The Guitar Thread • Page 72

Idk if there’s a bass thread, but I traded two pickups and some locking tuners for this Chris Aiken signature squier p-bass. I officially own my first bass. The pickguard and pickups aren’t original. The pickups are actually Geezer Butler signature EMGs, so that’s cool. I love the fucking neck on this thing. It’s legit. Probably going to throw a purple mirror pickguard on it and eventually try some Dimarzio model P pickups if I don’t like these EMGs.

 

neck looks great on that, hell yeah. I’ve been thinking of maybe doing a P-Bass build soon actually, since I just added this beast to my gear collection


early 70s Ampeg B15N. words can’t even begin to express how fucking awesome this thing is, and the tone is second to none imo.

 

P bass is the best bass.

 

Wow. That’s amazing. I want to hear how it sounds.

And here I am thinking about buying an Orange Crush 50 haha.

 

Spent $60 on this purple mirror pickguard and idk if I like it haha. I think I like the black pickguard I had on it more.

 

Nah that looks rad

 

Oh, this one is all done too. It’s just an old Tom Delonge signature squier (formerly the white version) I refinished over a year ago. I added a new pickguard, installed a bareknuckle Humbucker with a plastic cover I had laying around, and bought a roasted maple neck for it. It turned out to be a fun as hell guitar and spontaneous project. I really dig the vintage 70’s F logo tuners too. The neck is buttery smooth with the satin poly finish on the back. Really into the glossed fretboard too. Feels glassy.

 

Anyone here have experience with MJT guitars/parts? I just bought this thing on a whim. I feel I got a decent price on it after going back and forth on negotiations lol. Unkown pickup, but its overwound at 14k which is how I like my pickups. I have an overwound/hot set of Fender Road Worn Single coil 50's telecaster pickups I might throw in there since I love those and the body has a neck pickup route underneath the pickguard. The guy wired it as a telecaster, so it's actually not a true esquire thing going on. Got a photo of the inside hardware too and its quality parts/wiring. I'll see how I like the compensated wilkinson bridge after awhile.

Anyways, I've always wanted a telecaster and I love the aged Ice Blue Metallic with rosewood neck!

 

you might be the most eccentric guitar hobbyist on the internet

do you keep all of these or do you sell them?

 

I sold 3 recently. If I love them, I’ll keep them though. I have 6 right now. Sold everything else. I’ve collected tons of parts over the years and I’ll use, trade, or sell those too.

I also don’t really ever buy high end/factory guitars because there’s always something I want to change about it. However, I also recently purchased a 2021 burgundy mist squier affinity Jazzmaster because it played/sounded great and they come with the same pickups squier uses in the j mascis signature Jazzmasters. I’m keeping it stock and will just change the pickguard to a tortoise shell. I’ll prob keep it too.

 

incredible. youre clearly into it. did you make profits on the ones you sold recently? the second hand market is conducive af these days.

 

I’ve made a profit on all off them. Some a nice profit, some a small profit, and some I ended up dissembling and selling parts separate because the target audience just wasn’t there and I would lose money or break even with a low offer. It all really depends on the quality of parts being used and how good a set up is on it.

So many people buy “budget friendly” guitars in bulk, modify them, and try selling them for like 3-5x the original price and they put crappy parts in them. For example, there are people taking $180 squire strats, modding them, and marketing them as “Tom Delonge Stratocasters” with less than subpar electronics, the wrong hardware, and necks while asking for an unreasonable amount. It’s insane and shady.

 

How much should a TD style strat mod go for, you think? Just curious

 

I have a parts tele I had put together based around a neck and body from MJT about 8 years ago. It's a great guitar, in some ways I feel like it's gotten better over the years. (Somehow the tuning stabilized a lot like a year in.) Used they seem to be really good deals especially.

 

If you just want to mod a guitar to a TD mod, You can legit get the invader pickup, a Delonge style off brand style pickguard, and a 500k volume pot for $110.

The thing is people use the wrong body type/bridge and necks and try passing it off as a TD style guitar to sell. They go cheap on those parts and still market as a Tom Delonge Strat.

If you want you a more legit TD looking Strat it would cost around $800-$1200 bc the Strat body is a Hardtail, which are hard to find. if you cant find the correct size bridge route on a Hardtail Strat, then you have to get it custom made. Then there’s the neck and to come close to Delonge style neck…you’re looking at $500-$600 fender necks. He used a custom shop 69 Strat neck. A $1300 neck alone.

if you’re looking at a guitar that’s been TD modded…figure out what the guitar was originally and go from there.

You can build your own legit TD Strat for less money and with higher quality parts than buying a factory signature model these days too. Those are going for $1400-$2000 and they’re not even made is the US. The high quality TD “partscasters” typically sell from $800-$1200 from what I’ve seen.

 

Here’s that 2021 Squier Affinity Jazzmaster I mentioned above. Waiting for a tortoise shell pickguard to arrive, but the all white actually looks pretty sweet.

I bought this from Music Farm for $250 bc they had a sale going on. They run $280 normally, which is still a steal. I highly recommend this Jazzmaster if you’re into offsets. The body is probably the most resonant body I’ve owned and it’s freakin Poplar and the cheapest guitar I have. Very surprised by that. I had the old Hardtail squier affinity Jazzmaster before and this new one whoops it’s ass. The neck is actually a bit chunky, especially for the squier/affinity line. Neck has a satin finish and glossed headstock. The pickups sound more like p90’s than actual jazzmasters, but they sound great. Same pickups used in J Mascis Squiers.

 

whoa with a strat trem. is that a hardtail or no?

 

i just got a classic vibe strat yesterday and i think its better than my $1000 mim

 

Its a 2 point floating tremolo! These are like the little brother to the Fender American Performer Jazzmasters. Same exact setup.

The tuners are hybrid modern/vintage tuners too. They’re rad.

You can’t go wrong with the classic vibe series. The CV Jazzmasters and Telecasters are so awesome too. I only wish they’d satin the back of the necks instead of glossing them! I really want a CV 50’s telecaster lol

 

i had a classic vibe strat for a bit and it was a solid guitar. wish i could have started w that instead of the affinity squier strat i bought when i was 14. what a bargain those things are. that said mim is still definitely an upgrade imo. i ended up trading it in to get my my mim strat

 

I’ll tell you what. The Fender vintera roadworn series guitars are amazing. If I were going to spend $1000-$1300 on a fender, it would be on one of those guitars. They look and play like custom shop guitars. The purple metallic and lake placid blue teles are

 

im pretty sure ill sell my mim now lol

 

i need to get out there and try a jazzmaster though. looks like a jag but has the 25.5 scale. seems like a win win to me

 

the reasons i grew to sorta not like the offset fenders is because

1. all of the “sympathetic” frequencies you get from behind the bridge when playing sometimes
2. the bridge moves when you play and do bends
3. jazzmaster pickups are noisy as hell. (jags are quiet tho)

 

Yeah, I'm with you. I'm not super into the Jazzmaster bridge/vibrato hardware. There's too much going on with that stuff for my liking. They look cool and people do some cool tricks with them, but I will never do that stuff haha. The pickups are hit or miss for me too. Although, The Pure Vintage 65 pickups sound really cool (Especially the neck pup), but you have to really dial in a traditional Jazzmaster to get it to play and sound good.

Those are the main reasons why the Affinity Jazzmaster line caught my attention. A hardtail jazzmaster and a jazzmaster with a strat style tremolo? Also, p90 style jazzmaster pickups? That's more like it.