Caution - dont buy modded guitars

meltedbuzzbox

So I bought a lovely AVRI Jag from a guy in the US from a forum called OSG. 

He had modded the guitar to take humbuckers and assured me it was reversable and all was well etc 

So I made my deal and she arrived

It plays brilliant, truly the best Jag neck I have ever played. The pickups weren't too bad actually (Gibson 490 and 491T or something). 

Anyway I have been playing it loads and decided it needed to go back to singles. No problem, I will order a new guard and some pups and get to it. 

So my pickups arrived today and I got to work

CHRIST ON A BIKE

Who in the name of all that is holy let this fucktard loose with a router?

A monkey would have done a tidier job after a bottle of Jagermeister. 

I cant believe someone would go at a £1500 guitar so ham fisted. What an utter bellend. 

So I had to get to work to salvage this beauty, unfortunately I didn't take many pictures but I basically refilled these craters as best I could with pieces of pine so the single coils could go back in. 

It took several cuts but you can get an idea. 

Anyway after an hour or so of work and soldering it is looking a lot better. 

so if you find yourself looking at an AVRI Jag thinking its too good to be true for £550. It is!!

Luckily its a blinding guitar and it sounds great with the AVRI 65 pickups in it but I aint half miffed at the guy that sold me this guitar. 

richardhomer

It's easy to be wise after the event but if you're buying unseen and you know the modification would involve routing, you need to see pictures without the scratch plate on.

In fairness, it looks great now and it was 'cheap'.

Megii

That does look achingly gorgeous with the jag pickups in and the black pickguard - sorry you had that unpleasant surprise, but what a pretty guitar it is now. 

breakstuff

Nice job meltedbuzzbox.That looks great.Probably turned out to be quite a good deal in the end.

octatonic

What a crap job (the routing, not your rebuild)

You could easily fix that up with a router, so that the pickup routes look more professional.

Edit: actually you could fix that with a sharp chisel.

Dave_Mc

Wow, that sucks

Looks nice now, though

57Deluxe

...still for £200 you can't complain really.... what's that??  - you paid  - HOW MUCH???- !!!

ThePrettyDamned

I wouldn't worry - maybe those are tactical routes that unlock extra tone . It's a scratchplate guitar, so no one else need to know, and it looks fabulous and plays great.

Enjoy the bargain! It looks bloody fantastic.

xmrchi

"I wouldn't worry - maybe those are tactical routes that unlock extra tone".................Said Mark D Phillips.........

Danny1969

I had a Strat copy which had a massive rectangle cut out for the pickups under the scratchplate. It went from the bridge to the neck, no humbucker shaped holes just a massive rectangle. I spose cos it's out of sight it doesn't matter really

GuitarMonkey

Danny1969 said:

I had a Strat copy which had a massive rectangle cut out for the pickups under the scratchplate. It went from the bridge to the neck, no humbucker shaped holes just a massive rectangle. I spose cos it's out of sight it doesn't matter really

They were all like that in the 90s!

ThePrettyDamned

mrchi said:

"I wouldn't worry - maybe those are tactical routes that unlock extra tone".................Said Mark D Phillips.........

lol

Seriously though, if it's a players guitar (as in, a keeper), it doesn't matter - it's all hidden, and the OP reckons it sounds and plays amazing.  

Okay, it's not ideal, but it's clearly not ruining the guitar, is my point.

horse

I love how it looks with both the humbuckers and single coils. Great looking guitar

Samgb

Yeah bollocks to it it looks fantastic with the HBs and the single coils in it. It does look as though the guy had the touch of a raging gorilla with his tools though! I think he did our bathroom....

strtdv

With pickguard mounted pickups the body doesn't tend to contribute as much to the tone anyway, I'd wager it sounds pretty much identical to how it did pre-mod. It was a good price regardless. Just view it as being "weight relieved".

xmrchi

I suppose the silver lining on this cloud is if you ever fancy going back to buckers or even having one of both, that's an option, it wouldn't take much to make the erm... "Creative routing" look a little more factory.

meltedbuzzbox

@strtdv Jag pickups are actually mounted straight to the body that is why I had to fill in the craters with wood. ;-)

If I ever made it mega rich and famous I would love to see my signature model

Carefully selected alder body with tone cavities and hand selected homebase door architrave pine wood working in unison to deliver the ultimate tonez

guitargeek62

Hmm...I feel that the title of this should be, "Caution - don't buy modded guitars without asking for pics, or being content to take a risk on unknowns..."

meltedbuzzbox

guitargeek62 said:

Hmm...I feel that the title of this should be, "Caution - don't buy modded guitars without asking for pics, or being content to take a risk on unknowns..."

yeah it was ultimately my own fault for trusting the guy but hey an AVRI at mij monies got me all excited and I couldn't say no.

I love the guitar so it is no biggy. I am more annoyed that people do these sort of things. I think even mdphillips wouldnt make such a bad job of it... actually maybe thats a bit strong. 

Gassage

@markdphillips will sort it for you in a jiffy.

Are you OK with 4 strings and it being converted into a bass though?

ICBM

Seriously, how could you imagine that a Jag that's been fitted with humbuckers would be 'reversible'? (Assuming they weren't single-coil-sized, like Duncan Rails or JB Jr etc.)

Even assuming the neatest possible job of fitting them, it's never going to be reversible, because it can't be done in the first place without routing.

And if something can't be done without routing, you have to assume that sort of workmanship - or worse - until proven otherwise...

... and there really is worse! If you don't believe someone could do such a hamfisted job on a £1500 guitar, you probably haven't seen some of the horrors professional repairers get asked to put right .