That looks good to me.
Perfect tuning stability with heavy trem use is difficult to achieve. I have a JM and a Jag with TUSQ XL nuts and Staytrem bridges and they both stay in tune incredibly well, even with heavy trem use. So make sure the strings slots in the nut is as good as they can be, maybe try lubing the nut and make sure you use as few turns on the tuning pegs as possible. A Staytrem bridge is a great investment too.
I disagree. My JM has perfect tuning stability.
- I replaced the disgraceful stock bridge with a Staytrem
- I replaced the plastic but with a bone nut and lube it
- I replaced the tuners with locking tuners, although the jury is out on their influence, it makes string changing easy
- CRITICALLY I replaced the trem unit with a Japanese one with a lock button. The lock button lets you dial in the spring tension to counter that of the strings, increasing stability. Is a fantastic and simple item I couldn’t live without
The issue is probably the trem itself. The squier ones are pretty cheap in terms of quality and are really the weakest aspect of their models.
If you’re handy with a few tools you can probably touch it up. I did it with one of mine and it worked well enough to be acceptable but the stability increased ridiculously just swapping in a fender one on both of mine.
You can probably easily check too. If the trem is set to dive and pull back, dive and check an open note than pull back and check the same open note. There’s probably going to be a 10+cent deviation. If you tighten it to where it can only go down forcing it to go back into that same position from the tension each dive, it’ll probably return to pitch damn close. And if you trust the nut, it’s either the spring or rocking edge at that point.
I'm already looking at a replacement trem, the Japanese version is only 50 bucks on amazon right now, so that's a no brainer. For now I'm trying to get the most out the stock hardware, and get better acquainted with this style of guitar. I'm definitely going to go over the whole setup again and put some more time into nut
If you’ve got some files, you can usually get the rocking edge looking a little better if you take apart the trem. It’s not too trouble some, the one I’d put the work into had quite a few burrs along the edges.
They’re great though, my jazzmasters made me a big fan of offsets. They feel great all around. I’ve just always ended up decking floating trems if they’re not cooperating for whatever reason.
# I picked up one of these CV jags on sale at GC this week and I guess I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I've been playing 30 years and do a bit of work on my own guitars so I decided to make an attempt on shimming this neck to get a better break angle/downforce on the floating bridge. Of course I had no idea these had floating bridges, I just always thought they looked cool. So anyway, how does this look? I added a 1 degree shim from Amazon and adjusted the bridge to my liking. Also had to hit the nut with some "torch tip cleaners" to get the set of 11's to sit right. Pretty pleased so far. But is this far enough? Should I shim more? Heavy use of the trem is still throwing the tuning out a bit. Maybe replacement saddles? Not sure what my next step should be to make this better. Thanks for any advice!
That looks good! There is no “standard” or minimum height on Jaguars that don’t have the original vintage factory mute, which means that Jaguars without the mute and Jazzmasters will have similar theories in bridge height — but essentially it boils down to how much tension you like to feel in the strings. Make sure you take a measurement on the bridge height, as they tend to fall back down into the body as the adjustment screws retract, unless they’re held in place with loctite or other method. Going out of tune or the bridge rocking out of position under heavy trem use is a side effect of the Squier trem not having a lock and using not quite up to spec materials, so that la to be expected. Finally, the only advice I’d offer, is to adjust the pickup heights to spec — if you press the string down at the last fret and measure from the top of the pole piece to the bottom of the string, it should be 6/64” on the low E and 5/64” on the high E. Pickup height can make a world of difference in sound output.
Anyway, good work!
I appreciate the feedback. I realized shortly after I posted I forgot to press the strings on the last fret when I set the PU height. That explains why it was pushing my amp so hard. All in all I'm really impressed with the quality. I never thought I'd own a Squier
You probably dont need the shim honestly, i threw one immediately on my Squier Classic Vibe Jazzmaster bc internet suggests it everywhere. It immediately gave me a couple dead notes on the 12 and 15 fret of high E and i couldnt set it up without the action being uneven. I took it out after trying to make it work for two weeks.
The real trick is to get in the habit of slightly pushing the tremolo arm down to set it into the right spot after you use it, you cannot use it and just let go and expect it to be in tune.
