Softy

[molul]

EDIT: pics of the finished guitar: https://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=31354.msg453208#msg453208


Hi! I'm close to have the money for my next Warmoth guitar and I'd like to share it to see if someone has an interesting suggestion I haven't figured out myself before ordering.

I currently have a Warmoth strat with a Sustainiac pickup, and two dimarzio single coil humbuckers. I recently discovered Jazzmasters (well, I knew they existed but I never paid much attention to this model) and I want the same pickups but in a Jazzmaster body, as I love the shape and tremolo.

As I'm not interested in the rhythm circuit, it seems I'll have enough room for the Sustainiac pcb and switches. The Sustainiac switches (on/off and mode) would be next to the 5 position pickup switch in the lower part (the one at the right side in the bodies pictures), so the top cavity (the one at the left) is currently empty (the battery box will be in the back of the body).

Would you have any cool suggestion for this cavity? I was thinking on a kill switch, but as there must be lots of mods I don't know about, I wanted to ask here for any interesting idea I should consider before ordering

 

[Rick]

For two humbuckers I like the standard neck, n + bridge, and b. Then add n + b in series, then b + n splitting the neck.  Maybe b + n out of phase.  Probably put the toggle on the upper position.  Sustainiac would be cool.  Just one vol and one tone.  Side input jack. I’ve found I never use more than 7 options.

 

[molul]

Oops, I just found the reply notification in the spam folder ^_^U Thanks for the suggestion, Rick! I'm going for the single tone knob, and the regular Jazzmaster input jack (no side hole or strat angled input jack).

For the upper cavity I'm likely going for a kill switch, although I will only consider it once I have the Sustainiac in place and make sure everything works.

It's going to be a long January, until I can finally start with this xD

 

[molul]

Aaand it's finally on! I ordered the neck, body and pickguard a little while ago  :headbang:

It will be a Jazzmaster alder chambered body, three strat pickups, contoured heel, trasparent red satin finish.

The neck pickup will be a Sustainiac driver. Middle pickup, a Dimarzio Air Norton. Bridge, a Dimarzio Super Distortion. I might add a kill switch on the top cavity, which is currently empty.

The neck will be a maple vintage/modern Jazzmaster headstock, 22 frets, black Schaller locking tuners, standard thin, 6105 frets, clear gloss finish.

It will also have a black Mastery bridge and tremolo. And the pickguard is a .06 black matte.

The bad thing: I didn't remember it took like 8-10 weeks to finish the parts and send them ^_^U But at least it's on the way! I've been waiting for this since August, so a couple of months more is not that bad

So much looking forward to sharing some pics!

 

[rgand]

You're off! Congrats.

 

[molul]

Sh*t... They've just sent me an email saying that the battery rout is incompatible with the contoured heel (they would overlap ~0.3")

I've asked if the rout could be moved down even if it costs a bit more. Crossing fingers...

 

[Rick]

Depending on how you do it there’s a ton of room under a jazzmaster pickguard.  Could you put the battery in there?

 

[molul]

Yeah I thought about porting it in the top cavity, which isn't currently used. I guess I could do that, but changing the battery would be a true PITA :-/

 

[rgand]

Yeah I thought about porting it in the top cavity, which isn't currently used. I guess I could do that, but changing the battery would be a true PITA :-/

Could you mount a battery box in the pickguard at that location?

 

[molul]

Not sure. I'd have to make a hole in the pickguard and I don't know if a .06" one will be hard enough to resist battery changes over time. I was more thinking of putting the battery inside, which would be inconvenient.

 

[rgand]

Yeah, I wouldn't want to have to remove the pickguard to change it. You could use a thicker pickguard so it had more strength. It would be a bit more work but what if you modified the pickguard and make an upper plate similar to a Jaguar has to mount the battery box in? That could even be made out of the same stuff as the pickguard for ease of shaping. Or simply wait to see if it breaks and then modify it.

 

[molul]

I'm waiting for Warmoth to reply to some email I sent, with the pictures I've attached to this post. I'm a bit unsure about this problem. I mean, on one side, I wonder how difficult it would be to just moving the battery rout 0.3" down. On the other side, if I simulate a strat body with contoured heel and battery box, it looks ok.

 

[stratamania]

Its also where the cavity at the front is on a Jazzmaster compared to a Strat.

Its not really possible to rout from both sides of a piece of wood through most of the depth which that battery rout would probably require. So I would surmise the positioning of a battery box on a Jazzmaster is closer to the neck to not clash with the front rout which then encroaches on the area where the contoured heel is.

 

[molul]

Makes sense, yes. I also asked them about that, because I didn't really see how the battery box and the lower cavity could coexist.

I just got a reply saying that they're seeing if a relocation could be possible. I hope it is!

 

[Cagey]

I put a battery box on the back of one of my Jazzmasters, but I didn't really have anything in the regular cavity other than the converter board for the Ghost saddles. Plenty of room.

Damn. Has it been 6 years since I was wrenching on that thing?

 

[molul]

As I'm planning to put a Sustainiac on the lower (right) cavity, putting a battery box in the same place would kill the whole thing (there wouldn't be enough room for the Sustainiac pcb).

I'm hoping they can put it in the upper (left) cavity.

 

[rgand]

Nice, Kevin. I love the "Moan/Bitch" switch plate. :icon_thumright:

 

[Cagey]

Hehe! Yeah, I had a several made some years back... I don't have pics handy, but the one on the green L5S in my sig says "Ginger/MaryAnn", and there are some other yin/yang-type plates on some other guitars.

 

[BigSteve22]

...the one on the green L5S in my sig says "Ginger/MaryAnn"..

Nice! I like that a lot better than "Thurston/Lovey"  :toothy12:

 

[molul]

Well all parts are on their way home Body, pickguard and neck should arrive late March, Sustainiac next week, Mastery bridge and tremolo in a couple of weeks, and the rest of stuff (Schaller straplocks and locking tuners, knobs, pickups...) is already in my hands ^_^

I'll finally have a local luthier add a battery cavity, level frets, finish the neck (satin polyurethane, like Billy Corgan's signature strat) and assemble all parts. I wanted to do most stuff myself, but as I have to give him the neck to level frets and finish it anyway, I thought I'd better ask him to do everything xD

The neck finish will take around 2 months, so the guitar won't be ready to show until May-June. Jeez, the waiting is killing me (x_x)

Funny enough, the luthier adviced me not to spend money on custom guitars, as they don't sell very well (it reminded me of a topic I recently read here). Well, I know that, but I still have the problem of liking very specific features on a guitar lol

Another funny note is that I tried a Jaguar for the first time last weekend, and I hated that I liked the neck's scale a lot(*), so I asked Warmoth to change the Jazzmaster neck for a Jaguar one. I felt so noobie when they replied that it wouldn't be compatible with the Jazzmaster body. Well, I hope Warmoth makes Jazzmaster routing with strat pickup routing on Jaguar bodies someday xD

(*) I didn't quite dig the Jaguar sound, tho. I definitely prefer the strat's. But it looks gorgeous!