From: ttesta@dempr0.enet.dec.com (Tom Testagrossa)
Newsgroups: alt.guitar,rec.music.makers
Subject: Re: HELP: Jaguar Problems
Date: 13 Oct 92 17:09:49 GMT
Reply-To: ttesta@dempr0.enet.dec.com (Tom Testagrossa)
Followup-To: alt.guitar
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation, Maynard, Ma.


In article <1992Oct12.211903.13504@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu>, scduncan@miavx1.acs.muohio.edu (Sean C. Duncan, Idiot) writes:
|
|>I've got a '64 Fender Jaguar, which is wonderful shape except for a problem
|>with the saddles.  I have a consistent buzz on the highest 2 strings, which
|>often makes the guitar sound sitar-ish (much to my annoyance and occasional
|>humored pleasure).  It's not fret buzz, and seems to be coming from the
|>way the string rests upon the saddles... since the Jaguar has the saddles
|>that allow for quick string adjustment, it's got five or six grooves
|>parallel to the string that the string can rest in.  Is this the problem?
|>
|>I haven't been able to figure out exactly which grooves are causing the
|>problem and it's really getting annoying.  Any ideas?  I've thought about
|>getting them replaced, but I don't know how much it would cost or if it would
|>be worth it -- do they even make replacement parts like this, or would I have
|>to get an entirely new bridge?  (I don't give a shit about kollektor skum
|>prices going down and all that... the guitar's been entirely refinished 
|>anyway.)
|>
|>Also, I've been having a problem with the action lowering after I play it
|>for a few weeks... I raise it, then after 3 or 4 weeks, it drops to 
|>fret buzzing levels.  I tune up often (blame Sonic Youth) and maybe the 
|>string tension pushes the saddles down?  Any ideas?
|>
|
	I have a 65 Jaguar, and have been having exactly the same problems...

	Though I do a LOT of work on guitars, this has baffled me a bit for some weeks...soI went to my local guitar tech guru yesterday (one day testing amps out and I'd brought my axe...he'd told me he had one just like mine years ago...) so I KNOW he has the answers.(I haven't tried anything yet, I will tonight!)
	1st thing he asked was "Do you have the bridge floating?" It vibrates SOOO much that it will start the height adjustment screws to rattling to the point where I can actually *watch* them unscrew as I play, thus sending one of my saddles into what I call "spinoff condition"...one screw substantially lower than the other, causing it to spin or turn over, losing the string to zero height and hopelessly trapping the saddle till the break, when I can get out my TINY allen wrench and reset it...(NO FUN!)
	He suggested putting ANYTHING (from small copper sleeving to duct tape!)
around the two posts which sit in the guitar, thus trapping the bridge from
"floating back and forth" and vibrating excessivly...the Jaguar is not well designed for sustain anyway because of the trapeze design of the bridge, so
it doesn't much affect the sound...
	The 2nd thing is the saddles themselves, they are actually just a threaded screw, the smaller strings sit ok, yet I sometimes have little or no sustain and the annoying buzz also...the problem is verry little downward pressure on the saddle, due to the slight angle of string over the saddle and into the vibrato.
	Also I experiance strings slipping out of the threads (especially)
the higher gauge wound strings...) he suggested filing a groove where the string goes, making sure that I angle it down towards the back...he showed me
a customers bass which had an almost identical saddle which this has been done
on, and it made great sense (cheaper than replacing saddles with something of my own design, which I'd considered...
	I'll draw up an ascii picture when I get a chance...I
have to be leaving now for a meeting...
I'd love to hear from more Jaguar owners, as they are wonderful sounding and
playing guitars, but some of these inherent problems need to be overcome.
Tom T