And, We're off..Jazz Baron here I come!

BigSteve22

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Well, it's finally time to put my money where my imagination is. I started down the long path to a new Jazzmaster build many months ago. Endless hours of planning and re-planning, trying to imagine what form my dreams should take, and what direction to take in order to turn my imaginings into reality. Today I took the first concrete step in that direction: I placed an order for the neck!

The Specs:
Modern Construction, Jazzmaster neck.
Flame Maple shaft with Soft Vee profile.
Compound Radius Pau Ferro Fret Board.
1-11/16 White Tusq-XL Nut.
21, SS6105 Frets.
MOP Dot Inlays w/ White Side Markers.
Gotoh/Grover Tuner Ream.

After much research at Alto Music in Middletown NY, trying every different type and size of neck I could get my hands on, I decided to try to approximate feel of the Fender '55 Esquire Relic edition. It has a Soft Vee profile and 6105 frets with a 1.650 nut width. The neck thickness is listed as .880" at nut and .990" at the 12th fret. This neck felt good in my hands, if just a little bit thick. The Warmoth Clapton Soft Vee is spec'd as .850 at the 1st fret and .940 at the 12th. That slightly thinner profile, along with the slightly wider nut, should be just what the doctor ordered. (Many thanks to the great people at Alto music for allowing me to manhandle their inventory. There are not many places that will leave you alone in a room full of $4000 plus guitars and tell you to have at it!)

It'll probably be another month or so before I can order the body. Sometimes family responsibilities get in the way of my hobbies! Anyway, here's a composit of what I'm looking to end up with.



Flame Maple top on a chambered Mahogany body, Duncan P-Rails, Mastery bridge, and a Hard Tail conversion plate. Got some wiring ideas worked out involving a rotary switch and push-pull CTS pots that will allow me to change the resistance and capacitance values as need for the different pickup configurations.

I'm stoked! The first steps on a long journey have been taken. Time to put to work what I've learned from reading all the JM build threads. 
 
That looks great! And I think you'll really enjoy those P-rail p'ups. Buddy of mine just put some in an SG, of all things, and it's amazing how many different tones he can get out of the thing. Comes closer to a "Jack of all trades" guitar than anything else I've ever heard, without having to put a baker's dozen switches and knobs on the thing.
 
Maximum versatility is exactly what I'm going for. As always with me, there's a long story behind most of the design aspects of this build. It's named after and dedicated to my second guitar teacher, Mr Dave Baron, a young jazz/blues musician from Brooklyn in the mid 1960's. I'll post the whole story when I have a lot more time, but for now I'll just say that if not for him, I wouldn't be on this forum today.
 
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