I’ve had this project on my queue for a while now, and today I took the plunge.
A while ago I purchased a used Fender Squier Vintage Modified Jaguar guitar. I had heard so many good things about this guitar that I bought it sight-unseen, knowing it also had significant limitations.
The specific guitar I purchased did not come with a tremolo arm, so I knew I would have to get that replaced. But the larger issue for the Vintage Modified Jaguars is that they come with the vintage bridge, which is a known horrible design.
These bridges, common in vintage jaguars and jazzmasters, are poorly designed for several reasons. First, the grooves for the strings are not deep, so strumming or picking hard will cause the string to jump slots, throwing your guitar out of tune for the rest of the song. Second, the set screws do not fit well, and will work themselves out over time. So the end result of this complex design is that playing on these vintage bridges, when your strings don’t jump out of their slots, sounds like so much buzzing and rattling, like a pocket full of angry bees wearing wee chains.
Also, the specific guitar had what I assume are factory-original strings — 9s, which are too light for my taste.
So my project was to replace the tremolo arm, bridge, and strings.
There are a couple of replacement bridge options. In the end I decided to go with the jaguar bridge from Staytrem, and I also got their tremolo arm.
Replacing the bridge was simple — it dropped into place. The barrel style saddles have deep grooves so the strings won’t jump out.
Here’s the guitar mid-operation:
Adding the new tremolo arm was slightly more difficult. Removing the tremolo plate from the guitar body just required removing six screws, but the factory had over-tightened the tremolo collet, so removing that required soaking the unit in WD–40, clamping it into a vice, and then applying a few “attitude adjustments” with a wrench and hammer.
Luckily the new tremolo collet easily screwed into place and the tremolo arm fit perfectly. The Staytrem collet has a nylon sleeve/bushing that holds the arm, so there is smooth rotation with no free play and no lost motion.
Here’s the complete tremolo assembly:
And while I had the jag on the operating table, I added beefier strings — NY XL 11s:
Finally, here’s the reassembled Jaguar:
So, what was once a good guitar with some issues is now a really great guitar that plays and sounds fantastic!