A Tale of Two Jazzmasters

[Verne Bunsen]

Thanks Pete. I've taken note of those plastic ones that you've done, they always look great and come off as part of a very well concieved aesthetic. I've often wondered how you get them laid out so accurately when a 3rd party is cutting them for you. The one in the picture is a perfect example, the way it follows the contour of the headstocks beard and the cutout for the tuner are flawless. Do you make a physical mock up to send them or draw it up in a graphics program?

 

[Fat Pete]

Thanks Pete. I've taken note of those plastic ones that you've done, they always look great and come off as part of a very well concieved aesthetic. I've often wondered how you get them laid out so accurately when a 3rd party is cutting them for you. The one in the picture is a perfect example, the way it follows the contour of the headstocks beard and the cutout for the tuner are flawless. Do you make a physical mock up to send them or draw it up in a graphics program?

Thanks! I draw everything in Coreldraw (endlessly). Lots of measuring, 'technical' photographs and paper mock-ups later I save as .ai or .eps files depending who's doing the work and send them off.

Still wondering what 'beard' was actually meant to say.  :icon_scratch: Maybe a Cream reference?!

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Thanks! I draw everything in Coreldraw (endlessly). Lots of measuring, 'technical' photographs and paper mock-ups later I save as .ai or .eps files depending who's doing the work and send them off.

Still wondering what 'beard' was actually meant to say.  :icon_scratch: Maybe a Cream reference?!

Gotcha, so I reckon that you have the neck in hand before you start work on those as opposed to working off of, for instance, a to-scale drawing from Warmoth or something?

I can't blame that one on auto-correct, haha! The "beard" is how I've always referred to the part of a 6-in-line headstock that comes down from the nut. So I would say that a Strat headstock has a beard and a Tele headstock doesn't. And in the case of your picture, I was refering specifically to the contour by the "W". The way the headstock badge follows that curve is very precise, impressive.

 

[Glimmer]

Sorry to hear about the decal mishap, but nice of your dad to not bat an eye at it. I'm sure the finished guitar is going to be stellar all the same, and that this will fade into insignificance, like a first scratch or ding. I had originally planned to put a decal on the headstock of my JM, but didn't realize the time it would take, got started looking into it too late, then realized it would add weeks to my build at a time when I was hoping to wrap things up. Oh well. The headstock still looks a bit blank to me (it ain't even got a string tree!), and I tell myself that one day, maybe, I'll pull the tuners and go for it. Maybe, but maybe not.

What's the story with your pickups – any progress on that front?

 

[Fat Pete]

Gotcha, so I reckon that you have the neck in hand before you start work on those as opposed to working off of, for instance, a to-scale drawing from Warmoth or something?

I'll work on ideas from scaled photos etc. but yes, I wait until I have the physical item in hand before doing anything final. Even Warmoth's 'standard' headstocks - Strats, Teles etc. - vary from the available (Fender) drawings too much for anything with close tolerances.

I can't blame that one on auto-correct, haha! The "beard" is how I've always referred to the part of a 6-in-line headstock that comes down from the nut. So I would say that a Strat headstock has a beard and a Tele headstock doesn't. And in the case of your picture, I was refering specifically to the contour by the "W". The way the headstock badge follows that curve is very precise, impressive.

Excellent, new jargon! Beard it is from now on.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Thanks Glimmer. Yeah, the wound is healing. Already I've stopped feeling like I'm going to vomit, so that's progress, haha!

As regards the pickups, I finally opted to have Aaron at Rumplestiltskin wind me a set. I've been having a heck of a time lately allotting time to this project on account of house/family/work stuff, so that took a load off. Time is a resource too, after all... They shipped Friday and so should be here in a couple of days.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

So I learned something about anodized surfaces: they're not conductive. So none of the components were talking to each other from a grounding standpoint. The core of the guards, inside the component mounting holes, was still conductive, but continuity was inconsistent at best. The meter would ring one second and not the next. Rather than bonding them with wires (there's already plenty of wires inside a Jazzmaster...), I used some shielding tape to lay down a few traces and bond the stuff that needed bonding. Worked out nicely!

I got the gold guard wired up today, this will be on the Trans-red Black Korina body and is wired "alt", where the pickup selector remains active on the rhythm circuit. Quite pleased with how it came out. Haven't function tested it yet obviously, but it looks pretty. Although I don't envy the guy who ever has to go in and modify it... (that'd be me....)

I test-fit it on the body and it plopped right in, no muss, no fuss. Given how much "fun" it typically is to stuff a Jazzmaster's guts back in, I was tickled. It'll surely be a little trickier when the pickups are involved, but at least the harness itself is well behaved. I saw this peeking out at me through the neck pickup hole, for some reason I just thought it looked nice. Everything in it's place sort of thing.

 

[Axkoa]

That wiring is like a electricians wet dream. Looks amazing.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Thanks! Thats one place where I kind of let my OCD run wild, nothing quite like pretty wiring!

 

[Glimmer]

Beautiful work! Heartily impressed with your talent for wiring!!!

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Thanks Glimmer!

 

[kevin_guitars]

With that wiring the guitars are as clean on the inside as they are on the outside. Awsome!

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Thanks KG!

I'm hoping to fire the iron back up tomorrow and get the other guard wired. In the meantime, my pickups from Rumplestiltskin came in today! I have a pair of cream pickup covers set aside for this guitar, but he sent me white which, frankly, ain't bad either. Normally stark white is a bit off-putting for me but somehow it's not so glaring here. So I'm a bit torn. I like the cream, I like the white, and while I just arranged them like this for ease of comparison I find I kind of even like one of each. The white witch hat knobs are right in between the two colorwise, so no particular conflict there either way to my eye. 
:icon_scratch:

 

[Glimmer]

Well, FWIW, my first reaction is for the cream.

 

[DangerousR6]

Well, FWIW, my first reaction is for the cream.

I concur, white is too bright...

 

[kevin_guitars]

The white is too "aftermarket" looking for such a unique guitar. The cream is class act. Plus if you have intentions of owning it for a long time and putting miles on it the knobs will slowly color up to match the cream pup cover after years of your grubby mitts touching them. Just my 2 cents.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Thanks for the input! My wife agrees with you guys. Consider me reality checked, haha! Stick to the plan, cream it is.
:icon_thumright:

 

[Verne Bunsen]

A'ight. Got the silver guard wired up, including pickups. This one gets Lollars and the standard control scheme. Gave it the ol' tap test and everything functions as intended. It would have been cleaner had I cut the pickup leads to length, but I try to avoid doing that whenever possible...

Also got the Rumplestiltskins installed in the gold guard. With the cream covers. A successful tap test there as well. They didn't come with screws, so if I can't find an appropriate substitute in my rather formidable hardware collection then I'll be scrambling to get a few sourced. If that's the worst complication to come up for the duration of these builds, then that's not bad at all.

 

[Glimmer]

Neat as a pin!

 

[MattF]

I haven't had as much time to dedicate to this project as I'd have liked, and I'm fixing to head back out of town for a couple of weeks. I did finish spraying the clear over the headstock decals, so they'll get to cure while I'm gone and I can go about making them pretty when I get back. I got the pickguards assembled (not wired up just yet, but all the components fitted) so a better picture of the aesthetics is emerging. Dig!

Verne, did you have any issues installing the thimbles for the Mastery Bridge? Mine has not been delivered yet, and I read Glimmer's post on the issue.