Jag-SG mashup. Have two questions (neck pocket and scale length)

Hello from Boston area.

Received my kit today and had a 2 questions.

Perhaps I requested a few too many changes to the JTL-1. I was going for my trifecta. Jag body, tele hardware, and SG tone (24 3/4, mahogany body, ebony fingerboard). The factory made mostly what I wanted except with a strat trem rout instead of the tele bridge. I still thought it was cool, and took it.

Here is the initial mock up: https://i.imgur.com/1LRoRQL.jpg

I think it is really cool. However, My 24 3/4 request may have complicated things too much.

The neck looks great, but it seems to have a different heel cut than the body.
https://i.imgur.com/6GVhnEP.jpg There is a gap of about 1/8" to where the T shaped neck meets the S shaped body. https://i.imgur.com/PruRZIK.jpg

Question 1: Can I round the square neck heel to fit the rounded pocket?

Question 2: The nut to the 12th fret is correct at 12 and 3/8 inches. However the 12th fret to the saddle is much larger at about 13 inches. https://i.imgur.com/GDDtLSi.jpg. It appears that the center of the stud holes match up (12 and 3/8 inches) to the neck. Any suggestions?


Thanks

I'm no expert, but...

#1 - I expect you'll have to modify something - either the neck pocket or the neck heel. A strat heel will fit a tele pocket, but not the other way around. Reshaping the neck heel is probably easier than the pocket.

#2 - Everything I've read says that on a 25-1/2" scale length, the studs should be at 25-1/4" - so for 24-3/4" they should be at 24-1/2", or 12-1/8" from your 12th fret. If your stud holes are at 12-3/8", you could reshape either the neck heel or the neck pocket to claim back that 1/8" gap, and you'll still be out by 1/8".

My best guess would be that the stud holes and trem rout have been drilled/routed for a 25.5" scale length. If you leave the studs out, how much farther forward can the bridge move? If there's enough wiggle room, you might be able to get away with doweling the existing stud holes and redrilling them.

But there's also the question of whether or not you ask about returning the kit. The refund policy is pretty generous, but return shipping from Boston to Australia might set you back a bit. I think it's definitely worth shooting Adam @ Pitbull an email with your concerns, if you haven't already done so.

I'd say unfortunately it's all a big factory cock-up. You could reshape the end of the neck to fit the curve (which would also bring the 12th fret 1/8" nearer the bridge), but the bridge saddles will still be too far back. If you then filled and re-drilled the bridge posts, you'd probably also have to enlarge the trem route to allow the block to move. Moving the bridge forwards a bit may then expose the rear of the trem rout.

It also looks like the post holes have been drilled too close together. If you look at other 2-post bridges, the posts are basically in line with the two outer pole pieces of the bridge pickup (or just wider than them). This is clearly not the case here.

I'd also say that the bridge pickup is too far away from the bridge, so it's never going to have the edge to it that it should have and will always sound a bit softer. Probably off by about 1"/2.5cm

Without the trem rout, you could easily have placed a hardtail bridge in the correct position, for good intonation, though you'd still probably have had the bridge pickup maybe 1/2" too far away.

The closer you look at it, the more mistakes you see. Email Adam. It really isn't good enough.

I'd go as far to say that the two issues are linked.
The strat trem rout has lead to supplying a strat neck (as opposed to a tele one).
Odd that the number matches yet the pocket/heel is clearly different.
cheers, Mark.

I recently watched a YT video on this issue.
Discussion on st necks in t bodies and visa-versa
Sorry I can’t remember what it was called.
However the answer in this instance was to square off the neck pocket since the scale length was dictated by the deepest point of the neck pocket.

Any rough bits were covered by the scratch plate and the overlap of the finger board.

I hope this helps as I really dig your guitar man.


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