Pacific Peach Player Jazzmaster Upgrades

[Saintlade]

Longtime lurker. First mod project for myself, easing myself into it with some simple component swaps and planning more adventurous upgrades in future when I feel braver.

I love the colour of the Pacific Peach guitars that Chicago Music Exchange dreamt up. Dream colourway would include the maple fretboard but with matching headstock (I have an Ice Blue Metallic Vintera JM also and do like the look and feel of the Pau Ferro fretboard though).



This Pacific Peach Jazzmaster I picked up 2nd hand for a song, had barely been played by the look of the rust on the frets and plastic still on the pickguard. It must have been stored somewhere like a shed QC seems a bit off on the headstock having noticed the wonky finishing just past the nut when I got it home, the ramp down to the neck isn't parallel to the nut but only cosmetic. Seems to be in good nick otherwise.



I taped off the frets and went to work with 400, 800 and 1200 fret erasers which tidied them up nicely. Cleaned up the fretboard with mineral oil. There was some shielding paint present but only applied to the bottom of the cavity not the sides, and a small area of foil below the electronics. The oval rout below the pickup doesn't seem ideal for the foam to push the pickups up against the screws, so may well pack it out but that's a job for another day as it seems fine currently.



Copper foil tape for shielding, I bought the stuff that supposedly has conductive adhesive for convenience and went to town. Picture below of the wiring under the pickguard.



Shielding complete and some of the parts laid out ready for switching.



Not a fan of the off-white cream/aged look of plastic parts so swapped out for plain white parts. I have a Staytrem on my other guitar that works well for me so upgrading to a Staytrem again. Decided to splurge on a Panorama Tremolo also for divebomb goodness (and prefer the simpler look logo without the patent writing). After a few adjustments it's playing really well.

Eventually when I get braver I want to put thicker guage strings on to use this in C standard but need to swot up on truss rod adjustments before committing to that; and from what I understand upgrading to a stiffer spring on the Panorama. I want to switch out the tuners to vintage style and also tempted to get an anodised silver pickguard potentially in future if I upgrade the electronics. Has anyone changed out the pickguard on one of these?

Obligatory rug photo, moody lighting as it's a grey miserable day here in North Wales. Any suggestions for names? I name my guitars usually based on some sort of pun on the colour. Current front runner is Eirin Gwlanogvich - Eirin Gwlanog is Welsh for Peach; translates to English as wooly plum. Erin Brockovich the environmental activist who brought the class action against the Pacific Electric & Gas Company. Eirin Gwlanogvich doesn't roll off the tongue though.... any pun-based name suggestions? If I get some good ones I'll start a poll.



I've tracked down a matching Kyser Pacific Peach Capo and was tempted to get the matching case, strap and cables I've seen Chicago Music Exchange are selling. Annoyingly they don't won't post these to the UK unfortunately. Does anyone know anywhere in UK/Europe that do these? Google hasn't yielded any leads.

[Abandoneur]

OOFFFAAA. That color is really great. Congrats.

[Lobsterdeth]

i want one of these so bad

[Abandoneur]

Chicago Music Exchange has two used for sale on their site for a little over $700... one has a pretty decent ding in it, but the other looks pretty good from the pics. Very tempting.

[timtam]

Kudos to CME for initiating the "CME Exclusive" Player JMs some years ago. Those JMs have now been released in most markets around the world over the last year or two, just as "Limited Editions" (in most of the colour options - not sure if that includes this one ?). So "CME Exclusive" should perhaps now be qualified as "Exclusive in the USA". I notice your internal parts sticker says "FSR Player 2018 Jazzmaster".

I recently acquired the IBM one new, but haven't opened it up yet. I think your pics are the first gut shots we seen here. The circuit with 4-way switch (with series) but no rhythm circuit (like the Marr jag and Am Pro jag; although these JM bodies are still routed for rhythm circuit - as shown in your pics), is one of the most efficient yet still flexible JM configurations to my mind. Also with PV65s, the only things that are obvious candidates for upgrades are the no-lock trem and the bridge, as you did.

When these first came out I did a speculative schematic on what the circuit probably looked like - see below. I assumed that the pots were 1meg and the cap 0.1 uF. And that the 4-way was wired the same as the Marr jag's and Am Pro (I) jag's.

[Saintlade]

Kudos to CME for initiating the "CME Exclusive" Player JMs some years ago. Those JMs have now been released in most markets around the world over the last year or two, just as "Limited Editions" (in most of the colour options - not sure if that includes this one ?). So "CME Exclusive" should perhaps now be qualified as "Exclusive in the USA". I notice your internal parts sticker says "FSR Player 2018 Jazzmaster".

