abw1989 makes a Jazzmonster - Completed!

abw1989 · February 2019

@poopot where should I position the saddles on the TOM to do it that way? I had contemplated that way too....

Fully forward like in the link, aligned to centre or with the traditional stagger?

poopot · February 2019

Are you putting the tom straight? angled? If it’s straight stagger the saddles but you need enough wiggle to allow for different action, string gauges etc!...

abw1989 · February 2019

@poopot I'd like to have it angled for aesthetic, great reason I know...

I thought that the angle was supposed to alleviate the effect of the string gauge on the scale length, I may well be talking rubbish as I have no idea where I got that from.

poopot · February 2019

Paging @customkits ;

Danielsguitars · February 2019

You should really get it set up with the strings on and make a shim up with the abr post holes drilled through so you can put the abr bridge on the guitar and slide it around to get intonation and alignment, get the action pretty much where you want it and move the saddles so you have enough room to cope with different strings and action height

abw1989 · February 2019

@customkits thanks, seems like a pragmatic method to get everything set up!

Danielsguitars · February 2019

abw1989 said:

@customkits thanks, seems like a pragmatic method to get everything set up!

I never drill for bridges unless I'm absolutely sure where it's going and i never rely on meauring 12th and double for scale length, that's too risky for me

abw1989 · March 2019

Gratuitous mock up picture with the parts from Warman. I'll be ordering the rest of everything I need from Axetec most likely.

abw1989 · March 2019

Decided to add an access heel joint. Why on earth don't Fender do this as standard....?! So much better.

I'll be drilling neck screw holes and getting it attached and strung up so that I can position the bridge as above.

abw1989 · March 2019

Right, a bit of a mixed bag this weekend so let's start with the good parts.

The neck holes were marked out and drilled:

And I then used a 12mm router bit to countersink the ferrules for the neck screws:

All good so far, neck attached and looking tidy:

Pretty soon after this is where it all started to go down hill. I fitted the tuners and the tailpiece studs and set about stringing up to position the bridge. Just getting everything up to tension and this happens:

I seem to have discovered why this neck was so reasonably priced... The predrilled tuner holes do not align with the nut, they are the best part of 5mm out. There is going to be a large break angle to the side which probably means this thing will never stay in tune. I'll get around to fitting a new nut with super strength adhesive to try and get it to stay put.

I still tried to persevere with setting the bridge positioning, note the clamp keeping the nut in place(!):

This was a right f**cking pain in the arse. I could not get the damn thing to have decent intonation. The bridge was off at some crazy angles trying to get all the strings to come good together. However that problem will have to wait for another day as I also realised that string alignment was no quite right at this end either. No pictures of this unfortunately as my rage was too large to bother. The bass strings were too close to the edge of the neck, for as much as I had tried, it seems I haven't cut the neck pocket square to the centre or my drill wandered when drilling the tailpiece stud holes.

Essentially, it boiled down to this:

Plugging the tailpiece holes with some homemade dowels on my extremely high tech lathe. A screw in the end of a dowel, mounted in a block fixed to the table. I then put an elecric scewdriver on the screw head whilst holding sandpaper on the dowel:

After waiting for the glue to set I routed the plugs flush with the body and sanded them flat. It's a pretty decent fix actually. I aligned a ruler to the edges of the neck as it is now, and extrapolated the lines onto the body, then found a new centre line based off the neck:

As you can see, the studs were miles off. I'm guessing a combo of bad neck positioning and the drill wandering. How I long for a drill press.

Right now i'm at cross roads. I'm tempted to go for a Strat style hardtail bridge purely ease of installation and the increase in saddle size for intonating. But then, I realled wanted the LP aesthetic on a Jazzmaster which that really isn't.

Input and comments always welcome as usual. I'll be mulling this over during the week before setting to again this weekend.

abw1989 · March 2019

I went back to the neck supplier regarding the issue with the nut to tuner hole position. His tldr response was essentially "that's a shame, use some super glue to fix the nut in place".

Helpful.

As such I've decided to buy a new neck. Having the strings coming through the nut like that doesn't look great for a start, but is also bound to have a negative impact on tuning stability.

