abw1989 makes a Jazzmonster - Completed!

abw1989

@BeardyAndy thanks for your interest. I was the same but figured the only way to get it right is to start doing it!

I'll be making a routing template for the neck pocket by drawing around the heel on some MDF and cutting just inside that line so that I can sand the pocket out to be snug. 

philballard

@abw1989 Another way you can make your neck pocket template, if you want, is to place the neck on your MDF and then screw down wooden or MDF straight-edged pieces tight up alongside and behind the neck heel. Then remove the neck and use the screwed pieces as a router guide to rout the neck shape into the MDF base. This then becomes your template. NB however you make your template, first try it on a scrap 'body' piece (natch) and, if necessary, you can pad the template with some layers of tape to make the pocket tighter.

abw1989

@philballard That's great info, thanks for the tip!

abw1989

Today I started to make the neck jig and finalised the body shape. To get a snug fit on the neck jig, I went for the masking tape and superglue method. I drew around the neck heel, then lined the edges with masking tape. A layer of super glue and masking tape onto some straight edges of MDF and pushed down:



This forms a really strong bond in every direction apart from straight upwards so really handy for firmly fixing something down in the knowledge you'll need to remove it later. I then dragged up some GCSE maths and a compass to create a set of points to create a centre line:



The final job today was drawing out the body template:



I really wanted to get the neck jig routed out and the body template roughed out with a jigsaw today, but constant rain and the thought of more indoor MDF dust soon put those plans to bed! Those are the next things to do on my list, then I'll be practising lots of neck pocket routing.

abw1989

This has stalled a little over Christmas and New Year as I have a bit of a dilemma.

I know that the neck will need to be angled due to the tunomatic bridge, I know that Gibson use four degrees so is it right to assume that I will need the same...?

The raises another question of how do I route the pocket at the correct angle? Is it a case of sanding/planing the angle into the top of my neck pocket jig so that the router will cut at that angle?

philballard

Didn't we already cover this at the start of this thread? lol
IMHO:
- Buy the bridge first (so you can check its dimensions and range of adjustment) and draw everything out on a roll of paper (e.g. the back of wrapping paper or wallpaper) to get the neck angle right. You can't assume 4 degrees (and Gibson don't always use 4 degrees)
- Rout the pocket base flat, and angle the heel of the neck. You may have to add some material to the neck first.

Others on here will no doubt have their own ways of doing things, but this is what I find easiest.

abw1989

Right, PROGRESS!!

After a bit of a break for Christmas and New Year, I managed to get back into this at the weekend. I'd actually been putting it off a bit because I was worried about ruining everything with the router...

Gladly, it all went quite well. I decided to have a crack at the headstock first. but not after a practice run on a bit of scrap. Here is my wonderful routing set up. I couldn't mount it from underneath as the router has a 'safety switch' of some sort that turns off when you let go of it, maddness...! So instead I went for big flat table and the masking tape with super glue to hold things steady:



Practice run complete, and I'm quite happy for my first attempt at routing. I flipped this over and finish the cut with a different following router bit:



After this I put on my big boy pants and set about the headstock for real:



Success! No tear out at all, but definitely needs sanding and re-profiling where the headstock meets the neck around the nut. My only issue was a couple of bits of router burn, but I'm hoping I can sand these out:



I set about the neck pocket next, again grabbing a scrap block of wood to test out the jig, Unfortunately in my haste, I let the router grab on the pocket jig slightly leaving a small bump. Not too much of an issue and I can skip it when cutting:



Again this was pretty successful, bump was skipped and the pocket is nice and snug on the neck. Onto practising the pick up route:



This was probably the most satisfying to route for some reason, probably as there was a bit of shape involved. The JB for the bridge and a pickup ring fit nicely around, with some wiggle room either side: 



I wouldn't be lying it a very small part of me wishes to slap a bridge and strings onto that and call it finished.... 

I am also coming around to the idea of having to put a top of some sort on this. I don't want a pickguard and I don't think I will be able to get the required angle to drill though the pick ups routes and to the control cavity; ideas any one?

Next up will be cutting out the template for the body blank.

abw1989

This is coming along nicely now. I got the body template cut and sanded smooth ready for the router:



Sanded the headstock smooth from the router cuts and blended it into neck for a smooth transition:



Annoyingly, the neck had been already finished with the paddle headstock. As a result I'm going to have to strip the lot so that the finish I plan for it takes properly all over. I'll probably mask off the fretboard and leave that with the original finish.

Next up was the bit I had been dreading, routing out the body. This is where it could all go very wrong. However, success!!
I screwed the template to the body where the neck pocket and bridge pickup are going to be and ended up with (including neck pocket route):



And even better, the neck fits in the pocket:



Next issue to solve is the heel joint. An LP thickness body with a Fender thickness neck heel has left a lot of material underneath the heel. Some sort of carve/contour is required I think.

Any advice from any one on doing body contours also?

abw1989

I've realised I've made a bit of a boo boo.

Having really only ever played Les Pauls and never really picked up a Fender guitar, I had assumed that the fretboard sits on the body as per an LP. Having looked at a Jazzmaster last night, it seems the fretboard stands proud of the body by about 4-5mm. 

With the neck as it is now, I'll never achieve a decent action. Seems like the next step for me if to create neck pocket shaped block to fill the pocket in slightly and raise the neck. 