I recently acquired the IBM one new, but haven't opened it up yet. I think your pics are the first gut shots we seen here. The circuit with 4-way switch (with series) but no rhythm circuit (like the Marr jag and Am Pro jag; although these JM bodies are still routed for rhythm circuit - as shown in your pics), is one of the most efficient yet still flexible JM configurations to my mind. Also with PV65s, the only things that are obvious candidates for upgrades are the no-lock trem and the bridge, as you did.

When these first came out I did a speculative schematic on what the circuit probably looked like - see below. I assumed that the pots were 1meg and the cap 0.1 uF. And that the 4-way was wired the same as the Marr jag's and Am Pro (I) jag's.

Awesome, thanks for this. That schematic may well come in useful when I get around to upgrading the electronics but like you say, the stock pickups sound nice enough to my ears so will probably end up waiting until there's an actual issue that needs mending. I've been trying to track down the PDF that has the parts layout/list/wiring assembly as I like to have them on hand but google doesn't seem to be coming up with anything for this model number - 014-6902-579. Usually possible to find by googling variants of the number along with fmicassets.com but no luck so far. Has anyone else tracked down the pdf for these?

Yeah, I'm UK based so expect this one came from one of the UK retailers that get the limited editions in, I've seen the Pacific Peach JM listed on a few UK sites. Unfortunately the peach case, strap and cables do seem to be exclusive to CME and the US market so they have some exclusivity still I guess! I really like the look of the IBM one they did, I have an IBM vintera which I definitely want to switch the pickguard to either a nicer tort or something different from stock.

Been playing around with the setup a bit and can just about intonate it correctly. I wonder if the bridge hole positions are just slightly off as the bass E has to be pushed all the way back toward the vibrato side and the rest of the saddles are set more toward the vibrato side.

Fretwork seems okfrom my limited knowledge on these things, checked across all the frets and not finding any issues; except annoyingly on the last (22nd) fret on the G string which is dull. Can't figure out what's going on there, I don't think it's fret related as it's the last fret so no other frets ahead of it to create buzz. G string is otherwise well behaved across the rest of the frets. I read somewhere pickup height can be an issue if set too high, but I think they're set plenty low with around 4mm clearance from the strings.

Trying not to get too hung up on the one dead spot; I'm trying to ignore my obsessive tendencies to fix every detail and just enjoy playing it

[Saintlade]

Chicago Music Exchange has two used for sale on their site for a little over $700... one has a pretty decent ding in it, but the other looks pretty good from the pics. Very tempting.

Yeah, saw those when I was trying to get hold of the other Peachy accessories, they're a steal!

[timtam]

Awesome, thanks for this. That schematic may well come in useful when I get around to upgrading the electronics but like you say, the stock pickups sound nice enough to my ears so will probably end up waiting until there's an actual issue that needs mending. I've been trying to track down the PDF that has the parts layout/list/wiring assembly as I like to have them on hand but google doesn't seem to be coming up with anything for this model number - 014-6902-579. Usually possible to find by googling variants of the number along with fmicassets.com but no luck so far. Has anyone else tracked down the pdf for these?

I have saved google searches for fmicassets that I regularly run to check for new models' service manuals and for this one. Historically it's been very rare to get service manuals for slightly oddball models like these (and even some mainline models like the American Performer JM have never had service manuals).

My IBM one is well made. Will change to a 52mm E-E bridge (string spacing is only very slightly too close to the fretboard edge, but not really), and I also have a Classic Player MIK lock trem to put on it. All the Player series seem to get the lightest Pau Ferro, so I also have some Montypresso to try on it (but it doesn't bother me that much).

[Saintlade]

Awesome, thanks for this. That schematic may well come in useful when I get around to upgrading the electronics but like you say, the stock pickups sound nice enough to my ears so will probably end up waiting until there's an actual issue that needs mending. I've been trying to track down the PDF that has the parts layout/list/wiring assembly as I like to have them on hand but google doesn't seem to be coming up with anything for this model number - 014-6902-579. Usually possible to find by googling variants of the number along with fmicassets.com but no luck so far. Has anyone else tracked down the pdf for these?

I have saved google searches for fmicassets that I regularly run to check for new models' service manuals and for this one. Historically it's been very rare to get service manuals for slightly oddball models like these (and even some mainline models like the American Performer JM have never had service manuals).

My IBM one is well made. Will change to a 52mm E-E bridge (string spacing is only very slightly too close to the fretboard edge, but not really), and I also have a Classic Player MIK lock trem to put on it. All the Player series seem to get the lightest Pau Ferro, so I also have some Montypresso to try on it (but it doesn't bother me that much).

Ah, thanks for the info. I won't get too hung up on not having found the service manual. I'd be interested in seeing what the Montypresso comes out like on the Pau Ferro. Don't think I'll put any of this Peach one but I think my Vintera IBM might benefit from a little darkening.