Thinline Jazzmaster with body curves.

GSPBASSES

 Following on from a post by @stickyfiddle about having a thin line Jazzmaster made. I thought it would be a good idea to show how easy it is to modify existing jigs quite quickly and cheaply to make a different version of a guitar.

 The first photos show an existing jig of a Jazzmaster, I’ve drawn on it where the normal routs will be. I’ve then drawn on where the chambers are going to go.

 

 

The next photo is of the jig cut out for the chambers. At the same time as this I decided to do the same for Jazz Bass. I’ve been asked many times can I make a thin line Jazz Bass with a F hole plus all the curves.

 

You can see at the top of the Jazz Bass jig I've added a couple of pieces of MDF. This is to give me some extra wood for the tummy cut and some extra wood to glue down the droptop. 

As both the bodies are going to be drop tops, the arm cut is done first. Then the chambers are routed.  You will notice that the bodies have been cut over size, this is to ensure that when the cap's are glued on there’s very little chance of clamping marks round the edges of the guitar. 

 

 

The chambers on both bodies have now been routed.

 

 Note the top chamber has only gone down about 25 mm, hopefully the tummy cut will not burst into this when I shape it.

The cap is now glued on.

 

 The above picture is showing the cap being per-bent prior to being glued on.

I now bandsaw round the body to bring it almost size, I rout round the body to the finish size. Once this is done the first of the standard routs are done. I have put the Jazz bass to one side, I will work on it another time.

  

Next I do the pickup routs, then the F hole.

 

 I placed the pick guard on the body and everything is lining up ok.

 

 

The next part is very nervy, I hope that I’ve got all the calculations right so when I do the tummy cut, I don’t burst into a top chamber.

 

 

That’s a bit of luck it worked out okay.

 

That’s all for now as I haven’t got a neck made for it yet, plus I still need to rout for the tremolo and drill the holes for the bridge.

 It’ll be a couple of weeks before I come back to this, as I’ve got some paid work to do, also going on holiday for about 10 days Friday.

 

 

stickyfiddle

Well that looks rather good! 

As it happens I just won a reasonably priced fully-finished MJT body on eBay, but if that doesn't fully float my boat when it arrives I shall be in touch. 

PhilKing

This one's mine, but with a non-curved top and belly cut (more Telecaster-ish).

DrBob

That’s awesome Graham !

Supportact

That's very interesting, bet it will look great when it's finished.