Body suggestion - Jazz Strat (Jazz Bass like) offset strat guitar

[NMcK]

since the shapes have been reduced, and they have some cool variations on jazzmasters etc

I would like to propose a Fender Jazz Strat, similar offset to the jazz bass, with control plate, and a bound block inlay neck... this for me would be a dream guitar!

If this is possible, let me know!! and it will be a double warmoth year for me

 

[Jeremiah]

I think this has been suggested before, a while ago. But it is a good idea and I'd like it if Warmoth made this body style.

 

[stubhead]

This may be trickier than you think. I sort-of "collect" interesting shapes. as do some other people here, and one of the consequences of that is I have developed an extremely healthy respect for just how eye-appealing the original Fender Strat, Tele, P-Bass, Jaguar/Jazzmaster, and Jazz bass shapes are. There have been a number of people over the years who have tried to put their own little mark on the jazz bass shape - Wahl is one of them, Sadowsky another, and man, you change one little bit of it a few millimeters this way or that and it can get ugly kind of fast. Mostly, the upper bouts get too fat. To make a guitar, the first biggest difference is how far you want the bridge from the neck pocket; then all your other changes move from there. You could try printing a few schematics from one of these guys:

http://shortscale.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=38813

http://www.gitarrebassbau.de/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=6&start=0

and break out the pencils & french curves and see where you get. If I were to try it, I think I'd approach it more from the point of a Jazzmaster shape with hornier horns, because changing the scale length from a jazz bass 34" to a guitar 25.5" by moving the bridge 8.5" is going to leave you with a huge ass and all the stuff clustered right up toward the top.

 

[swarfrat]

jbass is only a smidge bigger than a strat. i have some of those plans imported into inkscape for this idea.  Mostly the extra scale length is absorbed by placing the bridge at the end of the body instead of in the middle of the lower bout.A shortscale dinky jbass would be about perfect if they made one.

 

[stubhead]

Here's a pix of a Warmoth flat-7 and a Warmoth G5 bod:



Just a few mm's difference here and there. But on that G5, I already had moved the bridge 3.5" northwards. Then drilled for the bridge and did my own side dots on the neck, to get a 30.5" scale bass out of it. But that bass bridge is already 5.5" from the neck pocket, if you moved it up to get a 25.5" scale, there'd be nothing left (0.5") to put the pickup in - with a bass neck length. Now, a 25.5" scale neck is roughly 18.5" from nut to neck pocket end (real rough, I don't have an disassembled one here) so it could work - but the cutaways just look funny to me.

It's still a neat idea - I'd like one - but it does get a lot more complicated than just pocket width and bridge placement.

 

[NMcK]

hmmm... good info StübHead, I knew the shape would need to be altered slightly, but completely see your point on how much it would change the jazzbass look! scale will be different, so body to neck proportion changes, position of the bridge, pickups etc like you noted...

Maybe if i get the chance one day, i will have a look at starting from blank, and try to best get the offset Jazz vibe in a jazzmaster package!

Some great info provide! thank you.

Now i have plenty to think about for my next project

 

[yddeds]

I would be all over this if it happened

The closest thing i can think of to a jazz bass shaped guitar would be the chris broderick jackson soloist and even thats not really the same thing