Inspired by a recent comment on reddit
My Jag-Stang is the instrument above all others that influenced my musical journey, here is a short history of the troubles I've had with it down the years!
It was my second electric guitar ever, a gift from my parents. A CIJ Jag-Stang from the first(?) run. It was ordered from Japan, since the Jag-Stang was no longer available anywhere else we thought to search.
The neck was damaged on arrival - seems like it bent in transit, it was easy enough to bend it back in alignment. I later took it to a Luthier for a set up. We discussed the neck there, among other things.
I loved it! I learned to play on my first guitar (Yamaha Pacifica 112), but I developed my style on this one.
I started gigging with a band, and pretty soon I was outgrowing the guitar. I quickly became unhappy with the Mustang style electrics, I wanted to be able to switch between neck and bridge more fluidly - anyone who has used a Mustang knows this is a fiddle.
So I got the switches rewired; one of them became a 3-way, the other a phase switcher. I was hesitant back then to make changes that would permanently change the guitar, although as the header image shows, this changed in the course of my ownership!
On the suggestion of the Luthier, I had the neck shimmed, the bridge locked and the fretboard rolled. I never used the vibrato at all, so this was not missed, I seem to recall fret-buzz being my main concern at the time.
Rolling the fretboard was a really, really nice improvement on the neck feel. I play grip chords, something which the slim neck of the instrument lends itself well to, and the aggressive fretboard rolling just makes it extra comfortable to hold and to play. It's a change that people are probably hesitant to make, but if you're primarily a rhythm guitarist, like me, just do it, you won't regret.
I got a red tortoise pickguard/scratchplate and upgraded the pickups: A Seymour Duncan JB for the bridge and a Quarter Pound Jaguar neck pickup, also from Seymour Duncan.
This is when the mutilation of the guitar innards started. I wanted the bridge pickup to be straight, I was paranoid that the misalignment of the strings and the magnets was robbing me of Toan©. So in my impatient DIY state of mind, I took a screwdriver and something heavy that doubled as a hammer and went to work. I only needed to shave a small amount of wood, so I didn't see the issue with it (and I still don't tbf - I was never ever going to sell this guitar, so reselling was never a concern).
At one point I had a pair of dual concentric volume/tone pots, for Gibson style control of the passive sound. I really wanted a 3-way switch however, so I got one of them removed (reverting back to a master volume/tone control) and put a 3 way switch in its place (this change was combined with stripping out the Mustang style switching - I never got a long with them).
Last year I bought a Bullet Mustang, the price was too good to pass up and the guitar, having contours and a simple 3-way switch on the lower horn, was basically the ideal version of the Jag-Stang that I was iteratively modding towards all these years.
So I got the Jag-Stang modded again: I moved that 3-way switch to the lower horn from the control plate, going back to a normal master volume/tone on the plate.
In 2020, I released an album of songs that were largely written on the Jag-Stang, and it felt like closure. In my heart, I knew it was time to retire the guitar. I've happily moved my focus to the Squier Mustangs, which I also started modding (I'll be posting a bridge mod build log soon).
In many ways, the Franken-Jag-Stang build I'm currently working on is a continuation of the journey to perfect that guitar. As much time and effort I'm sinking in to THAT build, I know already that I'll move on to yet another attempt at perfecting the Jag-Stang.