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NGD - Custom build Jaguar Strat Hybrid inspired by John Squire's original

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the_jaffathe_jaffa Frets: 974
in Guitar
Not quite the actual NGD today, I picked it up from the painter on Wednesday and got it built back up later in the day, but today is the first real chance I have had to take any reasonable pics.

Story on this guitar is that back in 1990 I first saw pics of John Squire playing a super-cool looking white guitar in the video for One Love. I ended up with a still pic from the video on one of my school folders but at that stage didn't really know what the guitar actually was.

Many years later and having discovered a bit more about it but still not knowing exactly what it was I ended up talking to Stuart Palmer who built the originals. A good chat with him and I discovered that it is not built around a Jazz Bass body as a lot of people thought but is actually a Jaguar/Strat hybrid. Mostly a Jag body but with Strat horns grafted on. Stuart did offer to build me one but there was no way I could really afford that.

A while later, I couldn't get the idea out of my head so decided I might have a crack at building one for myself. Having never built or even really modded a guitar before meant a lot of youtube watching, a lot of questions on here and making a lot of dust in my garage but after a lot of work I have now got my very own and I am super chuffed with it.

Here it is:













Some more details on the spec:

Body is two piece alder painted in Arctic White nitro.
Neck is from a CIJ Jaguar that I fitted a Tusq nut to and sanded the finish off the back
Pickups are coil splittable, humbuckers custom-wound by Marc at Mojo and to replicate as closely as possible the originals that John had in his.
Trem is a Wudtone CP Vintage (The Jag trem is redundant but is a proper Fender one)
All the wiring is new and I made the loom myself with cloth covered vintage style wiring.
Pots are CTS and switches are Switchcraft
The switch/control panels also came from the CIJ Jaguar
The scratchplate is also custom made by me and proved to be a massive headache but after 3 goes worked out fine. WBW 3 ply.

The switching is changed from a standard Jaguar. Instead of using the switches in the lower bout to switch the pickups in and out I fitted a 3-way, Mustang style, switch in place of one of the rhythm circuit (the rhythm circuit is not used) roller pots working like a normal 3-way selector. Two of the lower bout switches now control the coil-splitting for the individual pickups. I might eventually use the third of these switches for an out-of-phase switch or similar. Working out the look was fun but fairly time consuming.

Overall, I am massively happy with how it has turned out. It's better than I hoped it might be. It looks great, plays really well and works exactly how I would like it.

Link to the build thread here: http://www.thefretboard.co.uk/discussion/63903/now-complete-first-guitar-build-project-underway-project-diary/p1
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