Ace Flibble
Hero Member
- Messages
- 865
After a couple of years now um-ing and ah-ing over Jazzmasters, I've finally gone ahead and put in the order. It's not a traditional Jazzmaster build by any stretch but it's the outline I love. Can't decide on a neck though.
Skip over this part if you don't have time to kill. The body I've ordered is alder with a transparent purple finish, narrow Strat hardtail bridge, black/white/black pickguard cut HSH with a 3-way upper toggle switch, no lower switch, one control pot and the jack mounted in the pickguard. I intend to use a SD Phat Cat P-90 in the neck, another nickel/chrome covered humbucker in the bridge and a black Fender Texas Special single coil in the middle. I'll have the single coil and the bridge humbucker going to either a push-pull pot or a on-on mini switch, eithe rof which will select which pickup goes to the 3-way toggle (the neck will always go to the 3-way). I intend to wire the bridge pickup out of phase with the neck too so the options will be neck/n&b out of phase/b and neck/n&m/middle (before anyone mentions five-ways: I use the neck&bridge out of phase tone a lot, I've never found any use for middle&bridge tones. So this way makes the most sense). I've already got the Phat Cat and Texas Special sitting around here going unused, hence those choices (plus they're my favourite neck pickup and middle pickup anyway); not sure on the bridge humbucker model yet. My main problem is I'm undecided on the neck. I've wanted a one-piece rosewood neck for a long time but they do rather cost a lot and while I've always liked the idea of them, I don't have any actual experience with them so I can't really tell if they'd suit the sort of tone I like. Generally speaking I like very bright tones so obviously that's the opposite of rosewood.
So, transparent purple over alder, black/white/black pickguard, chrome/nickel hardware.
Now, what neck?
I'm still madly in love with my unfinished purpleheart & ebony neck but I don't want a second purpleheart neck, its colouring would clash with the more blue-ish purple Warmoth use for paint. I'd like to stick to an unfinished neck, though since my only experience is with purpleheart I don't know what to go for really. Or maybe just a good old standard all-maple neck, give a bit of contrast? I can't decide. All I am sure on is 1) it must not clash with the look of the body, 2) it needs a balanced to slightly bright tone and 3) three necks in and I'm still not used to the compound fretboard, so it's got to be a straight radius if people happen to spot something suitable in the showcase.
So, opinions wanted: neck and fingerboards that won't look sucky with purple and that don't lose all the treble and harmonics either.
And if anyone's feeling up to it, bridge humbucker ideas wouldn't go unappreciated either. Needs to be available in the UK and have 4-conductor wiring, a nickel or chrome cover and low-medium output; it also must not be or sound like a SD JB (the spawn of Satan, as far as I'm concerned). Other than that I'm open to all ideas. I intend for this guitar to become my E Standard all-rounder so I'm not after any particular total vintage or ultra-modern sound. What do people think is the best jack-of-all-trades bridge humbucker? I'm thinking maybe an Alnico II Pro, maybe a Custom 5. Perhaps a Bare Knuckle Mule (although I've not had great experiences with Bare Knuckle so far) or Gibson BurstBucker Pro? I hear good things about the Irongear Blues Engine too.
C'mon, help me sort this out, make this the best guitar I could ask for. The missus is going to absolutely crucify me if I need to make a fifth one after this
Skip over this part if you don't have time to kill. The body I've ordered is alder with a transparent purple finish, narrow Strat hardtail bridge, black/white/black pickguard cut HSH with a 3-way upper toggle switch, no lower switch, one control pot and the jack mounted in the pickguard. I intend to use a SD Phat Cat P-90 in the neck, another nickel/chrome covered humbucker in the bridge and a black Fender Texas Special single coil in the middle. I'll have the single coil and the bridge humbucker going to either a push-pull pot or a on-on mini switch, eithe rof which will select which pickup goes to the 3-way toggle (the neck will always go to the 3-way). I intend to wire the bridge pickup out of phase with the neck too so the options will be neck/n&b out of phase/b and neck/n&m/middle (before anyone mentions five-ways: I use the neck&bridge out of phase tone a lot, I've never found any use for middle&bridge tones. So this way makes the most sense). I've already got the Phat Cat and Texas Special sitting around here going unused, hence those choices (plus they're my favourite neck pickup and middle pickup anyway); not sure on the bridge humbucker model yet. My main problem is I'm undecided on the neck. I've wanted a one-piece rosewood neck for a long time but they do rather cost a lot and while I've always liked the idea of them, I don't have any actual experience with them so I can't really tell if they'd suit the sort of tone I like. Generally speaking I like very bright tones so obviously that's the opposite of rosewood.
So, transparent purple over alder, black/white/black pickguard, chrome/nickel hardware.
Now, what neck?
I'm still madly in love with my unfinished purpleheart & ebony neck but I don't want a second purpleheart neck, its colouring would clash with the more blue-ish purple Warmoth use for paint. I'd like to stick to an unfinished neck, though since my only experience is with purpleheart I don't know what to go for really. Or maybe just a good old standard all-maple neck, give a bit of contrast? I can't decide. All I am sure on is 1) it must not clash with the look of the body, 2) it needs a balanced to slightly bright tone and 3) three necks in and I'm still not used to the compound fretboard, so it's got to be a straight radius if people happen to spot something suitable in the showcase.
So, opinions wanted: neck and fingerboards that won't look sucky with purple and that don't lose all the treble and harmonics either.
And if anyone's feeling up to it, bridge humbucker ideas wouldn't go unappreciated either. Needs to be available in the UK and have 4-conductor wiring, a nickel or chrome cover and low-medium output; it also must not be or sound like a SD JB (the spawn of Satan, as far as I'm concerned). Other than that I'm open to all ideas. I intend for this guitar to become my E Standard all-rounder so I'm not after any particular total vintage or ultra-modern sound. What do people think is the best jack-of-all-trades bridge humbucker? I'm thinking maybe an Alnico II Pro, maybe a Custom 5. Perhaps a Bare Knuckle Mule (although I've not had great experiences with Bare Knuckle so far) or Gibson BurstBucker Pro? I hear good things about the Irongear Blues Engine too.
C'mon, help me sort this out, make this the best guitar I could ask for. The missus is going to absolutely crucify me if I need to make a fifth one after this
