The korina Jazzuar - DONE !!

[Phaedrus]

So this here is my first build, and the one thing I can say is that it certainly is more work than I thought it'll be
I think the main lesson is- if you want it to be fast- don't look for new ideas on this forum as you go along But than again, if you want the absolute best you can have- do just that.

So here's a little story before the pics come:
All I really wanted in the begining was a jaguar with jazzmaster pickups. Now, being that Warmoth don't offer that, or a pickguard to fit, I've decided I'll go with the Jazzmaster and...improvise.

So, I wanted that jaguar plates look, and after some web search (google "jazzmaster jaguar comparison" or something like that) found schematics overlayed unto another so it seemed the plates will fit.

In the meantime I've spent all the time I could reading into guitar building, hardware, woods, pickups and what not. Here, and on the web, I found more than I could really comprehend, Hence, it took me a couple of monthes to finally decide what exactly am I going for.

The specs:
A warmoth jazzmaster Black Korina core and Indian Rosewood top. Chosen both for looks and for sound (;

And a Pro Construction Bloodwood neck with Goncalo Alves fingerboard, compound radius, black mother of pearl dots inlay and a graphtech black TUSQ XL nut.

These are to be fitted with Antiquity II Jazzmaster pups, a Warmoth modified Mustang bridge (yeah, I heard of the Mastery and decided it wasn't for me. Not for now anyhow) and Gotoh tuners (that have yet to arrive) with a height adjustment and locking mechanism.

Needless to say I was real excited when the parts arrived(=
By that time I have learned of the option to sand my raw neck (which, addmitingly, I got simply because that's how warmoth supllies the bloodwood necks, and I figured it has a good reason for it), and when everything got here I put in some records and got to work all the way to 2000 grit.
Before:

After:

Notich that the headstick was kept at 400 grit (so it still apears matte) as I wanted some reference for the feel.
The only downside for the neck sanding was that the grain became much more appearant. This might be some fault on my side or perhaps simply the wood's charecteristics, but I have no way of telling since this is the first time I'm doing such a thing.
(The camera's flash really enhances its contrast. It isn't as apearant as is, but still, you can see it)

But the feel is great, so I'm happy anyways :glasses9:

Anyhow, the pickguard modification has been the real headache. Upon checking the alignment I realized that the plate, although fitting on the pickguard, doesn't fit on the cavity! meaning- it had nothing to attache to or the where the pots shuuld go there's wood.
I tried all kinds of methods to figure out a way to fix this.

(I did the shielding before that. It came in handy with light reflection, but it got back at me later because I might still need to do some modifications on the body)

Eye, Ze problems iz quite appearant! Ze potz dontz fitz!

I'll save you the boring measurements I then took to see how still I can fit the bastard. It took a dremel, some files and much fine work and "rechecking" to see how it all goes. So far I believe it will turn out well(=

For those with the proper tools, perhaps altering the cavity would be better. I just didn't want to risk the body, and chose to risk the pickguard instead (;

the plan for now is-
1) Get threaded inserts and install them.
2) Get the tuners and install them.
3) fix the plate to the pickguard via some sort of glue (needed because of the modification).
4) Everything else
5) Rock.

Cheers!

P.S - anyone knows of problems I might stumble into when installing the inserts in a pro neck?

 

[stratamania]

Ah now I see what you were trying to figure out with a layout of the cavities.

Threaded inserts. Get some hardwood scrap and practice on that.

If you don't have a drill press, it's not a good idea to use them as the holes must be accurate. You then need to tap the wood and make sure the inserts go in straight. If they aren't straight the neck will not sit right.

There are a couple of thread with photos etc. of the process.

 

[Phaedrus]

Yup (= I am still considering adding the bottum plate as well. Haven't really made up my mind on that.

Indeed! Say, I know I should lubricate them, but what with? Wax? Vaseline? Soap?

I do have a drill press, so hopefully everything will be alright(=

 

[Cagey]

If you use threaded inserts, you don't need lubrication. If you use wood screws, beeswax is the best lubricant. You can get it in small quantities at craft shops such as Hobby Lobby or Michael's, or you can buy tubes of it such as this, although if you don't have any other use for it that's probably about a million year supply for a guitar builder.

What will get you by is just some paraffin, which you can get at most grocery stores in the canning supplies section real cheap, or if you have any Crayons or candles around the house, those will work, too.

In any event, what you want is wax, not grease or oil or anything like that.

 

[stratamania]

What he said  ^

Apart from the threaded inserts for other screws where lubrication is a must, I have had good luck with Behlens Slideez, probably enough for fifty guitars.

 

[Phaedrus]

Great(=

I can't recall where, but I was quite sure someone recommended that when installing the inserts themselves you should use wax. Then again, I might be wrong.

