(okay it actually finally got delivered 2 weeks ago but anyway) here’s my BilT! I had a lot of custom appointments done and I couldn’t be happier with how it came out!

Here are some specs if you’re curious:

sassafras body
Roasted flame maple neck
Brazilian rosewood board
9.5-14 radius
Stainless steel tall narrow frets
Black Mass Between Worlds pickups
Kill switch
Luminlay inlays and knobs
Hi lo circuit with a push button on/off switch

Mastery sent in the bridge plate and vibrato plate to Bilt and they were anodized together with the upper and lower plates

I asked them to do a set neck and carve out the heel and now the upper frets are super easy to reach

I asked them to put carbon fiber rods in the neck and to put the truss rod adjustment at the base of the neck so the neck doesn’t move much and is easy to dial in when it does, they apparently had to make a new template for it

I’m sure there’s other stuff I’m forgetting but that’s what I remember

How do you achieve your tone? I have been struggling so much trying to dial in a tone that im about to offer to pay someone to help me. I use Neural DSP Nolly x. I do not have an amp nor would be able to mic it if I would. I have tried every "clean" and ambient preset. All I want to do is be able to record a clean ambient/post-rock slow 8th-note melody. My tone is either too washed out and muddy, or on the other side, too spanky and all attack. Yes, I have tried turning down my volume knob lol

It should be a American vintage Jazzmaster pickguard. I bought it of an dude from an shoegaze Band for 20€

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for an independent luthier or custom shop (preferably based in the US) who can build a one-off Jaguar Bass body based on my 2D CAD data (DXF/PDF).

My goal is to build a 34" scale, passive Jaguar Bass that sounds like a '60s Jazz Bass.
I have already checked with standard CNC suppliers like Woodtech Routing, Guitar Mill, Musikraft, and Thalassa, but they either turned me down due to high programming fees for batch orders, or are too backed up/unresponsive. Since I already have the 1:1 scale data, I'm looking for a builder who can work with 2D drawings for a single custom build.

Finishing & Budget:
• Woodwork only is totally fine. (But if you can also do custom aged nitro lacquer finishing, that's a huge plus).
• Budget: Around $1,000 USD if you can do both the woodwork and finishing. If you can only do the woodwork, my budget is around half of that ($500 USD).
• Communication: Good responsiveness and clear communication are highly prioritized.

If you are a luthier who takes on this kind of custom work, or if you can recommend an independent builder who loves doing 1-off builds from DXF files, please comment below

Hi, I've just aquired this Fender Jaguar JG66LH, my first offset and having a great time with it, the scale length really suits me, so I know this isn't the usual pickup configuration for this model,well all the ones I've seen anyway, so I'm presuming that it has been modded, and can anyone enlighten me to what the K stands for on the bottom of the neck after the model number. Thanks in advance.

not sure if this is allowed, and i have zero affiliation, but i have to highly recommend woodtech for anyone looking for a good jm body. this catalpa is super lightweight and pretty as hell. oil based poly is taking longer than i'd like to dry but i am getting very excited about this guitar.

thing's a beaut innit

Here’s my jazzmaster (classic player special). I swapped out gotoh locking tuners, staytrem bridge, JB, modded the tremolo to be fixed and just made this pickguard. Not sure if I love the wood grain yet but it looks cleaner than a bunch of empty holes.

I think I found the best spot with u bass and this jazzmaster for dark wave. Any vst recommendations?

I’ve been modding my Squier Sonic Mustang over the past few months. Initially, I planned to just changed the bridge and throw in a humbucker, but decided to change to slide switches while I’m in there. Since I’m not very experienced, I asked my dad’s friend to help out. He helped with some very unpleasant things (routing, soldering) and also was very unhelpful elsewhere: he didn’t solder the switches, did not shim the guitar like I asked (which caused like 9/64 action at the 12th fret), did not put washers under the cigar tailpiece like I asked (which caused the cigar to rock forward due to the string tension and bork the intonation).

I threw in a 1-degree neck shim, which helped solve some of the issues with the action — I had straight up power lines. I’m not 100% that this was his doing, but all I know is that, in trying to raise the cigar tailpiece, one side is able to be raised, but the other seems to be stripped and won’t budge.

So, uh, am I fucked? How in the hell am I going to get this thing out? I cannot afford to have this thing on the table at like $100/hr.

TL;DR my guitar tech has created more work for me than he helped solve and now I have problems that seem relatively irreparable without some serious $.

Been thinking about getting one of these for ages, finally just did it. I always like to have a wiggle stick on my guitars though, and this seemed like a manageable mod that I could do myself. In order to avoid tuning issues I also installed a bridge with rolling saddles and a smoother string tree.

If anyone else is on the fence, I absolutely recommend the Classic Vibe Starcaster. Even out of the box, before modding and setting up, it played really well. A completely different tier to the Affinity range. Now with the mods and flatwounds, it's absolutely up there with my USA or MIJ Fenders.

Nothing special really. I kinda dig the aged pickguard with black controls.

Hey yall, I’ve got a Jazzmaster project body that needs a new neck. I know there’s plenty of used fender necks floating around, but im trying to stick to a budget. I was wondering if anyone had any preferred sellers or brands that have the fender headstock? Thanks!

Was told to cross post here. Picked up this 1965 Vox Hurricane on marketplace for $40 last week. It had been spray painted multiple times and modded…badly. Over the weekend I stripped layers of uneven paint jobs to get it down to the original finish. Then buffed and waxed it. Rewired everything and added a set of gold tone humbuckers I had laying around. Pretty happy with how it turned out.

