Outcaster Build: HSH Jazzmaster Project

[Cactus Jack]

I'm on my penultimate Warmoth build, and this one is going to my son. Being the only boy in our family, and the only Non-Tele body style in our collection, we've appropriately named his guitar the Outcaster.

This is a fairly straight forward build with a few fun twists such as: satin black finish, 24.75" reverse headstock, no neck inlay, and super hot direct mount Tom Anderson pickups. We're going for a sinister hard rock look.

The coolest part of the entire project to me is the neck plate. First, I buy all my neck plates from the same guy on Ebay. He has great designs, and great products. Love them. What I love most though, is you can customize the serial number. For this particular project I selected 0518. My son spent 3 years in the hospital fighting cancer. I won't go into the details, but I will say this kid is a warrior. After years of fighting, relapsing, fighting again, and getting five years of clean scans my son successfully transitioned into the survivor's clinic in May 2018.

As with life, guitar builds are full of surprises. Upon an initial fit it was apparent the Hipshot bridge does not align with the American Standard bridge route. My bad. I read others have used this bridge with no issue so I just assumed it would fit. I was wrong, I should've measured. I will say this bridge is very nice. Very solid, and much better looking in person than online. In terms of bridges that will fit, ignore the grime, but the standard Fender bridge is a drop in replacement and Kluson makes one too.

For those of you interested here are links to the "just out of the box" pics:

Neck: https://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=32508.0

Body: https://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=32507.0

 

[stratamania]

Looks like this is going to be an interesting build.

Kudos to your son, it is not an easy thing to do and I trust he will dig this guitar  :icon_thumright:

 

[Rick]

that’s going to be a beautiful guitar.

 

[frown]

I see someone has similar ideas to me, when it comes to Jazzmasters! Non front-inlay Warhead neck, Hipshot bridged and cool colour painted body...

I approve!

Look forward to progress pics!  :icon_thumright:

 

[Cactus Jack]

I see someone has similar ideas to me, when it comes to Jazzmasters! Non front-inlay Warhead neck, Hipshot bridged and cool colour painted body...

I approve!

Look forward to progress pics!  :icon_thumright:

How did you install the Hipshot bridge? Did you simply angle the screws?

 

[frown]

I requested bridge holes for 'Hipshot' layout be drilled at the time of ordering the body - by adding a request in the 'Notes' section.

All screws have gone in straight as they're all pre aligned.

I see you had the standard hardtail bridge holes routed, which would account for why your holes are mis-aligning.

It is annoying that Hipshot use a different measurement, as I can't see any other benefit to having the holes different to a standard and common pattern... :dontknow:

Hopefully you can make it work with some adjustments.

 

[Cactus Jack]

I requested bridge holes for 'Hipshot' layout be drilled at the time of ordering the body - by adding a request in the 'Notes' section.

All screws have gone in straight as they're all pre aligned.

I see you had the standard hardtail bridge holes routed, which would account for why your holes are mis-aligning.

It is annoying that Hipshot use a different measurement, as I can't see any other benefit to having the holes different to a standard and common pattern... :dontknow:

Hopefully you can make it work with some adjustments.

Ahhh...very smart on your part. Yep, I went standard, but will figure something out.

 

[Cactus Jack]

I worked on the neck this morning. Burnished her from 220 - 2000 then cleaned her up a bit. The neck feels like glass and the chunky flame really pops. The neck has a 3D psychedelic look due to the incredibly deep chetoyance, but unfortunately I can't capture the effect in the pics.

Before & After pics:

A few more pics for good measure:

 

[frown]

Phwoarrrrrrrrrrr! That's a a beauty! Fine selection.  :icon_thumright:

 

[mickcoop91]

I have a satin sonic blue chambered Korina JM body on the way, I got a reverse walnut strat neck. It will have a very similar vibe to this. So I’m going to live vicariously through this thread closely while I wait!

That neck looks beyond ridiculous! My dream is build a guitar one day for my child and I don’t even have one yet . You son sounds like a warrior, this guitar will match!

What timber is the body made out of?

 

[Cactus Jack]

I have a satin sonic blue chambered Korina JM body on the way, I got a reverse walnut strat neck. It will have a very similar vibe to this. So I’m going to live vicariously through this thread closely while I wait!

That neck looks beyond ridiculous! My dream is build a guitar one day for my child and I don’t even have one yet . You son sounds like a warrior, this guitar will match!

What timber is the body made out of?

I went with solid Basswood for this build as I wanted something light. I haven't weighed it, but it is noticeably lighter than some of my Tele bodies. I know Basswood is looked down upon, but I reached out to Tom Anderson to get his opinion. Based on the pickups he said Basswood is what he'd use, so that was good enough for me. 

