Setting up my Fender Kurt Cobain Jaguar 

Right!? Such a good looking guitar!! 😍😍

@@dirtymexican835 😍

ChinkenNungents agreed! 😊

Greg Wolk cheers Greg! 😁

Cheers Brad! I wanted to make some videos debunking some of the mysteries of setting these offsets up, so it’s good to know you think they are worth watching!

alexrcowan absolutely Alex! I find it fascinating, but am a little nervous about setting up my guitars myself. Maybe worried about making a mistake that I can’t fix? Right now I’m waiting to take an acoustic guitar to my luthier so he can make and put on a new bone nut. The current nut cracked and chipped after I put on a heavier gauge string. I’d really love to be able to do these things on my own. It’d save me time, money and would put my mind at ease knowing I could do whatever I needed to make sure my guitars are functioning at their best. I took a class about 10 years ago where I built a backpacker acoustic guitar and it was not easy haha. Tons of respect to you dude for learning, teaching and sharing this info. I suppose I ought to just dive in and give it a try!

Brad McTaggart ah yes, bone nuts are the best, especially unbleached! Bone = tone! Yeah you’ve said it yourself man, you just have to dive in and give it a shot. Most of the time it’s difficult to make a mistake that can’t be fixed somehow. Guitars are sometimes more robust pieces of musical machinery than we give them credit for! All it takes is a bit of patience to learn, and some persistence helps! Eventually experience follows and before you know it you can set guitars up in your sleep! Maybe I’ll someday make a video on how I craft bone nuts

submissivelover you won’t notice “that much” of a difference

@@liambeyer5988 depends whose listening. When i get my guitar set up i hear the difference bigtime.

Thanks man! Yep good setup makes a world of difference! Can't recommend the KC Jag enough, it's a hell of a lot of fun to play!

Yeah this is super common. I also had to shim a customer’s KC jag a few weeks ago. I agree, these should come stock with an angled neck pocket, especially since they have T.O.M bridges factory installed

boatakk Josh you need one of these bad bois in your life

alexrcowan do you think the “classic player jaguar” is a good guitar and is worth getting? Because I’m looking for a jag similar to Cobain’s. Or should I just get the Kurt Cobain jaguar despite being pretty expensive? Thanks

@@davidjanecoaker2974 Depends what price you can get it for. I actually got my cobain jag second hand for less than you'd get a hh classic player new from the shops over here in australia. I'd say look for a second hand cobain jag first, and if theres nothing close to the price of a new classic player, then get that instead

alexrcowan just one more quick question, seeing that I am from Australia myself, where would recommend getting one? Thanks again

Bill Nye The Nazi Spy I recommend gumtree or Ebay. There’s one on gumtree for $1k but it’s been refinished. You could ask fo get it cheaper (I got mine in brand new condition plastic still on the guard for $1.2k). Otherwise keep searching and also look for them on the fb marketplace

Fisher I’m back! Haha

@@alexrcowan And I have to thank you for your video about the pickups on Mustang (I took a Hot Rails and it sounds really nice !) But I'm looking for a new amp to play large styles of music. Wich one do you recommand ? (from your experience, or Cobain, ...etc)

@@SamFisherTV if i can recommend one, if your on a budget, i fully recommend a Boss Katana (50 or 100 up to budget and all) they are the best amp for your buck hands down.

@@CaponeMedia Thank you for you answer my friend !

@@SamFisherTV anything to help out a fellow player, rock on!

Bill Nye great guitars! Even if they didn’t have Kurt’s name attached to them I’d find it hard to dislike them!

@@alexrcowan yep!

Matthew Ewert haha the jobs are very rarely this straightforward aren’t they?

@@alexrcowan the amount of times I've hoped for just a reseat and it's tuned into a full level and crown - _- I think I've only ever had like three guitars max that just needed a little tap and they have been good to polish. :( hehe. I should send you one of my jobs so you can make a video showing the full process. Might be worth you going cashies and buying a terrible strat copy to show people

Figured it out the amp was plugged into one side of the wall socket and an extension lead in the other caused a huge amount of hum

Flip the saddle around

Thanks man, and yeah I know. I don’t set my guitars up like Kurt’s, I tend to go with heavier gauges - especially on short scale guitars

Well if it helps I got mine second hand. Mine came with the case and book. I reckon look for one second hand that comes with all the goodies if that's important to you. You can always get one brand new if you don't have any luck finding one

@@alexrcowan Ya that definitely helps man, thank you. I have to hear stuff like that sometimes, or else I kinda feel obligated to spend full price and buy new lol.

Metrokett you’ll first have to identify where the buzz is actually coming from. If you know he buzz is definitely coming from the bridge skip the next couple of steps. Otherwise, you can check if the nut is the problem by playing the string open and then fretting the 1st fret. If the buzz goes away when fretted the but slot is cut too low. If not you’ll need to check you don’t have any frets that need reseating (if a fret is high it is a good source of fret buzz). If the action is correct and the nut and frets have been eliminated as the problem there are a couple of things to check with the bridge. First of all, make sure that the only point of contact on the bridge with the string is the saddle, if the string also touches a lip edge on the bridge or an intonation screw you will possibly get buzz from that. Another good source of buzz on a tuneomatic is the saddle slot. Particularly on unwound string saddles (E,B and G strings) the saddle slot can sometimes develop burrs or secondary string grooves which will cause the buzz. This can be corrected with some careful filing with a nut file of appropriate size or by using an abrasive cord to smooth out the saddle slot so that there are no burrs or secondary channels. If you’re not confident doing this I’d suggest taking your guitar to a tech or luthier who can do it for you. Hope this helps!

