Scale length question

[TonyMan13]

I bought a Jaguar kit, had a lot of wiring issues, and had to cut the pickguard to make the switch plate fit. I didn't like the result so bought a new pickguard & a wiring harness. The harness worked out fine, but the pickguard didn't. Seems the cheap kit I bought does not adhere to normal Jaguar specs so the pickguard doesn't fit. I was thinking of buying a body, but scale length comes into question. I see that Jaguars have a 24" scale length and the kit used what I would call a typical strat neck and it has a 25.5" scale length. I'm thinking if I put the neck on a jaguar body the scale would be off and not intonate properly. My other thought was getting a body that doesn't have the tailpiece holes drilled, measure, and drill to get 25.5.

Any advice appreciated.

[countertext]

A 25.5” scale neck definitely won’t intonate on a 24” scale Jag body.

A body that hasn’t been drilled for bridge and routed for vibrato unit can be drilled and routed if you want to do it. Might be easier and cheaper to find a new 24” kit and start over…

[whitelion]

If you're planning on drilling anyway, you could fill the old holes and re-drill as well. Depending on the new bridge hole placement, the old holes might just get covered by the guard. Another option is a 24.75" conversion neck on the current body.

[TonyMan13]

I want to get rid of the current body since it doesn't follow any Jaguar specs and won't allow another pickguard. I'm thinking that drilling would work since I've seen some where the bridge holes weren't drilled. I have to do some more research on the body size. If I move the bridge back I want to see how close that puts it to the tailpiece.

[NICQ]

This is the distance from the nut to the bridge in cm on a Jazzmaster with a 25,5" neck :




I took one of my jags and placed a 25,5" Jazzmaster neck on it :




Here the distance to the nut of the 25,5" neck :



The bridge would have to be placed starting at 64 cm and end at 66 cm to have the proper scale length and would extend over the edge of the pickguard (the bridge posts probably have to be drilled right where the pickguard ends)
You could move the Trem to 69cm (original distance) if you want to - it would end roughly around the 78cm mark - or just leave it and end up with the shorter distance like on the Fender Player series or Squier J Mascis...

With a standard Jag Body + Pickguard you'd still have the original 24" bridge holes on the pickguard and they would be visible next to the new bridge (unless you'd get one cut without bridge holes) and the bridge would be moved over the edge of the pickguard (just about half of it being on the pickguard) .. which also means the distance from the bridge pickup to the bridge would be 1,5 cm more than usual = different sound I'd guess it would probably sound more like a strat middle pu


If it was me I'd rather get a custom pickguard cut properly for the current body - there is no simple and elegant solution to that problem if you want to replace the body with a "real" Jag body... I do a lot of mods on guitars but that sounds a like a lot of work and the outcome would still look off with the bridge sitting next to to pickguard... and you'd have to find a Jag pickguard without bridge holes (not sure I ever saw one)

or you could get a standard Jazzmaster body which would fit a 25,5" neck + a blank Jazzmaster pickguard and try to make the upper control and toggle switch Jag plates fit onto that and route/cut it for Jag pickups ... I think I tried that at some point and the lower vol/tone control plate was a problem because it was too short / had a weird angle and didn't cover the control cavity fully... can't remember...

Maybe someone has already finished a full scale Jag build or JM to Jag conversion project ?

[TonyMan13]

Thanks NICQ, for all that information. I believe your suggestion of a new pick guard sounds like the logical solution. It would be the easiest, and cheapest solution .I’ve dealt with places that make them in the past. Will start looking tomorrow.

[Steadyriot.]

Maybe someone has already finished a full scale Jag build or JM to Jag conversion project ?

HNB has done a few, as have a few other users on here.
Deed_Poll has full scale Jag bodies for sale on his website guitarform.com.

[carausius]

You need to do some measurements, before you can work out what scale & therefore neck fits your body.

Measure from centre of bridge to heel pocket, where the end of the neck fits.

For example

Jazzmaster / Strat = 7 1/8" (7.125") More than likely this is the measurement on your body.

Jaguar 6 1/4" (6.25")

A Jaguar neck scale is 24" so.....

24 / 2 = 12, - 6.25 + 12 = 17.75" this is the neck heel to nut edge (fretboard / fingerboard) measurement, then you add the nut width (Fender necks 1/8" (.125") & the headstock length, (which is different on many models) the Jaguar is 7 5/8" (7.625"). so Jaguar neck length is 25 1/2".

I have a Jaguar neck template here which is exact 25 1/2" length.

If you have a Jazzmaster / Strat sized bridge to heel 7.125" measurement you can buy a 24.75" conversion neck from many suppliers, or you could even make a 24" scale neck to fit whatever the bridge to heel measurement is on your body.