Jazzcaster Carbonita 2TEK-Ghost

[KRSO]

My first Warmoth built.


Body: Jazzmaster chambered swamp ash. Metallic White Pearl w/ extra clear coats.
Neck: Wenge w/ ebony fretboard. My first MOP inlay attempt. Change girlfriend, change neck.
Pickup: Power'tron Plus.
Bridge: 2TEK w/ ghost bridge.
Pre amp: Schaller Flagship. Modified to rotary knob.
Pickguard and knobs in 3 colors.

 

[Great Ape]

Well, that's pretty damn interesting. I'm gonna look at it for a while before deciding exactly what I think (not that That matters a hoot), but it's different, an' I like that. Um, do you ah, "change girlfriends" every time you change pickguards, or do you change pickguards every time you "change girlfriends"? :laughing7:

 

[anorakDan]

I like it. I like the concept and execution. I think the white on white looks best.

How do you like the 2TEK?

 

[alterbridgefan]

GREEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :icon_biggrin: :toothy12: :glasses10: :confused4:

 

[KRSO]

I prefer the green as well. Just wish the knobs I have in blue where available in Green. I might add red pick guard, knobs and strings too.

I am very satisfied with the 2TEK bridge. I have not seen anyone combining it with piezo saddles before. Gives a very nice and clear acoustic sound.
The new preamp from Schaller is also working very well. The functions of the rotary knob changes when you plug in a stereo jack. This gives me a whole range of options with only two knobs.

Hopefully I not have to change the neck. But ordering a new neck is anyway a lot more convenient than laser treatment of tattoos  :icon_thumright:

 

[swarfrat]

Not a combination that would have occured to me, but it's really sharp!  Also interesting the piezo 2tek combo - but. It begs the question "if you're going to build the perfect hex guitar, why not put a 13 pin on it?"

 

[KRSO]

Good question. It was the original plan. But I did not want to have two outputs on the guitar because of the look. The plan is to send mono + stereo + HEX signal through the same plug.
And I also have some ideas for the electronics onboard the guitar that are not available on the market, and I want to be able to pan/balance each string individually using 6 balancing pots on the back of the guitar.

 

[Cagey]

What a breath of fresh air! That's beautiful!

I've always thought that the Jaguar/Jazzmaster design was ruined by all the gimcrackery and poor electronics/hardware design, and here we are with all that thrown out. Kudos to you, sir! I'm inspired. I may just have to build something like that. I might even paint it bubblegum red, just to piss off the purists <grin>

 

[eugene-ej]

Wow, beautiful build! I'm planning to build a guitar with chambered swamp ash jazzmaster body. How can you describe its sound? Is the wenge neck a good fit for the body?

 

[KRSO]

Thank you Cagey.

eugene-ej:
Not easy for me to describe. I love playing the guitar with piezo. But I think a traditional maple/mahogany neck feels more responsive, and the wenge neck feels a bit more tenacious. Love the dark wood / white pearl guitar body look though. A solide ebony neck would be cooI to try. 
At the moment the strings is a bit hight because the 2tek bridge doesn't allow me to lower the strings enough. Maybe this is because of the 720 mod? I probably have to put in a small shim on the neck.

 

[mark1178]

That's one sexy guitar. I've never been a fan of white guitars, but this one is awesome. Well done.

 

[MikeW]

Really nice. Unique and tasteful. I really dig this one, but have to say I like the blue better than the green.

 

[sixstringsamurai]

:rock-on:

 

[MortenB]

Very cool.  ccasion14:  I love your idea with this one and the execution is spot on... And you give me a great idea for a Gecko bass with a Wenge neck, that I might choose to refinish.

 

[KRSO]

Just a small update from this project:

I'm a little supprised that I to this day haven't seen anyone else do the same mod.
The 2-tek bridge gives very good sustain and clear vibration from each separate string, and works very well with piezo saddles.

But be aware that you have to use a dremel between each piezo saddle to make some room for vibration.

You also have to use a dremel and cut away some of the material on the back of each saddle to be able to make perfect intonation. The design of the original 2-TEK saddles are shorter than the Ghost piezo saddles. In addition I also cut two of the springs in half to make saddles go even further back.
The intonation was done after the photos for unofficial warmoth, but with precise dremel work, it looks like original.

Except of the intonation problems, the bridge works perfectly.

I can also recommend the Flagship preamp from schaller. Very good dynamic range with only one 9V battery.
And it works very well with Ghost piezo saddles.

 

[Prometheus]

That's a very lovely build! You truly executed it beautifully. :headbang: And I, as the others, am enchanted by the simplicity. Even more, I'm impressed with the versatility you've managed to design in, while keeping the interface wonderfully simple. That combo is very tough, and one I struggled mightily with during my design phase.

Glad to hear you're happy with the 2TEK bridge. When I first saw those, I thought "what a great idea!". And after musing on it a bit, I got to wonder about its claims to "minimize string cross-talk". Because I've never actually been bothered much - or noticed, actually - much cross talk in a bridge. I mean, when I hit one string, it really doesn't get its neighbors vibrating, not at least audibly in a noticeable way. And I saw how each "post" was still attached to the single baseplate anyway. Still, I thought that if any design could actually approach maximally isolating each string, that'd be the one. And more than once I've been surprised at the tonal effects of various bits and pieces. So I deferred final judgement until I could actually try one out in person.

You wouldn't want to send it to me so I could see for myself? I'll take good care of her.