@@alexrcowan Thank you very much! This definitely helps. Currently there is no buzz at all. Maybe it just had to wear in a little. (Got the guitar a week ago) When I played the B string the bridge started to buzz. The buzz got muted when I put my finger on the B string saddle. But yeah currently no buzz at all!

Could be a few things. Places to look are the fret seating, high frets will definitely contribute to needing a higher action. So will the neck relief if it isn’t set right. More often then not a combination of these two things (sometimes incorrect but slot depth contributes) will lead to buzz at lower action levels. Best to take it to a luthier or tech to get it sorted. 3mm is abnormally high action.

Ask for a complete setup.

Hi Nick, it could be a number of things. But as you identify perhaps the easiest/cheapest way to try and eliminate this issue is to shim the neck (I suggest the stewmac shims, I would try a 0.25° or 0.5°) and raise the bridge to get the appropriate action. Hopefully the increase in downward pressure with an increased break angle will help. If not, that would suggest something else is going wrong. If the buzz noise is definitely only coming from the bridge it could be a problem with the string slots. But I think shimming should help you out. And yes you’re right, my jag doesn’t require a shim, but the majority of KC jags I’ve worked on have benefitted from a shim. Let me know how you go!

@@alexrcowan Thank you so much for responding. Shims are ordered. That seems to be the advice from everyone I’ve asked so we’ll see how it goes. I’ll let you know. Take care!

@@Hummis420 hey nick, did you ever resolve your issue?

1.5 mm with the string pressed at the last fret.

I have actually, just needed a small shim for a customer’s KC Jaguar a couple of weeks ago

@@alexrcowan Good to know. What size shim did you use for it?

Dan Berry I don’t know any repairers up there personally but I’m a big fan of the work I see from Cote guitars! Check out their page on Instagram! Hope that helps :)

@@alexrcowan thanks mate. Ill look them up

If you mean the tremolo arm is sitting low you either need to tighten the spring for the trem to raise the arm (acre nearest the center of the plate underneath lock button), or you can remove and bend the arm to a more comfortable angle

@@alexrcowan yes the tremolo arm is sitting low. So I just have to tighten the screw below the lock button? I hadn't realized that by doing so it will raise the tremolo arm, thought it just adjusted the tension somehow. Thanks a lot!

@@nirgoth yes, increasing the tension will raise the tremolo bar. However there is a limit to how for you can raise it and still use the lock button, play around with it and you’ll hopefully find a good height

@@alexrcowan thank you very much for the tips, bending the arm also seems a good option.

@@alexrcowan also, is it normal for the action of this guitar to come a little high?

1.5 mm with the string pressed at the last fret.

Couldn't say since I got mine second hand. Fender website says it ships with 0.010's-0.052's

@@alexrcowan Ok thanks. Thats what i put on. My local guitar store tech put 9s on it and it sounded like a sitar.

Cory H no problem! Yeah for most applications I think 9’s are too light for a short scale guitar like a jag. Especially if you’re planning on playing the guitar anywhere near as hard as Kurt haha! Not surprised it went to sitar land, hopefully you have it playing better now!

@@alexrcowan I use the 10-52s for all my guitars. Cause i do play like kurt. The trusty jag is about due for a new set or strings and a good cleaning. Working on getting a squire VM mustang converted to look like the sonic blue mustang. I wish fender would of kept selling them. Just have to figure out how to make the tune o matic work. Then a humbucker

They come with 10-46 which is stupid cause it’s a signature guitar and he used 10-52 so filing the nut is a must and bridge saddles and a setup afterwards

1.6mm across the board

@@alexrcowan I just purchased one online from fender, and it's too high. It's like 1.9mm. I'd like to lower. Any advice?

@@tomjoad8939 you can always try lowering the bridge to the action you want. If you’re lucky it won’t throw the whole setup out. While 1.9mm is pretty high and generally undesirable depending on player preference, anything under 2mm is within allowable spec for fender I believe. If changing the action at the bridge throws out the setup and you get a whole lot of fret buzz, you can either set the guitar up yourself if you’re confident or take it to a trusted tech/luthier to get it set up (or put up with it back at the 1.9mm height). It’ll be well worth your time/money to get the guitar setup to an action tolerance more suitable for you as a player.

Thanks man!

Do you mean removing the neck. It’s exactly the same as any bolt on guitar, nothing special going on there

@@alexrcowan yeah...ok mate ;)

DrZaious or if you want your guitar to work properly after spending all that money on it you can take care of it...

Kurt also put a gun to his mouth. Are we supposed to copy everything he did lol. What if he showered once a month? yeah no thanks