Bigsby tremolo – Garageland

6th Jun 20226th Jun 2022

“Mary Kaye” Blonde Fender Jaguar. Fitting the neck to the body, and test-fitting a Bigsby B5 tremolo

After refinishing the neck for my blonde "Mary Kaye"-type Jaguar build - I can finally tap the neck with new bolt holes, and check the neck alignment with a gold Bigsby B5 tremolo unit installed. This is already becoming a quite distinctive-looking build...

5th Nov 2021

New Project – Candy Apple Red H/H Fender Jaguar, and rationalising components for my various Jaguar builds

...just call me "Four-Jags!"...

25th Sep 20203rd Dec 2020

The perfect Jaguar setup? Part two. Let’s face it. It’s the bridge – isn’t it?

One of the "received truths" about the Jaguar - seems to be that the original bridge design is at fault for just about everything - (although there are a whole series of common mods which address some sonic characteristics as well). With the bridge however - many of the "fixes" appear to cause problems, or unwanted knock-on effects, themselves. ...what does that mean for the setup itself? Is there a way to achieve a perfect balance between archtop form, and solid-body function?

20th Sep 20208th Jan 2021

The perfect Jaguar setup? Part one. Appreciating the design, and architecture.

Comparing the various Jaguar bridge options got me thinking. I just couldn't work out what that Fender Tune-o-matic bridge was trying to achieve. Since I plan to have a few offsets to set up over the next few months, I need to work out how to solve some of the technical differences which make Stratocasters and Jaguars so, apparently, different. I began to realise, I'd have to look at things in a different way...