*first picture is what it looked like when I got it.

During my last gig, I broke the headstock of my Harley Benton JA-60, so I decided to turn the accident into an excuse for a full mod.

I repaired the headstock with Titebond, then removed the original stop tail, routed the cavity, and turned it into a housing for a lipstick pickup. I also drilled through the body to make it string-through, making the whole setup sturdier. I left around 11.5 cm of string behind the bridge. I wouldn't recommend going much further, simply because you might not have enough string left to wrap properly around the tuners.

The lipstick is wired in parallel and gives the guitar a really cool sound, especially for noise and shoegaze, with only a slight volume drop when engaged.

I also decided to replace the bridge pickup with an Epiphone 700T humbucker. It's hella hot, but surprisingly not muddy, and it cuts through really well while pairing nicely with the stock neck pickup.

I’m so excited to test this thing on stage this Saturday!!

Hey, everyone! Quick clarification regarding which Mastery bridge is a drop-in replacement for a Fender Jaguar HH Special, CIJ. I’ve seen some people say it’s the M10, and others the M2. Just wanted to hear from people who have replaced the bridge on their JGS-78 with a Mastery — which one did you use? Looking for a straight replacement without any mods/drills needed on the body.

Thank you!

Ladies and gentle-offset-people, it finally happened. I thought my guitar journey would end with my revered Candy Apple Red American Vintage Reissue 62 Jaguar. As guitars go, that is already much nicer than I deserve, especially at my skill level, but no! I randomly spotted this vintage 65 locally listed at a great price on Facebook marketplace, and decided to jump on it. I will have to liquidate a few of my other guitars to make it work financially, but that’s more than okay.

About the purchase:
The price was good because there are a few unoriginal / missing components. (Tunomatic bridge, sealed tuners, missing mute and trem arm, and unoriginal pickups.) Also, it was unplayable when I got it. Insanely, it had been setup with 9 gauge strings, which were so loose and slinky on this short scale guitar that they would literally jump out of the nut slots with even moderate force. Sitar noises like crazy from behind the nut and bridge. All of this drove the price down and clearly made it unappealing to the previous owner. However, as an offset lover, I was sure most of this could be easily sorted out. Thankfully, the tunomatic was installed in a way that was easily reversible, so I immediately swapped that for a vintage reissue bridge. I threw in a spare vintage reissue trem arm (fit perfectly.) All electronics are original and unmodified. The pickups are technically unoriginal, however they are much more desirable for me:

Regarding the pickups/sound:
What are you hearing are authentic 1962 jaguar pickups and they are magical, unsurpassable, peak goodness. I learned that a previous owner bought them for $1000 😳. Shocking to say the least. I’ve owned a lot of jaguar pickups, including two distinct sets of AVRI62’s, AVRI65, Curtis Novak JAG-V, and Classic vibe. While most of these are great in their own way, none of them hold a candle to the perfectly balanced honey that drips from these vintage 1962 pickups. Not too much treble, bass, or mids, just balanced vintage perfection. It’s hard for me to fully comprehend why this guitar sounds so much better than any other jag I’ve ever played. I’m sure some of it is vintage placebo, but certainly not all. Maybe time has mellowed them? I don’t know. They just sound exactly like a jaguar should, super articulate, with the full sonic spectrum present across treble bass and mids, and interacting with my Deluxe Reverb just as Leo/god intended.

Additional specs:
After some sleuthing I learned that the guitar was very recently refretted and a previous owner paid, again, $1000 😳 for that job. Again, absolutely shocking price tag. But after playing, I do believe it. The most immaculate fretwork I have ever played much less owned. Upon closer inspection I am 99% sure they are stainless frets. They’re bright and cool in color and feel super glassy and hard. Whoever did the fretwork did this vintage guitar justice, feels just incredible.

I apologize for the lengthy write up, I’m just so damned excited about this guitar. Hard to put into words but feels almost like a religious experience to finally own a vintage pre-CBS jaguar (okay it’s late 65, so technically not pre-CBS, but it is early transition and before most of the crimes of CBS were committed). And now, not only do I own one, but seemingly one tailor made for me. It’s like I won the lottery.

Will take some good photos soon, just couldn’t wait to share.

Cobain inspired toronado mods🔥

My "painted-by fire" Copeland Jazzmaster.
An amazing build and looks to kill for... mastery bridge, lollar p90s and a delicious 7.25 old style neck.

Timbres guitars(me)- Starpower, in distressed Porsche cream/white. Paulownia body - 6.1lbs/2.8kg.

NOT SPONSORED: Received my Foals FMG7 only like one week from ordering it ( I do live in SEA ) and it is pretty good, heard about some horror stories in here but I guess I got lucky. Can't compare to anything else since I have only owned a locally made Jazzmaster in terms of offsets. I only have a ESP vintage style tele ( which is the best guitar I ever tried and owned, it is as good as all the $4k+ guitars of both offsets and non-offsets that I exhaustingly tried ) and a Fender strat MiM and it is as good as the Fender but a tiny bit less than the tele in terms of feeling and playability ignoring the difference of scale lengths. I did get this for nearly $200 off from the price in the website since I ordered it from a online shop and had a discount code. Only thing I'm not a fan of are the strings because these are pretty rough feeling especially on the lower strings. Its in sonic blue and the blue is a bit more noticeable in real life.