Fun times.

poopot

Angle the neck back as Gibson would do... 

abw1989

@poopot I have considered this via Phil's comments above. It is going to be one hell of an angle now though to get the upper frets playable. 

I've canted the neck back in the pocket to roughly where it needs to be and it looks aggressive due to having a flat top body rather than the carve in like an LP.

I'll get some tuners and a bridge and get it strung up to assess which direction to go.

mart

Put your ToM bridge on the body, and lay a straight edge from nut to bridge, and measure how high that is above the end of the neck. That’d tell you how much you need to raise the end of the neck by (allowing for a couple of mm’s for the action), and I suspect a shim to achieve that will tilt the neck to the angle you need.

Certainly I’d try that first, put a wedge-shaped shim in, and test again to see if the height is reasonable.

mart

mart said:

Put your ToM bridge on the body, and lay a straight edge from nut to bridge, and measure how high that is above the end of the neck. That’d tell you how much you need to raise the end of the neck by (allowing for a couple of mm’s for the action), and I suspect a shim to achieve that will tilt the neck to the angle you need.

Certainly I’d try that first, put a wedge-shaped shim in, and test again to see if the height is reasonable.

Actually, scrub that, I'd forgotten how much the neck angle would be changed by a shim. You'd actually need something much smaller. A back of the envelope calculation suggests you want a shim that raises the neck by 3mm at the foot of the pocket, sloping down to nothing at the end of the pocket. That'd get you an angle of about 2.5 degrees and an action of 2mm at the top of the neck. A smaller shim will raise this a bit if you want, but I reckon that'd be a good starting point.

abw1989

Thanks @mart not all hope is lost then!

I like a fairly low action even though I don't use the upper all that often, it gets scary after the 12th fret...

I'd put the numbers into a neck angle calculator and come out with 2.1 degs so I'm happy to use your maths and have a go at the shim.

Neck angle calculator I used for reference: https://www.tundraman.com/Guitars/NeckAngle/index.php

mart

Yes, from my calculations* I’d say you should definitely be able to make it work. Start with a 3mm shim and work down, since it’s unlikely you’d need anything higher.

In fact I was rounding when I said 3mm would give 2.5 degrees - it’s actually closer to 2.3 degrees, so matches fairly well with that website calculator. This gives me more confidence in both my calculations and that website!

*calculations are great in theory, but nothing beats practice. So I could refine my calculations if you give me some exact dimensions, but I don’t think it’s worth it - just see how 3mm works and use trial and error from there.

abw1989

This weekend I set about making the shim. I'd read that these were horrific to make, but it went quite smoothly. I roughed out the angle with a scribe and cut it with a jigsaw. I then stuck some sandpaper to my bench, the shim to a block and set about smooth it out and sanding to size. This is the out come:



One 3mm shim!

It does the job nicely and I think it provides a nice angle to use with the TOM, thanks @mart ;. It doesn't perfectly fill the pocket cavity but once I am happy that I can get the right angle once the bridge is fixed in position, I'll glue it in there and use some woodglue and sawdust to fill out the rest of the pocket:



I also shaped in the forearm and belly cut contours using a rasp then finished over with sandpaper. I think I may still need to take a little more out of these especially the belly cut. It looks more like an aggressive round over that a cut out at the moment:





The final thing done last weekend was drilling holes for the TOM tailpiece. I used this to anchor the strings and then float the bridge on a shim on the body to replicate the posts to test out the shim angle:



I also managed to get to the Guitar Show last weekend and managed to get the TOM bridge and tailpiece, strap pins, black speed knobs and a brass nut for the heady price of £16 from Warman Guitars! Bargain!

Next up is to position the bridge and route out for the humbuckers, controls and switch.

mart

Glad to hear the shim height is working out ok. 

philballard

abw1989 said:

@poopot I have considered this via Phil's comments above. It is going to be one hell of an angle now though to get the upper frets playable. 

I've canted the neck back in the pocket to roughly where it needs to be and it looks aggressive due to having a flat top body rather than the carve in like an LP.

Don't worry about it looking 'aggressive' (good choice of word!). A LP Junior has a flat top and a similar neck angle - once the hardware is in place (pickup(s), plate etc) it'll look just fine, as the LPJ does.
Looks like it's really coming together!

abw1989

philballard said:

Looks like it's really coming together!

Thanks, I'm getting there slowly! I think the neck angle panic is sorted now, next panic is bridge positioning. I've got the scale length measured out but don't know if I need to angle to TOM or not; do the bridge posts holes go on the scale length marker etc etc.

At the minute I'm leaning towards this explanation:

http://projectelectricguitar.com/how-to-install-tune-o-matic-bridge-posts/

poopot

abw1989 said:

philballard said:

Looks like it's really coming together!

Thanks, I'm getting there slowly! I think the neck angle panic is sorted now, next panic is bridge positioning. I've got the scale length measured out but don't know if I need to angle to TOM or not; do the bridge posts holes go on the scale length marker etc etc.

At the minute I'm leaning towards this explanation:

http://projectelectricguitar.com/how-to-install-tune-o-matic-bridge-posts/

Do it this way... set it up before you drill...you can get the intonation bang on... (albeit with the tom and not a wraparound)