Jazzmaster and Jaguar Setup: A Pictorial

[atomicmassunit]

I wanted to share my process for Jazzmaster and Jaguar setups. There are a lot of misconceptions about these guitars and perhaps this could help.

First, select a guage of string that is appropriate. Jags and JMs have very little break angle over the bridge and were designed in a time when heavy strings were popular. I feel that part of the reason people don't "get" these guitars is from trying to put 9's on them. Light strings just will not cut it. Not enough tension to sing on these. I like 11's, not too heavy but enough to work right. *if you must use 9's or 10's, see the section below on shims and mastery bridge*

Like any guitar, the bridge, nut, and neck relief are the three things that control the action. Let's start with the nut.

In a perfect world we would all have Stewmac nut height guages, but if you don't, then install a capo on the 3rd fret, and check the clearance from the bottom of each string to the top of the first fret. There should be a small amount of clearance here, I like to do about the thickness of a piece of paper. If it's too low or too high you'll need a pro to cut the nut slots. This requires special files and a lot of experience. You can also buy nutfiles and practice yourself of course.







Most tuning problems are caused by strings pinching in the nut slots. This applies to any guitar, not just these. If you are having tuning trouble, use 1000 grit sandpaper folded and buff out the slots, then lubricate them with something like Big Bends nut sauce or a mix of graphite and vasoline, or any number of similar products. I polish and lube the slots as part of any guitar setup.

Now, let's take a look at the neck relief. Move the capo to the first fret. Then, hold down the 15th fret. The distance between the bottom of the string and the top of the 8th fret will allow you to clearly see the relief in the neck. Like with the nut, I put only a slight amount of relief in the neck, about the thickness of a business card, or sometimes less. With the heavier strings these guitars prefer, I feel that low action and an almost straight neck feels really good. People often ask if I use 10's, because the setup is very comfortable. Also, I think that a straight neck actually sounds better because it's more rigid than one with a lot of relief.







Next let's look at the neck angle. These guitars can very widely, but the old ones came with a shim in the bottom of the neck pocket. This is critical to get the correct neck angle. Many people with these guitars remove the shim and that causes them to have to lower the bridge and that reduces the break angle over the bridge, causing the much publicized thin tone and strings popping out of the saddle slots. If you shim the neck up, you get a nice bit of down pressure at the bridge and then you don't need to use a buzz stop (which kills the tone of these guitars, since you don't get the string length ringing behind the bridge).






Now let's look at the bridge itself. The base of the bridge is adjustable, so if your radius is right on the saddles, you can just move the whole thing up and down using the adjustment screws on each side of the base. Make sure to have the saddles themselves fairly high off the plate, because if you adjust the plate high and the saddles low, there's less pressure on them, resulting in loss of tone or perhaps the screws rattling out. Also important to look out for is, make sure the strings behind the bridge aren't touching the intonation screws, if they are, your saddles are too low, lower the base of the bridge instead and raise them until they clear. Once again, better tone this way.


Install a capo on the first fret (or leave it there from the previous step). Measure from the bottom of the string to the top of the fret at either the last fret or the 15th. I set the string height at 2mm on the last fret, or 4/64ths at the 15th fret (about the same). Set intonation and recheck saddle heights.

Side note on bridges. The Mastery Bridge, an aftermarket JM, Jag, Mustang bridge, is a miracle of modern design. It increases sustain, tone and prevents strings from popping out of the slots with lighter strings and less break angle. I use these whenever possible, they are awesome! The reissue Japanese Fender bridges have shallower string slots, so the problems are worse. Vintage american saddles are deeper and work better. If you have the japanese one, get american saddles or a mastery bridge. Do not buy mustang or tuneomatic bridges for these because the radius will not match the fretboard, and you will not be able to get a proper setup done. Some people are ok with this, but it will cause the string heights to be all out of wack unless you reslot the tuneomatic or file down the saddles on a mustang bridge.

Tremolo lock. In the back position, it is locked. Set it this way, tune up the guitar, then release the lock. It will likely go out of tune like crazy. When this happens, take a phillips screwdriver and adjust the big screw in the middle of the tailpiece, it sets the spring tension and arm height for the bridge, when you get it to the right place, the guitar will be back in tune again. I like to set the lock, tune up, unlock, and put my tuner on the low E, adjust till its in tune. That way when you break a string at your gig, simply lock the trem back and it's back in tune. Cool.








When it's all done I take it one step further and use Walter's trick of untightening the neck bolts a 1/4 turn, then retighten them, which makes the neck and body have good contact and improves the sound.

[Strat]

Great thanks,

I Love my JM RI but have never played an old one for comparison and one thing annoys me, slop at the bottom of the push-in trem arm. Any cures ?

[atomicmassunit]

Strat, the reissues tolerances aren't as tight as the old ones. My '59 bar stays put, every ri I've seen has that same slop. The fix is, take some super glue and put a coat round the tip of the bar, let it dry, and it will snap into the collet and stay put. You may need to redo it every now and then.

[throbert]

Do you recommend keeping the main volume and tone pot stock or changing values to a 250K. for example?

[atomicmassunit]

If you don't like the high end bite they have you can do that. On the japanese ones with stock pickups that sounds good, a big improvement. On american ones or any with replacement pickups I don't like doing that.

[jimshine]

One more item I would like to throw in. The bridges on these are designed to sit neutral, meaning you should not pull the bridge backwards in the cups until it stops. This is the "floating" action of the bridge, and is why Leo used pointy height screws on the legs on these bridges. They reduced contact with the bottom of the cup and lets the unit move back and forth without friction.

The correct way to set the bridge, set it as centered as possible, them move the bar. Move the bar down, the bridge should rock toward the pickups, pull it up and it should lean back toward the tailpiece. Set up correctly and used within reason, tuning should not be an issue.

To fix the bar right, remove the strings and remove the tailpiece. Push the arm in and gently squeeze the teeth on the Collette on to the bar. Every time you put pressure on it, take the arm out and see how it feels. It may take a few times, but it WILL eventually start to tighten up.

[12strings]

I know this is an older thread, but I just revisited it with my Jazzmaster in hand. Excellent advice atomicmassunit. Really appreciated!! My Jazzmaster is much more dialed in! Thank you for taking the time to post!

[Uchison]

Dear fors, I have been experimenting with different pots and different values for my '63 jazzmaster. Unfortunately it seems that a few things got lost in the process. So I need some help.
What value of resistance should go on the master tone pot? Any particular brand?

[atomicmassunit]

1Meg, audio taper.

[Alambler]

I followed this set up tutorial recently with a buddy's guitar and I would like to say proper setup turns a bad player into an awesome playing, sounding guitar with tons of real playability and mojo. Thank you very much for the insight.

[Rod]

This is a great set up thread!! thank you!!

[surfadamsurf]

Killer thread!