The JV Strat

The JV Partcaster

To afford this, i sacrificed and sold off my Red Strat.

The body of this guitar showed up on the market, and i immediatly saw my #2.. (#1 being my missus)

The body is is almost as old as me.

It is a 1982-84 JV Squier from Japan.

What date exactly is not known. The neckplate is long gone that bear the serial number.

Previous owner of this was the guitarist for Comet Kid. A Norwegian band that existed from 2012 to 2018. They got local success and toured extensively for a few years. This body was trough pretty much every concert they did and every studio session they booked.

THE BODY

The body is in Polyester finish. And the wear on this one is not relicing. It is real. It has seen hundred of live shows and thousands of recording hours. It stands as a proof how durable Polyester finish is. It only have surface scratches and no sign of anything wear that has gone trough it yet. It is really tough and durable.

THE NECK

At first, i put on an aged American Professional 2 neck. This neck i aged up a bit to match the body, but i later sold it because i did not bond with the profile.
I would soon come across a used Maple Musikraft neck on the market with a fat C-profile. It still had the base lacquer thin sealer and felt not so well on touch. So i decided to strip it all and give it a few blasts of nitro cellulose.
This neck is suberb now… nice aged look and performs absolutely best dead straight on the trussrod. Has flatter radius.. or atleast it feels like it has.
Nice flamey neck.. This guitar is going closer and closer to be my most desired axe.

The usual Gotoh SD91 tuners on it.

JV Squier 1982 Guitar Headstock Musikraft

THE ELECTRONICS

I did some tidy up in the wiring. (No pictures yet) Some unorthodox wires was used and got changed. The original wiring had detoriated badly according to previous owner and was changed out entirely. I kept the original setup that had a small jumper wire that was in place to have the tone working for the bridge pickup as well. But for the pickups themselves i had some other plans.

It came with Klein Jazzy Cats which ain't bad for some Mayer-ish tones. but i threw in a set of Don Mare Formvar 50's for a while, but they sounded more 60's voiced.

I wanted that Buddy Holly tone, and i eventually got hold of a Ltd Edition 54 Fender Pickups.

I experimented heavily on getting the tone right. Tried with several values of Treble bleed first, but it sounded so nasal. So i removed it. I also ended up with 500k Pots on both tones and a .050 capactor. Real 50's style.

JV Squier 1982 Guitar Mazak Tremolo block

JV Squier 1982 Guitar Raw Vintage Saddles

THE HARDWARE

It originally had one of those 010347 stamped Mazak tremolos from the 70's CBS era (Seen above) equipped with Raw Vintage saddles as the original cast saddles have short shelf life. But these trems are one-piece cast and fetch a few pennies used.

The pickguard is almost the best part. Very worn and aged to full matte finish and the knobs has seen much use. The pickguard was attached with a size too large screws. so i plugged the holes, re-drilled and put in correct size ones. The screw between pickup switch and lower Tone knob has no wood under and was glued on. Went trough three Tremolos, including an original 1983 AVRI Bridge.
eventually did a part Callaham/Kluson/Fender combination bridge.

Here is a You Tube video from Comet Kid with the guitar in action using Jazzy Cats.

Looks like he has a CBS style neck on it.

SPECS:

Body: JV series Squier Vintage '57 (1982-1984) 2 tone Sunburst w/ thin Polyester finish

Neck: Musikraft Maple Neck with Chunky C-2 .90”-.99” C-Shape

Pickups: Pure Vintage Limited Edition '54 Pickups

Tremolo: Callaham Trem-Plate with Kluson Steel Block

Saddles: Fender Vintage Standard Bent Steel

Pickguard: Aged White Fender naturally aged more yellow.

Tuners: Gotoh SD-91 Tuners

Wiring:

- Standard cloth wiring with Tone adjust for Bridge PU-mod.