 

[Cagey]

If you're installing self-tapping inserts without threading the hole, then yeah. Better lubricate or you'll just wreck insert after insert trying to get them in. Neck wood is hard.

I highly recommend tapping the hole, though. Otherwise, there is a risk of blistering or splitting the wood. I've never split a neck yet, but it always felt like I was going to.

 

[Phaedrus]

So after some setbacks, I got back to work!

Now that I have room for the plate on the pickguard, which was done with a dremel, some files, sanding paper and a lot of patience P) I had to find a way to piece it together.

My father and I figured either RTV or an MS polymer would suffice. We went with Black RTV in the end thinking that worse case scenario it would be easier to remove.

The RTV was applied while the pickguard was on wax paper, so it would be easier to remove once dry. That was left so for a week since I was out of home, but I believe 24 hours are more than enough haha..

Next I had to drill the holes for the potentiometers and jack since originally I thought of replacing that part with a plate too. I am very happy with the results. At first I was quite fearful with all this dremeling and filing of the pickguard, having never done something similar before, but it ended up well. I am really glad I chose to just go for it haha..
Here's the assembly:

(The attachment doesn't work. Here's the link: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=dh8j6h&s=8#.U8khuvl_v4U )

And the back after glue spray and aluminum foil:

Lastly- I had to shield the cavity. The brass foil wasn't enough to cover it all so it was either buying more or giving it up and using shielding paint. Having had some hard time with the foil, and the only local shop that could sell it said it will take 15 days to order I decided to look for paint. Found someone real near me who sold small bottles of it for a good price.
The painting went smooth (did it with a small paintbrush), and considering all the curves in the JM cavity - I was really glad I didn't go with the foil.

After painting:

Now there are two questions:
1)Usually you take a strip of copper in order to connect the shielding to the bridge/tremolo. should I simply paint a route?
2) You sometimes see the shielding in the cavity applied also to the top of the guitar, only on the edges of the cavity, to connect with the shielding on the pickguard. Should I do the same with the paint? Sounds reasonable, But wanted to make sure.

Thanks!

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

That's actually pretty dang cool lookin'!

 

[Phaedrus]

Thanks man!

 

[Cagey]

2) You sometimes see the shielding in the cavity applied also to the top of the guitar, only on the edges of the cavity, to connect with the shielding on the pickguard. Should I do the same with the paint? Sounds reasonable, But wanted to make sure.

Ahhh... where to start...

How about this: just run a wire from the control cavity to the vibrato cavity. Connect the wire in the control cavity to ground, and in the vibrato cavity to any metal part. That'll ground your strings, which is the object of the exercise. Trying to reduce hum with conductive paint or copper foil is an exercise in futility. You have single coil pickups. They're essentially 1/2 mile long antenna. It's gonna hum like an overloaded substation no matter what you do.

What you're going to want to do is invest in a good noise gate. If you're a pedal sort of guy, I'd look at Rocktron's Hush, but there are others out there.

 

[stratamania]

Given that it is now almost shielded in addition to grounding the vibrato, use some copper tape between the cavity onto the body so that it will form a continuous ground with the pick guard when fitted.

The simplest way to ground the strings is a wire from the control cavity to the tremolo cavity, that doesn't matter if it is shielded as there are no pickups in there.

The other thing to be aware of with grounded shielding is to insulate with tape or some none conductive material areas where there may be a possibility of a hot wire making contact with the shielding to avoid a short in the circuit.

My personal view on shielding is it can help and it isn't going to make things worse provided its grounded. But it will only help reduce certain types of noise.

Shielding is intended to reduce RF interference. It won't do anything to help get rid of excess gain in signal chains or ground loop noise between effects and amps etc.  You need other solutions for that such as noise gates, or hum eliminators.

 

[Cagey]

Shielding is intended to reduce RF interference.

Actually, RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) isn't a problem. The frequency is much too high to be heard. What you hear is EMI (Electro-Motive Interference), which is arguably the same thing, but at a much lower frequency that often falls within the range of human hearing. Power lines and devices that use them are the usual culprits for making guitars noisy. Motors, wall warts, transformers, neon signs, florescent lamps, etc.

 

[stratamania]

Don't you mean Electro Magnetic Interference.

In any case I first shielded a guitar that was picking up interference from a Taxi AM radio place a mile or so from where I lived. Shielding did reduce and almost eliminated it.

Cagey, I know you aren't a fan of shielding but done right it can make a difference. It won't get rid of hum but can get rid of buzz caused by RFI. Perhaps the RFI itself you can't hear but buzzes caused by it can be heard.

 

[Cagey]

Don't you mean Electro Magnetic Interference.

