1Q22 Challenge eSully Jazzmaster Kit

eSully

A friend of mine has had a real rough year for various reasons. He knows I've done a few partscasters and a build for myself and used to joke about me doing a Jazzmaster for him. Well someone linked to the HB jazzmaster kit on the initial thread for the challenge, I've been thinking of doing another project anyway and as my mates birthday is near the end of March so it seems the perfect project to do now.

HB Kit is ordered and I've been doing a little thinking. He's a huge Grunge fan so maybe go for something like the J Miscis Jazzmaster - So white body with a tortex or gold pickguard. I might change it from P90 to humbucker as well. Tempted to make it single humbucker at bridge with just volume/tone knobs. Not sure that would look so good on a Jazzmaster style body though.




Also, I'm a big fan of the way Dunable guitars look, so thinking I might change the shape a little bit and do a Yeti style carve on the kit, and also do some form of custom shape for the pickguard



Very open to thoughts and suggestions

paulnb57

Looking forward to seeing this progress

Cookiemonster

I have the JM JM it's a great guitar. The pick ups are more p90 if you go that way you might be able to get some of those pick ups. 

I really the one on the right of the other photo though. That in surf green would be incredible

eSully

HB Jaguar Kits arrived at last so was able to get a start today. Kit seems pretty decent, very happy with the neck overall, looks lovely, The body is ok, bit rough around the edges but might work with a stain finish. The loaded Pickguard is really nice and I'm debating now whether to bother buying material and doing a more bespoke shape. We'll see, some pics below:













Unsurprisingly going for a Fender style headstock shape. Just suits the guitar best. Decided the Neck was a bit fatter than I prefer as well so got the shinto rasp out and took a bit off to give it a thinner C style shape. That worked out well, feels great now.






Can see the rasp teeth marks here, all sanded out now.




Still a little sanding to do on the neck from here. Quite undecided on what to do with the body finish. I think I will still do some extra carve on the top. Whether to go for stains, a stain burst or a solid colour. Just not sure yet

eSully

At last had a chance to come back to this. Very tempted to leave the kit body as is as its a lovely shape anyway but why not try something different. As suggested in the first post, bit more angular Dunable style bevel on top and higher fret access. Loads more sanding to do and a few bits to improve but overall happy with it. Think I should definitely do a custom shape pick guard now. AT the moment thinking I'll do the body in an off white but nothing set in stone on the colour!!

TTony

I really like that bevelling on the  front.

I might be "inspired by" that on my build!

eSully

lol - Look forward to seeing that - I love the look of that style of bevel

paulnb57

Ditto, like the bevel

eSully

A little progress today, while watching the rugby











Grain filled and primer'd. Solid colour and set up not that far off not

eSully

Some more progress made, bit of a mixed bag of results this weekend. On the positive side I've spray painted the body a lovely metallic blue and I'm delighted with how the body has come out. Pictures don't do it justice. Put on two clear coats now. May put another couple of clear coats on later and then leave it to cure for a couple of weeks.






The not so good is the matching headstock. The primer and base blue went all well and looked perfect. Then a few things went wrong. The decal went on well but when I clear coated on top the decal was a really noticeably different shade to the rest of the head stock. So much so it looked bad, add that to doing a poor job with the taping leading to the edges not looking very smooth basically I'm sanding back and starting again on the headstock. Pity but a good learning experience I guess.

If anyone has any ideas why the decal came out such a different shade (used the same lacquer, let the decal dry out well!!) or how I can get better colour consistency with the decal let me know. At the very least I'll do a better job of cutting out the next decal. Still, coming along nicely all the same. 

ThePrettyDamned

Did you put clear - decal - clear?

I wonder, if not, if it's the clear coat making the colour change and the decal is preventing that? 

I've never done this though so don't listen to me too carefully... 

eSully

ThePrettyDamned said:

Did you put clear - decal - clear?

I wonder, if not, if it's the clear coat making the colour change and the decal is preventing that? 

I've never done this though so don't listen to me too carefully... 

Oh - No i Didn't - it was Blue - Decal - Clear - That seems far more sensible, Will try that later. Thanks

ThePrettyDamned

eSully said:

ThePrettyDamned said:

Did you put clear - decal - clear?

I wonder, if not, if it's the clear coat making the colour change and the decal is preventing that? 

I've never done this though so don't listen to me too carefully... 

Oh - No i Didn't - it was Blue - Decal - Clear - That seems far more sensible, Will try that later. Thanks

Like I say, I've not done it before, but it's the first idea that sprung to mind... 

eSully

Pretty much done - finish cured and polished. One very annoying burn through mistake that I might share a pic of later but not a deal breaker as its a gift for a friend anyway. set up and played through an amp and quite frankly I want a HB kit for myself now. I quite liked the sound of the pickups, weight and general feel of the guitar. Very enjoyable project

ThePrettyDamned

Very impressed. 

BertMassive

Very nice. Have you given it to your friend yet? If you have, what was his response?

eSully

Thanks both, appreciate it. No, not yet @BertMassive - Next weekend I think, hopefully they like it and if not I'll be happy to keep it lol. @ThePrettyDamned You were right about the clear - decal - clear. The headstock isn't perfect unfortunately I should have taken the sanding further back but ended up running out of time and tbh it still looks OK.

Couple of extra pics that do it more justice.

BertMassive

@eSully That blue and tort guard really stand out in the latest photos. Your friend will love it, I'm sure.

downbytheriver

That’s terrific, great project. Don’t forget to add it to the finished projects thread

eSully

BertMassive said:

@eSully That blue and tort guard really stand out in the latest photos. Your friend will love it, I'm sure.

I quiet like it, the pickguard was a pleasant surprise from the kit. I expected some 1 ply piece of rubbish but its actually really nice so decided to stick with it rather than make a bespoke one. Pickups I've left alone for now. If they want to change them then they can pick ones they like and I'll swap it round. The tuners aren't great on the kit but can swap them out in the future too

Andyjr1515

Looks a million dollars.  Great choice of colour - spot on for that model.