The dodgy neck will be up for sale soon at some point if if some one wishes the plug the tuning holes and realign them. It's a large shape headstock so there will be enough wood there to chop it down to a Tele or Strat shape.

Creed_Clicks · March 2019

Apologies for hijacking the thread, but I have a question on electronics for a Jazzmaster project.
I'm not using the rhythm circuit in my project, just the lower circuit.
Is the pickup switch the same as a Les Paul? Should it be up/down or right/left?
What about the jack input? What would be best to get here? I imagine I'd need to get some kind of shielding as well? (Total newbie here folks!)

abw1989 · March 2019

I have to be honest and I say I don't really know (I don't even know what the rhythm is on a Jazzmaster....)

This is going to end up being nothing like a 'normal' Jazzmaster. It will essentially be a Les Paul in a Jazzmaster body so as such I've just got all the electrics to make a Les Paul wiring harness.

I know that @rexter deals in a lot of offset builds so he'd be a good point of call for you I think.

rexter · March 2019

Traditionally a jazzmaster uses a right angle switchcraft toggle which is left to right on a horizontal axis. I think you could probably use another 3 way switch in there though and just rotate it if you want that left to right action. Shield, shield and shield some more! And make sure all your grounds are connected properly. Most JM wiring issues come from grounding issues. If you get this all done properly you'll have very little annoying hum and a great sounding guitar!

Good work on the build so far @abw1989 - not an easy one to dive into! Good call binning that neck - honestly it's not worth going for budget necks in my experience - specs are always all over the place and they can bring such a lot of hassle.

Good luck with the rest of the guitar!

Creed_Clicks said:

Apologies for hijacking the thread, but I have a question on electronics for a Jazzmaster project.
I'm not using the rhythm circuit in my project, just the lower circuit.
Is the pickup switch the same as a Les Paul? Should it be up/down or right/left?
What about the jack input? What would be best to get here? I imagine I'd need to get some kind of shielding as well? (Total newbie here folks!)

abw1989 · April 2019

Right.

New neck arrived and it's a night and day difference between this one and what I did have. Neater fret work, rolled edges, smoother finish, just generally better. Marked as a second due to one of the tuner screw holes being enlarged, but they are for vintage tuners so I won't be using them anyway.

Slightly larger heel on this one which is better than smaller. I teased out the pocket with the router to get the new heel to fit and plugged the original neck bolt holes to allow for the new pattern with the access heel.

As this was made for vintage tuners, I also had to enlarge the holes to take a 10mm tuner bushing. I also replaced the nut with the graphite one I intend to use on this guitar.

The fitment to the heel end looks a little strange due to the slab heel with no overhang and the neck angle. It's clear these necks are not really made to be used with tunomatic guitars... I'm hoping when finished and painted with a neck pickup in there, it will look better. Back on track though!

Lovely grain pattern in this neck too!

philballard · April 2019

Good stuff. And the neck fitment doesn't look strange (to my eye, at least). Once the hardware's all on, I'm sure it'll look fine to you too.

abw1989 · April 2019

I have a job which gives me access to a wind tunnel so I took the guitar body with me last week to eek out some of the contours in the body for the best ergonomics.....

.....I jest. I took it with me as they have a massive work shop there and I was able to use their pillar drill to get the tailpiece stud holes in the proper place. I have now been able to string it up and position the bridge to my liking for the intonation but I have a dilemma in that I won't be back at the tunnel for a while so can't drill the bridge stud holes.

On my '84 Burny LP I have the old style threaded stud with a thumb wheel sat in a 4mm hole. This is obviously much easier to drill and control that the 12mm bit I would need for the 'import' style bridge studs when drilling by hand

Is one style better than the other? Any thoughts either way?

Image: https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1aDNZc8gXBuNjt_hNq6yEiFXaU/Musiclily-ABR-1-Style-Guitar-Tune-o-Matic-Bridge-Stopbar-Studs-and-Anchors-for-Gibson-Les.jpg

EDIT - I know that the bridge I have won't fit the thinner studs, I'd have to get a new (better!) one.

abw1989 · May 2019

Okay, in the end I went for the best of both. I have a 4mm post on a 7mm stud. I positioned the new bridge and checked for intonation again and again, then set to driling the holes using the bridge itself as a jig to get them straight with some masking tape on the bit to protect it: