My new Jazzmaster is freakin awesome !!!

[Klark]

Just finished playing it.. After like 3 hours of not being able to put it down!!  Man, I'll tell ya, I will never buy another off the shelf guitar again.  This is now my 5th complete build, 6th neck order, and definitely the best so far.  Nice & tight, bright, and stays in tune awesomely well.  Body is alder, neck is 9.5"rad SRV with 6100 SS frets, satin nitro.  Tuners are Schaller/Fender locking 'F' tuners.  Pickups are SD Phat-Cats, both neck & bridge.  SD doesn't balance the Phat-Cats very well, so the bridge one is close to the strings, and the neck one is pretty low.  Sounds excellent that way, and I haven't even adjusted the pole pieces yet!!

The only problem I had with the build is the Wilkinson route is not the correct route for the Gotoh 510 series trems.  Some of you will probably argue that it is, and I agree, it works somewhat ok, but the posts need to be farther apart, and the route by the arm is too open, so there's a gap showing out the side of the trem now.  Oh well, next order will be Fender USA route.  Anyway, the new one is the Lake Placid Blue one that's front & center..

 

[Cagey]

Man, I'll tell ya, I will never buy another off the shelf guitar again. 

Amazing, innit? You wouldn't think there'd be that much difference, but as it turns out it's huge. My Warmoths have turned into something of a reference point when discussing guitars with friends or family. They'll bring up some instrument or another and say something like "Well, it's not as nice as..." or "Well, it's never gonna be like..." or "Well, it doesn't compare to..." and so on.

 

[Graffiti62]

Congratulations on entering tonal nirvana with the Jazzmaster. I know how the Phat Cats can behave. I helped a friend do the Nick Valensi treatment on an Ibanez 335 copy. Putzy to work with, but really stood out.

I gotta admit though--the ebony Les Paul Deluxe really stands out. I wanted to get one when Gibson re-issued them ten years ago, but I was sadly still in high school and it was down to either a car or a guitar. Those mini humbuckers on those things always had such a unique tone to them. It'd be nice if Gibson did another reissue of them, but I figure that we'll sadly see them introduce something like the Robot Thunderbird bass before we see the Deluxe reissued

 

[bigguspickus]

That LP Deluxe is nice, but what's going on with the bridge? Are the strings wrapped over the stop bar?

 

[Klark]

I love the Deluxe, but more so because it and the '85 Explorer were both pretty much willed/given to me.  My buddies brother played it since new in '78, but he passed away in '05.  Not even a few days after he died, my buddy (who doesn't play guitar) brought them over to my house and said "Here, instead of collecting dust, my brother would rather these be played". :sad:  :guitaristgif:  :icon_smile:

I'm in the process of fixing up the Explorer.  His sweat was so acidic!  Most of the metal is ruined, and even the plastic pickup rings were like melting away where his hand rested. :dontknow:

The LP is all original, other than new frets, and removal of the original white pickguard which was cracked and loose.

And yes, Biggus, the strings are over the top of the bridge.  I just wanted to test it out that way, since some guys say they play better that way.. More sustain, looser feeling, I guess..  :dontknow:

 

[Caleidoscope]

What kind of trem is installed on that explorer? TOM posts and a big hole??  :icon_scratch:

 

[Mor Paul]

What kind of trem is installed on that explorer? TOM posts and a big hole??  :icon_scratch:

Kahler.

 

[JaySwear]

i love it! holy crap, that thing is badass. makes me think i need a tortoise pickguard for my tele deluxe (in LPB). AWESOME :icon_biggrin:

 

[Graffiti62]

Pretty rad history to the Explorer and the Deluxe

I'm noticing something else there too...Did you install Phat Cats on the neck spots on your Les Paul and your SG?  Also, any plans in the works for the electronics on the Explorer yet? 

P.S.--you should have known better than to have shown all of us all of your toys--now the gates are open to a rash of questions

 

[Nando Vallart]

Like the Jazzmaster, but love the sunburst Les Paul, what are the pickups on it??

 

[hachikid]

that jazzmaster/jaguar body shape is definitely sexy. I'd only rate the Ibanez Fireman as more attractive, imo. also, in that blue...pyuuur sechs!

 

[Klark]

Did you install Phat Cats on the neck spots on your Les Paul and your SG?

Like the Jazzmaster, but love the sunburst Les Paul, what are the pickups on it??

Both my '78 Les Paul Pro and my '80 SG have a '57 Classic Plus in the bridge, and a Seymour Duncan Phat-Cat in the neck.  After over about 4 or 5 pickup changes, this combo nailed the tone I had in my head.  The Les Paul Pro comes stock with P90's, but I wanted to change them.  Don't let anyone you can't put humbucker sized pickups in a P90 rout..

If you open up the pickup and dremel off the upturned edges on the baseplate, the pickup itself will drop right down into a P90 rout. The cool thing is you can now wood mount the pickup!

Adding the nickels covers doubles the amount of dremel work, but sure looks a helluva lot nicer than open coils.  The covers do NOT touch the body.. They're merely sitting on top of the coils, floating just above the maple.  The only mod to the guitar was using a Sharpee to color in the edges of the routs so you don't see bare wood.  Here's some close pics of the mod..

http://www.alanproaudio.com/guitar/images/lpmod/IMG_2474.jpg
http://www.alanproaudio.com/guitar/images/lpmod/IMG_2476.jpg
http://www.alanproaudio.com/guitar/images/lpmod/IMG_2477.jpg
http://www.alanproaudio.com/guitar/images/lpmod/IMG_2478.jpg

Also, any plans in the works for the electronics on the Explorer yet?

Nope, no ideas yet.  Probably just some '57 Classics or something similar.  I'm thinking about putting a tunomatic bridge & stop tailpiece on there, but then I'm left with a hole.  Is there a manufacturer that makes a cool looking cover plate for those terrible Kahler holes ??

 

[Mor Paul]

Makes me wonder why there aren't more humbucker retrofits for p90 routs.

 

[Klark]

Makes me wonder why there aren't more humbucker retrofits for p90 routs.

Because the general consensus is if you want humbuckers, you should buy a LP Standard or Custom.  And if you want P90's, you should buy a Deluxe or Pro.

My problem was I didn't want headstock or rear binding, so a Custom was out.  I wanted an ebony fretboard, so a Standard or Deluxe were out.  And I wanted good tuners, so the Deluxe was out.

The Pro became the clear winner, other than I had to change the pickups, which worked rather nicely.

 

[Nando Vallart]

Sorry Klark, but perhaps someday I'll make a copy of this guitar It's incredible cool and usually I don't like this finish...

 

[Klark]

Sorry Klark, but perhaps someday I'll make a copy of this guitar It's incredible cool and usually I don't like this finish...

You won't have to make a copy, you can buy this one.  I pretty much built this guitar just to see if I would like four things in particular..

1) Shape & feel of the body
2) SRV contour
3) SD Phat-Cat in the bridge
4) Gotoh 510TS-FE1 trem

As luck turns out, I love them all, so much that now I want to build a new Jazzmaster with exactly the the woods & colors that I want, instead of having to pick showcase colors & woods like I had to with this one.  If anyone is interested in it, I'll sell the whole thing for $750, which is about $250 less than I just put into it.

 

[jalane]

Klark, nice work!  Welcome to the Warmoth Jazzmaster Tonal Bliss Club!

 

[Nando Vallart]

Sorry Klark, but perhaps someday I'll make a copy of this guitar It's incredible cool and usually I don't like this finish...

You won't have to make a copy, you can buy this one.  I pretty much built this guitar just to see if I would like four things in particular..

I was saying about the LP