 

[Cactus Jack]

This is my 6th rear route Warmoth body, and I've run into the same issue on all of them. A stock switch is too short, and won't fully engage in positions 1, and 5. I've used Fender, CRL, Oak Grigsby, and it's the same result. My solution, which has worked like a charm on my other builds is to grind down the switch, and on other builds lengthen the switch slot a bit.

Here's what a stock switch looks like:

As you can see, when installed the switch runs into the body and won't engage. Another thing is the switch position within the cavity is too narrow for a super switch. As such, I ground down the outside wafer a bit to make it fit.:

Here's the modified switch:

Now I get the need the clearance. Normally, I'll taper the slot, but taking off the solid finish exposed the white wood so I stopped. On a clear top it's not noticeable at all.

One final learning about the satin finish is that it is a bit more brittle than a stock poly finish. This pic shows what happened when I went to fit a pot before cleaning up the finish inside the hole. It raised up a tiny bit, but thankfully it will be covered. I'll need to be especially careful with the ferrules and all drilling.

Oh, and do yourself a favor and buy a cheap set of step bits on Amazon to clean up the drill holes. They are a fantastic addition to the tool collection:

 

[frown]

I'd use a hand reamer, rather than step bits for cleaning up holes. Less risk and more control where your paint / finish is concerned!

 

[Verne Bunsen]

I'd say you captured the chatoyance admirably in those pictures, that neck is phenomenal!

 

[Cactus Jack]

I'd use a hand reamer, rather than step bits for cleaning up holes. Less risk and more control where your paint / finish is concerned!

Yes! Another reason to buy more tools! Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Cactus Jack]

I'd say you captured the chatoyance admirably in those pictures, that neck is phenomenal!

The more I mess with the neck the more insanely awesome it becomes. It’s an amazing piece of timber. I realize the specs are non-standard, but it was also relatively inexpensive. I’m pretty sure it was a customer return, and I just got lucky.

 

[Rick]

Looking good.

 

[mickcoop91]

I had an SG with Basswood, it’s was pretty dark sounding but the balance with the roasted maple/ebony will sound great, especially if that’s what the pickups are meant to be paired with!

I saw on another comment that you said the neck was a customer return. Who the bloody hell is returning that? It’s amazing.

 

[wildbill]

Beautiful neck, great build and an awsum back story about your son's recovery. I am sure he will rock this axe. Best to you both.

 

[Cactus Jack]

One of my favorite aspects of building "partscasters" is literally pulling parts out of the drawer and making them work. For instance, the pickups I'm using for this build came out of a Strat pickguard. As such, the leads were too short for the rear route cavity. 

No worries! I've been saving scrap wire for the past year! My wife thought I've been hoarding garbage...HA!

When I started building I was incredibly nervous about soldering, wiring in general, and handling pickups. I thought for sure I'd short them out, bust the windings etc. For those of you who are just starting out be mindful of the pickups, but you don't need to treat them like live grenades as I did. For example, extending pickup leads scared the heck out of me the first time around, but now stuff like this incredibly simple. I didn't know how to do this when I started, so I thought I'd pass along a few tips for new folks getting into the game. 

The first step is measuring how much additional lead you need. I always shoot for a bit more than I'll need, and I like the leads to reach about the middle pot. Wiring in the cavity, especially with thin pickup wire, can be a pain and I've found a bit of slack makes things much easier. Some guys on here have ultra crisp wiring and control cavities. I'm not one of them . Also, you don't need to measure with calipers, but do yourself a favor and pickup a cheap one as they're super versatile.

The next step is to make a mechanical connection between the pickup lead and your extension. You can twist the wires together, make two hooks etc. I prefer to splay the end of the wires, press the ends together so they intertwine, then give it a slight twist. After that you simply add just enough solder so it connects the wire, and finish it off with electrical tape or preferably shrink tube. One note about tape. Do it better than pictured as it can get hung up in the wire route.

Once the wires are connected, bust out your multimeter (if you don't have one, get one ASAP) and test your pickups resistance. If your connections are good the reading will closely approximate the manufacturers specs. Also, remember to connect the North & South finish leads or you'll get about half the resistance. I've forgotten that step more than once...

Last step, double check your lead is your desired length.

Again, I had no idea how to do this stuff when I started out. I'm probably not doing it correctly...but my pickups always make some sort of noise in the end! Hope this helps someone, but I encourage you to read as many build threads as possible to really learn the tricks of the trade.