Rebuilding An Original 1962 Fender Jaguar - Part 2
Plus: Kendrick Lamar, Steely Dan, Solange, Laura Nyro, KISS
In case you missed part 1, this is the story of my 1962 Fender Jaguar rebuild.
Recap: I found the body of this old guitar in a family friend’s shed, and then went through the process of piecing together the guitar itself, as well as the story behind it. We left off last week with the guitar looking like a beat-up old piece of junk covered in blue spray paint, but with enough identifying traits to mark it as an original 1962 body.
After a couple of weeks of investigation, we ended up finding even more original components. Unfortunately, the pickups and switches were too corroded to be usable, but the chrome pieces from the original guitar were mostly there. I think the yellow stains are from the old clear paint coat from the original guitar, but it’s hard to say.
But before we could get into the rewiring of the guitar, the next challenge was to get it painted. We found a great paint shop, which is sadly out of business now, but still had to decide what color to make the guitar. My dad and I searched for photos of the original guitar, but neither of us, nor my old instructor’s family, had any memory of seeing it before. I did my best to sand down the blue spray paint to find the original color of the guitar, but unfortunately there were very few clues to be found. I guess the guitar’s original finish was sanded down before its backyard repaint job, which is a shame. So I hit the internet to figure out what colors were possible.
The original colors were the classic Fender 3-color sunburst, Lake Placid Blue, and Olympic White. There were also some custom colors available, but given the treatment of this guitar, I assumed it wasn’t a custom job. The neck also might have provided a clue if we could have found it - all of these guitars had rosewood fretboards over maple necks, but may also had a headstock painted to match the body’s color. Unfortunately, even after weeks of searching, we never found another sign of the neck.
So after some discussion, we decided to get the guitar painted Lake Placid Blue, like the beautiful example below. This was mostly a matter of preference, but we also thought maybe my instructor wanted the guitar to be blue anyway, given his choice of spray paint color. We also didn’t think the Sunburst would look as good on the old wood, and we were worried that the blue paint would show through the clear sunburst. That actually wasn’t a valid worry, looking back, but we didn’t know any better at the time, so we stuck with blue. Plus, how awesome does that color look?
The only caveat, which we went back and forth about, was that the neck wasn’t going to match the body color. Not all Jaguars had matching headstocks - but the majority of the really high-end vintage guitars you see now from 1962 have the matching headstock. I just didn’t see a way to get it done in a professional (or affordable) way.
So we decided to get a new neck without a painted headstock, which was a 1962 replica made for the guitar’s 50th anniversary. Photos to come later.
It was actually during the sanding and painting process that we got some more clues about the guitar’s origins. Below are some photos from the paint shop where we sent the guitar, which show some markings presumably from the factory:
They also discovered some nail marks under the paint that would have been used for drying or applying the paint in the factory at the time. According to the paint shop, this further confirms the body’s authenticity, although there wasn’t really any doubt at this point thanks to the neck plate.
Now, you might have noticed something in these pictures that I didn’t notice at the time - the yellow paint coating the pockets. Put a pin in that for now - at the time we didn’t think anything of it, thinking that the yellow paint must have just been a primer sprayed on at the factory or something like that.
So we stuck with Lake Placid Blue, and a few weeks later, we got the body back looking fantastic:
And of course, I had to lay out the chrome pieces and pick guard on the body to see how they were going to look:
Not too bad so far! But the hardest part is yet to come.
Next week, the assembly process begins, along with the most notoriously complicated part of the Fender Jaguar - the wiring system.
Project BAE - Best Albums Ever
Your regularly scheduled jams
Alive - KISS
A live album! Man it feels like I’m back in my high school days thinking Dave Matthews live albums were the only albums worth my time (don’t worry, that phase only lasted like 6 months, tops, mostly because of a girl I had a crush on who took me to a DMB concert and might or might not have introduced me to the associated recreational substances commonly found there).
Although the subject matter of KISS songs isn’t the most intellectually stimulating, this is undeniable rock n’ roll fun. I’m not sure I could name more than one KISS song, even though it seems in my mind like I’ve listened to them a lot. Maybe it’s some kind of weird rock ‘n roll Mandela effect - we’ve seen KISS in the media so many times, we think we know their songs, even though all their songs basically sound alike to me.
Jams:
“Rock And Roll All Nite”
To Pimp A Butterfly - Kendrick Lamar
It’s largely a smoothly performed stream of consciousness. I can see this as a snapshot into the artists brain, complete with almost ambient backing music and scattered topics bouncing from social commentary to the joys of physical love to raw anger to swagger and back again like a pinball.
Jams:
“Alright”
“Hood Politics”
A Seat At The Table - Solange
I had literally no idea Beyoncé had a sister, which should tell you something about how deeply my head’s been buried when it comes to contemporary popular music. Ah well, learning about all the music I’ve been ignoring is basically why we’re here.
This album is much calmer than I expected. It’s pretty laid back R&B, with the focus more on the music than the singer, and I appreciated that - especially with the inevitable comparisons to Beyoncé that would hint at a more voice-worshipping style of songwriting. None of that here, though; if we have to do a Beyoncé comparison, I’d call this Speakeasy Beyoncé. Or coffee house Bey, maybe, but one that serves great cocktails too.
Jams
“Rise”
“Cranes In The Sky”
Eli and the Thirteenth Confession - Laura Nyro
Laura Nyro was a singer-songwriter in the late 60’s and early 70’s, and I’ve never heard her name or music before. I guess it shouldn’t be surprising that I haven’t heard of yet another artist from 6 decades ago, but it always comes as a surprise when someone of this caliber and history takes me by surprise. But that happens with recent artists too. So should I have heard of more recent artists or older artists? Which one should have found their way into my head, and which should I be more embarrassed not to know?
I guess it doesn’t matter since I don’t feel embarrassment, so let’s carry on.
This album wasn’t a huge attention-grabber for me. It was obviously good songwriting, but I think it’s suffered in my perception purely based on what else I’ve been listening to recently, and maybe I’m just spoiled by all the other great singer-songwriter albums I’ve been spinning. Laura Nyro has a fantastic singing voice, and writes some super cool and soulful songs, but I didn’t take any home with me, so to speak. I had no specific issues with the album either. I have no doubt this would have been much more impactful on me if I’d heard it in the 60’s rather than now, but I can’t do much about that. Will definitely listen again after my listening palate is cleansed.
Can’t Buy A Thrill - Steely Dan
For some reason I remember vividly a car ride where my dad was blasting Steely Dan and my mom yelled at him for it because she didn’t like it - I never really understood why. Now I think it was purely a volume issue, but my little kid mind thought it was because Steely Dan was just no good. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Is it a bit yacht rocky? Perhaps. But it’s also great classic rock that today makes for a pretty chill listen whether you’re yacht inclined or not. I didn’t really have any gripes except my personal distaste for piano synth solos, but this is nowhere near The Doors level so it’s cool with me.
Jams
“Do It Again”
“Dirty Work”
“Reelin’ In The Years”
Thank you for the recommendation. I'm honored!