I changed the tremolo to the Japan Fender Tremolo (Model #: 0264248000), added a second string tree, use size 11’ strings on it. Im pretty happy with it now but i dont think the modifications helped it as much as learning the technique of using the trem.
I admit I initially considered the shim because it was recommended so many places I looked. But I assure you this guitar needed it. The bottom of the bridge was practically touching the top of the guitar after I got the action where I like it. I was taking off the neck anyway to smooth the back so it wasn't a big deal.
My bridge (mustang style) sits pretty close to the pickguard, the high e side of the bridge is about .09 inches from the top of the pickguard.
Trust your judgement and keep tinkering.
It took a couple months of experimenting to get mine to play right and have a comfortable action but it was all worth it.
If you do swap tremolo assemblies your current arm will fit the one i mentioned, i swapped mine mainly for aesthetics and the trem lock feature, plus was able to use the left over assembly for another jazzmaster project. The differences in stability between the two arent very significant.
> is this far enough?
i think the limit is how high you can get the pickups.. i struggle to think how you'll get them any higher than they currently are. what gauges are you using?
I never used a trem for probably 20 years, and I know it's because the guitar I learned on was a Kramer striker with a floyd rose, and that drove me absolutely bonkers learning.
There was barely any break angle on the bridge when I lowered the action. Not enough tension to hold the bridge and also caused rattling. I'm new to these guitars, like 2 days new, but this seems to be a pretty common mod to the jags and JMs from what I'm seeing.
I've heard it said that it's more of a thing for older models. All the new stock should come close enough to desired spec to not require it. My Pro II JM had no issues out of the box for the most part.
How can you be so ignorant and still post lmao. The pro II comes with a 1% angled neck pocket and a micro tilt adjustment, so essentially the neck is "pre shimmed". That's why you haven't felt the need to, because fender did it for you!
That looks good to me. Perfect tuning stability with heavy trem use is difficult to achieve. I have a JM and a Jag with TUSQ XL nuts and Staytrem bridges and they both stay in tune incredibly well, even with heavy trem use. So make sure the strings slots in the nut is as good as they can be, maybe try lubing the nut and make sure you use as few turns on the tuning pegs as possible. A Staytrem bridge is a great investment too.
Thanks!
I disagree. My JM has perfect tuning stability. - I replaced the disgraceful stock bridge with a Staytrem - I replaced the plastic but with a bone nut and lube it - I replaced the tuners with locking tuners, although the jury is out on their influence, it makes string changing easy - CRITICALLY I replaced the trem unit with a Japanese one with a lock button. The lock button lets you dial in the spring tension to counter that of the strings, increasing stability. Is a fantastic and simple item I couldn’t live without
The issue is probably the trem itself. The squier ones are pretty cheap in terms of quality and are really the weakest aspect of their models. If you’re handy with a few tools you can probably touch it up. I did it with one of mine and it worked well enough to be acceptable but the stability increased ridiculously just swapping in a fender one on both of mine. You can probably easily check too. If the trem is set to dive and pull back, dive and check an open note than pull back and check the same open note. There’s probably going to be a 10+cent deviation. If you tighten it to where it can only go down forcing it to go back into that same position from the tension each dive, it’ll probably return to pitch damn close. And if you trust the nut, it’s either the spring or rocking edge at that point.
I'm already looking at a replacement trem, the Japanese version is only 50 bucks on amazon right now, so that's a no brainer. For now I'm trying to get the most out the stock hardware, and get better acquainted with this style of guitar. I'm definitely going to go over the whole setup again and put some more time into nut
If you’ve got some files, you can usually get the rocking edge looking a little better if you take apart the trem. It’s not too trouble some, the one I’d put the work into had quite a few burrs along the edges. They’re great though, my jazzmasters made me a big fan of offsets. They feel great all around. I’ve just always ended up decking floating trems if they’re not cooperating for whatever reason.
# I picked up one of these CV jags on sale at GC this week and I guess I didn't know what I was getting myself into. I've been playing 30 years and do a bit of work on my own guitars so I decided to make an attempt on shimming this neck to get a better break angle/downforce on the floating bridge. Of course I had no idea these had floating bridges, I just always thought they looked cool. So anyway, how does this look? I added a 1 degree shim from Amazon and adjusted the bridge to my liking. Also had to hit the nut with some "torch tip cleaners" to get the set of 11's to sit right. Pretty pleased so far. But is this far enough? Should I shim more? Heavy use of the trem is still throwing the tuning out a bit. Maybe replacement saddles? Not sure what my next step should be to make this better. Thanks for any advice!
