Madman at work - Jazzmaster Build

Mad-Mike

Well, my pickguard from EDEN came in, fits perfectly, even with a 22 fret neck, so I should be good when I order the Mighty Mite neck. Also good because then when the bridge comes in, I'll have the drill recharged, and I can install that properly (I use the pickguard as a reference, I mark a cross in the holes for the bridge, and then drill where the lines meet, I did it on my Jaguar when I restored it back from the badly cut TOM it had when I bought it, and it turned out perfect).

Now for the obligatory photos, without the plastic removed as I want to keep it on there till I get the wiring installed and have the guitar ready for strings.

Curious part is who's parts will show up next...

- ACME's wiring kit was sent out last week, That will be in on wednesday

- Not sure how long the pickup covers, bridge, and whatnot will take, but probably not as long as they are not large

- Not sure if the tremelo shipped or not, we'll see

- Pinup Parts sent out my knobs today for the rhythm circuit

- The Bracket, Knobs, and other parts from Darren Guitar are shipped out now and on their way, they will probably show up first out of the orders from Saturday

I might have this thing done a week after the paycheck after next (which is this week). If I made enough I could maybe get it done before the months over, so the eagerly excited to see how those PickupWizard Jazzmaster pickups sound will get to hear them soon.

foxyloxy

*melts*

GlennBronco

Jesus Christ this things gonna be gorgeous. The natural finish and maple neck go quite good with eachother.

Mad-Mike

GlennBronco said: Jesus Christ this things gonna be gorgeous. The natural finish and maple neck go quite good with eachother.

Yeah, originally I was going to go with rosewood, now I've changed my mind. Might not be a bad idea to balance out the overwound pickups.

Robbmonster

Mike, you're clearly a man of taste.

That is going to be one classy guitar. 😀

Fran

Good work Mike. 😎

Mad-Mike

So I go down to the office and find four packages.....

- Black Pickup Covers

- Jag/Jazz Tremolo

- DarrenGuitar's pile o' stuff (Witch Hat Vol Knobs, Various Screws, etc...)

- Angela's big pile of Jaguar/Jazzmaster trem screws

Today proved to be the most difficult day setup/install wise. I had to wait for the bloody drill to recharge, and found out a bit about EDEN's pickguard work....not too terrible, but still a pain in the ass no less.

Turns out EDEN cuts the holes in their Jazzmaster pickguards just a tad too small, so it's a PAIN getting those pickup covers in. I had to spend about 30 minutes with a box cutter scraping the insides of the pickguard holes till the pickup covers fit super snug (it's easier to remove more than it is to put some of that PVC back).

The next pain was getting the pickup covers right. I did not have proper screws, so I wound up using some extra screws I had on hand that are a bit bigger than normal, but they will do the job fine. I wanted the pickups in place so when the wiring kit is in, I can just take the pickguard off, and wire the pickups in. I assume when this happens, the bridge will also be in, so I can finally throw my Strat's neck on this thing and give it the final bug test.

I got the pickups preset to the same heights as on my Jaguar, which should be optimum for this guitar. I like how tight the pickups are to the body, a good bit of wood and pickup communication should happen.

The aftermarket trem looks a lot higher quality than I thought it would. I may actually keep it on this guitar, and it dropped right in dead center and does not bind or anything.

Now for the pictures

Fran

Bonar!! 🚬

Mad-Mike

Well, the Electronics came in today, as did the bridge, so I put this thing together and took it for it's first rehearsal. A few issues right now, but nothing major....using the Squier neck off my strat and my god I forgot how good that neck played. Apparently it wanted to be on a Jazzmaster instead of a strat because I had no problems with the high E popping off the nut. I might just get a new neck for my Strat.

Bugs/Issues to fix

- Typical Jag/Jazz bridge issues, albeit they are quite a bit less than normal for a Jazz, pretty much the only problem I had was grub screws coming loose, but that's normal.

- Wiring issues, there's a short somewhere, will need to trace it and fix it, also, the Rhythm Circuit has gone wonky and is off/on. Will be doing some small wiring corrections so when the rollers come in all I have to do is put em' on.

- Never realized how much string a Jazzmaster uses, had only 1" left to get the right amount of High E. Definatley using Fender Bullets on this thing soon.

Plusses

- HUGE sound, but also very bright and loud. I could shake the floor AND cut through the mix. So I dunno what all this talk about Jazzmasters being "weak" is all about. Nails Ric Ocasek's "Best Friend's Girl" tone dead on, as well as the clickety sound from "Shake It Up". Me and the band had another spontanious Surf Jam.

- EVERYBODY loves the looks of this thing.

- A ton of tonal variance using the volume knob and tone control. I was able to get Humbucker-like sounds by backing the volume off. Also is very tight and punchy when playing in drop tunings. Perfect for the songs that are a whole step down artificially (kills off the artificial flavor quite a lot actually).