In any case I first shielded a guitar that was picking up interference from a Taxi AM radio place a mile or so from where I lived. Shielding did reduce and almost eliminated it.

Cagey, I know you aren't a fan of shielding but done right it can make a difference. It won't get rid of hum but can get rid of buzz caused by RFI. Perhaps the RFI itself you can't hear but buzzes caused by it can be heard.

Yeah, probably. Depends on how old you are <grin> Some of us call it electro-motive due to its source. Large inductors such as contactors and motors will produce massive spikes which are usually feared more for their inductive effects on adjacent circuits than they are for their audible noise influence, although it's arguably the same thing. It's a matter of degree.

It's not that I'm not a fan of shielding against it, because it can be effective. Where I fall out of the mainstream is in methodology. It's much more effective to use shielded cable or wire than it is to shield the various cavities. Also, in the case of single coil pickups, there's nothing you can do. As I mentioned earlier, you've essentially got a half-mile long antenna sticking out of the pickguard/body, and you can't shield that because it won't work if you do.

Noiseless pickups work due to an effect called CMNR (Common Mode Noise Rejection). Basically, what it does is by putting two coils our of phase with reverse polarity magnets, any outside influence gets cancelled while what the coils produce gets through. But, even with those, if you don't use shielded cable the connecting wires will pick up noise. That's why you see old humbuckers with braided wire coming off them. The pickup won't transmit noise, but the wires would pick it up if they weren't shielded. On modern pickups where they bring out all 4 wires, they usually use foil shielded wire. You also need to use such lines going out to the output jack. Do all that, and you'll be as noiseless as you can be and you don't need to be lining the cavities with copper foil or conductive paint.

 

[stratamania]

Cagey, now i see where you are coming from. Yes there are all sorts of possible factors. I think we need a noise reduction thread unless there is one already.

I am a big fan of noiseless pickups. 

 

[Cagey]

The subject has come up numerous times, but usually in relation to something else, so there's lotsa information on the board about it but it's not easy to find. Perhaps a thread dedicated to it would be a Good Thing.

I'm a big fan of noiseless pickups, too. Early on, they were somewhat of a compromise but in recent years the manufacturers seem to have done their homework and are turning out some really nice parts. I'm especially enamoured with Bill Lawrence's work, and GFS' "True Coils". I've used DiMarzio and Duncan's parts, as well as some Lollars and Bareknuckles, but haven't heard the money in them. I suspect the winders get $5 and the marketing weenies get $85 on every sale of those "boutique" parts.

 

[Phaedrus]

Alright, after some set backs, the jazzuar is nearing complete!

The next step was the wiring.
My idea was to have a normal jazzmaster wiring, and fit in a 4 way switch so I can have the parallel/series option which I heard on the Johnny Marr Jag and really liked.
Thing is, that ain't that simple. The Johnny Marr Jag has no "rhythm circuit" like the Jazzmaster- so the wiring was quite different. I tried to "mash" the telecaster wiring into the Jazzmaster wiring with the 4 way in place of the 3-way. That led me down a path of figuring out how the hell a 4 way works (schematically) but upon putting it down to paper it appeared the two circuits interconnect where they shouldn't at which point I almost gave up and started looking for more parts that will somehow make it work.
I then found this:

My working table ( I looked like a madman at 2 AM writing circuits like that):

After some moving around of things (It was really important to me that the positions will be Nack-P-S-Bridge and not Neck-P-Bridge-S...don't ask..):

In the meantime I painted the inside with the conductive paint, which turned out to be not conductive at all (3 Kilo-ohms!!).  fudge it, I go on. If noise turns up- I'll do what needs to be done.

The wiring went smooth (Sorry, no photos /= ). I have the ground running to the tremolo. I gave it enough length so it wouldn't be much a problem to handle if needed to be taken out for some reason. I found some great foam for the pickups and I put some in the bridge cavity as well (on top of the wire so it won't move around).

The final thing (!):

The top circuit has no buzz at all! Which is grand. The lower circuit has some noticeable buzz (on all positions including the Parallel and Series). I'm going to check on that later..It's probably nothing big since the top is fine. Maybe a cap not soldered properly.

Those are Antiquity II by the way.

As for the knobs- I didn't see that warmoth's 1 megs are for roller knobs only (top circuit). So the knob doesn't fit. It sucks, and I really wish it was mentioned on the site because it is really easy to not notice it (especially with it being the only 1meg they have and that Jams have 1megs on both circuits..), but what can you do? I'll have to sort something out..

So far- so good! Now, to the neck, which will hopefully be done on the next weekend!

Cheers,

Phaedrus

 

[DangerousR6]

A bit late to the party, but that is absolutely stunning.... :headbang1:

 

[Phaedrus]

Thanks man!