Spraying my "62 vintage" style Jaguar body with an Olympic White, nitro paint, and clearcoating with gloss lacquer
Spraying my replacement “1962” Jaguar body, with Olympic White nitro paint, and a gloss lacquer clear coat
Rebuilding my Olympic White Fender “1962” Jaguar. Setting the neck, and test-fitting the tremolo bridge
Drilling my replacement "62" Jaguar body for a tremolo. Ensuring the tremolo and neck are fitted straight and true.
Rebuilding my Olympic White Fender “1962” Jaguar. Sealing and priming a new alder body for nitro lacquer
Prepping and priming a two-piece, alder, "vintage" style Jaguar body - ready for spraying an Olympic White, nitro lacquer paint job
Setting up the Jaguar. Slotting the nut, intonation and string adjustments.
The Jaguar has been sitting for a little while, to let the strings stretch, the neck to adjust under tension and to generally let everything settle. It's already pretty playable - but a proper setup should improve this even more.
Shimming the Jaguar neck pocket.
It seems the Staytrem bridge must be taller than the stock design Jaguar bridge. Either that, or the neck heel is too deep. The action on the Jaguar is well above what you'd call normal - even with the bridge screwed all the way down to the deck. Fortunately - there's a cure.
Fitting the Jaguar pickups.
As with most projects, all the individual elements build one on another - each relying on the quality and accuracy of the previous steps. So fitting the pickups feels a little bit like putting the pinnacle on a house of cards. Here's hoping all my preparation leads to an easy installation.
Checking the neck on the Jaguar.
The pickups for the Jaguar have arrived! Time to pull this project together - well, see if I can wrap up the construction anyway. I need to make sure the neck is good to go - so it's in the best possible shape for the first setup.
Jaguar wiring – Day Two. Installing the circuit wiring.
I have a copy of an original, hand-drawn, Fender wiring diagram I found on the web. It's dated 7th August 1962. That's exactly the same week I was born, (and the same week Marylin Monroe passed). As I've mentioned before in previous posts - to me, the Jaguar design totally encapsulates that era. Rockets, chrome, conical bras, spacemen, surfboards, cars with fins. You can see it all in the lines of a Fender Jaguar. And it's one of the reasons I embarked on this whole project to begin with.
Jaguar wiring – Day One. Building in the ground side of the circuit.
In the original, 1962 Jaguar design, all the ground side of the circuit ran via a series of linked, brass plates which fitted into the bottom of each recess cavity. However I end up doing the wiring - I'll have to replicate this function in some way or other.
Getting ready for the electronics. Polish, Superglue and Copper foil.
I've got a pair of pickups and a wiring harness on order. In the meanwhile, it's time to tidy everything up and get ready.
Garageland 