New Jazzmaster build (mahogany/wenge/humbuckers/mastery) EDIT: FINISHED!

[phillip_h]

Here are the specs that I went with:

Solid Mahogany body
Dual humbucker rout
MJT TV white finish
black pickguard
no rhythm circuit

Wenge neck/ebony fingerboard
modern construction
12" radius
white binding
MOP dot inlay
SS105 frets

Porter pickups: H90 neck, Portertron bridge
Emerson prewired assembly
Mastery bridge and trem
Hipshot locking tuners

I'm pretty excited about this build. I know that it's probably going to be fairly heavy, but probably no heavier than an LP. As long as it's in the 8-9 lb range it should be ok.

 

[Cagey]

That's gonna be a super-sweet guitar! If you've ever had a Jazzmaster before, you're going to be especially pleased with the Mastery parts. They're pricey little devils, but very high quality and work well. At least, the bridge will. I'm not sanguine about the vibrato, as it's just a bad design no matter what you make it out of or how much you polish it up. But, if you're not too aggressive with the thing, it'll probably be just fine. Also, if this is your first go-round with stainless frets, you're gonna love those, too.

 

[phillip_h]

That's gonna be a super-sweet guitar! If you've ever had a Jazzmaster before, you're going to be especially pleased with the Mastery parts. They're pricey little devils, but very high quality and work well. At least, the bridge will. I'm not sanguine about the vibrato, as it's just a bad design no matter what you make it out of or how much you polish it up. But, if you're not too aggressive with the thing, it'll probably be just fine. Also, if this is your first go-round with stainless frets, you're gonna love those, too.

I've had a jaguar and a couple of jazzmasters - I added mastery bridges to both, but I sold them before mastery released their trem. I was never crazy about the stock fender trem, but I have faith that the mastery won't let me down. I'm not a huge trem guy - I just like to add a little warble to chords here and there. I'm having a TUSQ nut installed, and I'm using staggered hipshot tuners which don't need string trees, so hopefully that'll help with tuning stability.

I've never had SS frets, and I have high hopes for them.

I decided to get what I wanted and not cut corners with this build, and none of this stuff was cheap. I'll probably have close to $2000 invested when all is said and done. Hopefully it'll all add up to an amazing guitar. I have built one other warmoth jazzmaster, and I was really pleased with everything.

 

[phillip_h]

I've gotten most of the hardware and electronics in. It's probably going to be another couple of weeks before the neck and body are finished, then I'll have to send the body off to MJT for finish.

 

[dmraco]

Emerson nice parts.    :laughing8:

Should be a sweet build

 

[phillip_h]

Just got shipment notification on the body and neck! They should be here on Wednesday. Of course, the body will still need finish, and then I'll have to get it assembled and setup, but it should probably be completely finished in about a month.

 

[mayfly]

I like those tuners!

 

[phillip_h]

I like those tuners!

Yeah, me too. They're staggered, so they eliminate the need for string trees, which is really cool. I had to change out the buttons, because the stock ones look dumb IMO. [This is not my guitar - this picture is to reference the tuner buttons that I don't like. My neck will hopefully look similar to this one.]

 

[Great Ape]

Beautiful neck! :icon_thumright:

 

[phillip_h]

Beautiful neck! :icon_thumright:

That's not my actual neck, it's just a photo I found online of the tuner buttons. Mine should look very similar - I ordered a wenge neck like this one.

 

[BigSteve22]

I love those tuners too. I agree about the buttons, thought they would look good on my Strat, then I saw them installed. Found tons of Hipshot buttons on ebay.

 

[phillip_h]

I love those tuners too. I agree about the buttons, thought they would look good on my Strat, then I saw them installed. Found tons of Hipshot buttons on ebay.

That's what I did. There's an eBay seller called sporthitech or something like that who has an insane variety of hipshot tuners and buttons.

 

[phillip_h]

Oh, and concerning the weight: the UPS shipping weight for the neck, body, pickguard, and neck plate is 9.4 lbs. Of course, I still have to add the pickups, bridge, tremolo, and tuners, but still not too bad for a solid mahogany jazzmaster. There was a dude around here who put a rosewood strat together that ended up at almost 15 lbs.

 

[BigSteve22]

That's what I did. There's an eBay seller called sporthitech or something like that who has an insane variety of hipshot tuners and buttons.

Sporthitech is where I got mine too. There's another ebay company, hdcustomguitarsupplyonline, which will special order Hipshot items that may not be readily available. I wanted a Hipshot US Flat Plate tremolo. Everybody and their mother had the contour unit, but NOBODY had the flat unit. I could have ordered it direct from Hipshot, but they wanted $130 for it. Contacted the guy at hdcustomguitarsupplyonline and he got me one for $85 AND free shipping.

 

[rgand]

I'm curious to see how you like the pickup combination. I suspect they will sound great.

 

[dmraco]

I am digging the shape of that headstock....I know its not yours...

 

[mayfly]

That's what I did. There's an eBay seller called sporthitech or something like that who has an insane variety of hipshot tuners and buttons.

Sporthitech is where I got mine too.

Just spending some time on their eBay site - they have everything!!!  Including benders!

cool....

 

[phillip_h]

I am digging the shape of that headstock....I know its not yours...

You should check out the rest of the guitar - pretty insane. http://williamsguitars.co.uk/portfolio/evo-pro/

 

[phillip_h]

My neck, body, and pickguard are on the truck for delivery! I can't wait to see the neck.

 

[rgand]

I'm looking forward to your progress. We know where to find you for a few days.  :icon_biggrin: