soon !

[PuppyGirlBelly]

Reviving this thread since it seems to be a good archive and collection of knowledge regarding the JMJM. So I would like to share what I've learned with my 2011.

Initial state in 2011;

• Stock P90-style pickups

• Stock bridge

• Issues with wiring (not properly grounded, some wores were too short, cold joint on a pot came off)

• Fretwork and setup was great off the bat

Some changes I made since then;

• Rewired the guitar to clean up wiring, and wrapping positive and negative leads together whenever possible (to reduce noise and introduce capacitence).

• Replaced the lead circuit pots with A1M and B1M Alpha pots for volume and tone respectively.
  • I binned each pot use the ones with the lowest values, to tame the highs a little bit.

• Added a treble bleed to the lead circuit's volume pot. Using a 270k Ω resistor and a 2200 pF capacitor in series.
  • Took the values and series arrangment from Sunday Handwound Pickup's "Goopies": https://sundayhandwound.com/products/goopies
  • This is the biggest gamechanger imo. The stock volume was borderline unusable with the amount of high-end loss. I would say it's almost mandatory for JMs with 1M pots, and it didn't noticably change the pot taper. Only issue I could say is that the tone thins out when on lower settings, but I use the rhythm circuit for fat, dark, and warm tones anyways.

• Swapped P90s out for SD Antiquity IIs.
  • The old pickups were more low-mid and bass heavy than I like, so the II's helped give it the sparkle and slightly scooped sound I like from my pickups. A bit harsh and bright, but I like them enough that I wouldn't consider swapping them out yet.

• Sheilded the cavity with copper tape to reduce noise.

• Sheilded the pickup covers with copper tape (though I left a 1cm/½" gap on one side of each pickup, as well as a gap around the pole pieces).
  • Left the gap as per this article's suggestion; https://www.premierguitar.com/diy/mod-g ... kup-covers.
  • This combined with the cavity sheilding created a huge difference in noise reduction. The pickup tone seems like it slightly changed, but not in a good or bad way. Honestly worth doing if you have bright and noisy pickups.

• Used a pair of M8 10mm Set Screw (aka: Grub Screws) with a cup point in the bridge ferrules to install a Mustang bridge from my Bass VI. Installed them upside down in the ferrule, and placed a 5mm / 4/16" spring (that I cut down) below the screw to ensure that it won't slip down or rattle.
  • Tuning stability has been improved, bridge height has been improved, and it feels more like a "regular" offsrt now. Though I did notice some buzz that I need to suss out, and the spacing between the legs and the ferrules is a little tight. But it doesn't impede rocking at all.

• Using Thomastik-Infield Jazz Swing flatwounds (.013 or JS113 set).
  • I thought these would be stiffer and darker than they are, but they're balanced in tone and no harder to use than the hex-core .11s I had before. Definitely reduce the harshness with strings and sound great overall, and just as mandatory as the treble-bleed.

• Shimmed the neck with a 0.5° shim.
  • It made the sustain, and tone, much better and helped the guitar feel much more solid. I know that some folks dislike a shim on an angled neck, but I really like what it did.

• Replaced the knobs with allparts witch hat knobs, switch tip with a clean white tip, and rhythm switch with a white switch.
  • This is cosmetic, but it looks so much better with white parts. If only I could find cheap white rhythm circuit knobs...

• Used scotchbrite to sand the neck to a satin finish
  • Feels smooth, and comfy af.

Some mods I have tried and since reversed;

• Using 500k pots — I found these just change the tone overall dramtically. Like a bright tele without the snap or bite. Some folks might like this but as somebody who liked my sound already, it didn't really help. Though a 1M Volume and 500k Tone combo might work better.

• 50's wiring — Didn't really help with the high-end loss of the volune knob, and kept the tone knob from making the guitar as dark as I would aim for some sounds. Could see this working with the P90 pickups, but not so much for JM pickups.

• Locking tuners — This is probably because I used low-quality ones, but I didn't find that they helped at all. Try a roller bridge or mustang bridge, and properly cut nut, before trying.

• Replacing the rhythm circuit switch with a series/parallel switch — The series sound was too fat and low-mid heavy for my taste, and the volume bump wasn't big enough to make it useful. I swapped it back to rhythm circuit so that I can get darker sounds that I find more useful.

Mods I want to try;

• Better locking tuners

• AVRI tremolo

• Properly cut bone nut bridge (though I might skip this as I hear the JMJM nut is glued in tight and is annoying to deal with).

• Replacing the body with a body with the vintage tremolo placement. Though at that point it's less JMJM and more partscaster