More Jazzmaster Pron

Fran

This guitar somehow reminds me of the old quality Matsumoku stuff, im 99% sure its the grain and finish contrasting with black sp. Looks great, and i cant emphasize how amazing the black pup covers look.

When you iron out the little issues and youtube demo it be sure to post it up Mike 😉

Mad-Mike

Fran said: This guitar somehow reminds me of the old quality Matsumoku stuff, im 99% sure its the grain and finish contrasting with black sp. Looks great, and i cant emphasize how amazing the black pup covers look.
When you iron out the little issues and youtube demo it be sure to post it up Mike 😉

That looks to be pretty soon, I just sorted out the wiring, turns out I had some wires on the Rhythm Circuit shorting out against the sheilding I moved the pots a little, will tighten later when the roller knobs come in, then it's Youtube time.

The bridge I'll work on tomorrow or Saturday morning. My band is playing at a party with a bunch of musicians on Saturday, I might bring this out for it's first time at that gig, rollers or not since it really proved it's meddle tonight. There are some songs it does not have enough gain for, but we have one drop tuned piece where the bridge pickup hits like a Mack Truck on driven by a rabid leadfoot on the Autobahn, not to mention the reggae and a highly political bit we have that the jazzmaster neck pickup sound was made for.

Mad-Mike

The sound demo is now up.....youtube time, no rollers yet, but tonight it's going out to it's first gig. Made another discovery...I may have a bad neck pickup, so I might overnight an AVRI pickup for the neck position when my paycheck comes in.

One thing is for sure, Jazzmasters are super versitile. Can sound as twangy and thin as a Tele, but can get some huge "Les Paul and Marshall" type sounds as well.

Fran

Wow, you must be over the moon with it Mike.

It sounds good, looks good, stays it tune...

The fact the Jazzy has its own unique voice also makes a lot of them olde school Metal techniques much more interesting, way better than the generic Jackson or ESP.

Well done!

You must get some nice pics up in the website archives 😉

SeriousCat

Wow sick guitar.

Great work, have fun with it!!!!!!!!! 😉

gilmourish

* droools* makes me want a jazzmaster so badly now. .

Robbmonster

Finally go to watch the demo (it wouldn't load the other day) that beast is sounding great!

Any tuning issues with it?

Also, have you decided about the neck, whether the strat neck is staying or going?

And how did it hold up during the gig???

Mad-Mike

Robbmonster said: Finally go to watch the demo (it wouldn't load the other day) that beast is sounding great!
Any tuning issues with it?
Also, have you decided about the neck, whether the strat neck is staying or going?
And how did it hold up during the gig???

No tuning issues at all. The first night I took it out and it was not even intonatated and still sounded incredibly good.

The gig never happened. It was some crazy musician party thing where they charged a cover charge for food, and because our drummer has 3 kids at $20 each, it got cancelled. Not much worry for us anyway since we already have 2 venues asking when we'll be gigging their way again when the singer gets some more songs down. This thing killed at rehearsal though, as as much punch as a Peterbuilt on the Autobahn driven by a leadfoot on speed.

As for the strat neck, I'm tempted to buy another Squier affinity strat neck and put that on my strat, either that or Get one of the mighty mite necks. The real tough part on this choice is that I really like the super-thin profile of the Squier necks but the fretwork leaves a little to be desired (strings can hang on the endge of the fretboard under the ends of frets). I also have my eyes on a Warmoth neck with oval inlays in maple with a CBS headstock but the last one I saw said it had a "chunky" build so I dunno. We'll see where it goes in time. Something might just pop up on E-bay like the body did.

There is one issue that is bugging me and that's that my neck pickup has one small problem. It reads inifnite ohms resistance like there is a break somewhere, but it still works, however, it sounds a tad too thin and I don't get the stereotypical JAzzmaster "both pickups on" sound with both pickups on, though I have taken some steps by tinkering and have gotten closer to the norm till I get a hot-wound AVRI pickup in.

JaguarOW

Where did you get the tailpiece from? Do you think that upgrading to a CIJ or AVRI is worth it or does the aftermarket one do the job fine?

Mad-Mike

JaguarOW said: Where did you get the tailpiece from? Do you think that upgrading to a CIJ or AVRI is worth it or does the aftermarket one do the job fine?

Had pretty good luck with the aftermarket trem thus far. I like that I don't have to lock down the trem lock button as I never use it anyway.

Mad-Mike

Now all the wiring bugs are fixed, and it now has an AVRI Jazzmaster pickup in the neck.

So, NEW Demo

After this, all that is left is installing the neck, which will be in about a week or two from now. Mostly because I want to put this neck back on my Stratocaster, and my Stratocaster is getting some repairs done. After that, this thing will be pretty well finished.

Specs on Neck I'm Using

- Mighty Mite Maple Neck

- Kluson TonePros Tuning Machines

- Roller String Guides

- Default nut that comes on neck

- 60's and 70's Jazzmaster Decals mixed with some extra stuff added by me

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