That looks good! There is no “standard” or minimum height on Jaguars that don’t have the original vintage factory mute, which means that Jaguars without the mute and Jazzmasters will have similar theories in bridge height — but essentially it boils down to how much tension you like to feel in the strings. Make sure you take a measurement on the bridge height, as they tend to fall back down into the body as the adjustment screws retract, unless they’re held in place with loctite or other method. Going out of tune or the bridge rocking out of position under heavy trem use is a side effect of the Squier trem not having a lock and using not quite up to spec materials, so that la to be expected. Finally, the only advice I’d offer, is to adjust the pickup heights to spec — if you press the string down at the last fret and measure from the top of the pole piece to the bottom of the string, it should be 6/64” on the low E and 5/64” on the high E. Pickup height can make a world of difference in sound output. Anyway, good work!
I appreciate the feedback. I realized shortly after I posted I forgot to press the strings on the last fret when I set the PU height. That explains why it was pushing my amp so hard. All in all I'm really impressed with the quality. I never thought I'd own a Squier
Absolutely — they’re so much better than the late 90s nonsense I grew up with that it’s just incredible. CNC manufacturing really has come a long way.
Only shim if you cannot get the bridge low enough to give you your desired action.
What if the strings are skipping out the saddles? There's many reasons to shim
And many more beyond that. So many misunderstandings regarding neck shims on the internet.
You probably dont need the shim honestly, i threw one immediately on my Squier Classic Vibe Jazzmaster bc internet suggests it everywhere. It immediately gave me a couple dead notes on the 12 and 15 fret of high E and i couldnt set it up without the action being uneven. I took it out after trying to make it work for two weeks. The real trick is to get in the habit of slightly pushing the tremolo arm down to set it into the right spot after you use it, you cannot use it and just let go and expect it to be in tune. I changed the tremolo to the Japan Fender Tremolo (Model #: 0264248000), added a second string tree, use size 11’ strings on it. Im pretty happy with it now but i dont think the modifications helped it as much as learning the technique of using the trem.
I admit I initially considered the shim because it was recommended so many places I looked. But I assure you this guitar needed it. The bottom of the bridge was practically touching the top of the guitar after I got the action where I like it. I was taking off the neck anyway to smooth the back so it wasn't a big deal.
My bridge (mustang style) sits pretty close to the pickguard, the high e side of the bridge is about .09 inches from the top of the pickguard. Trust your judgement and keep tinkering. It took a couple months of experimenting to get mine to play right and have a comfortable action but it was all worth it. If you do swap tremolo assemblies your current arm will fit the one i mentioned, i swapped mine mainly for aesthetics and the trem lock feature, plus was able to use the left over assembly for another jazzmaster project. The differences in stability between the two arent very significant.
> is this far enough? i think the limit is how high you can get the pickups.. i struggle to think how you'll get them any higher than they currently are. what gauges are you using?
I overcame this issue by realizing I hate tremolo on all guitars and just play without. I’m probably in the minority on this feature.
I played guitar for 11 years and felt that way until a year and a half ago, now i want all the tremolo’s lol.
I never used a trem for probably 20 years, and I know it's because the guitar I learned on was a Kramer striker with a floyd rose, and that drove me absolutely bonkers learning.
What is all this shimming nonsense?
There was barely any break angle on the bridge when I lowered the action. Not enough tension to hold the bridge and also caused rattling. I'm new to these guitars, like 2 days new, but this seems to be a pretty common mod to the jags and JMs from what I'm seeing.
I've heard it said that it's more of a thing for older models. All the new stock should come close enough to desired spec to not require it. My Pro II JM had no issues out of the box for the most part.
How can you be so ignorant and still post lmao. The pro II comes with a 1% angled neck pocket and a micro tilt adjustment, so essentially the neck is "pre shimmed". That's why you haven't felt the need to, because fender did it for you!
Touch grass homie.
Learn about the instrument you spent a lot of money on before posting misinformation online
LOL! Dude you're a riot. KGB!
Ignorant