Building a Jazz from scratch!!

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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mewithoutus
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Building a Jazz from scratch!!

Post by mewithoutus » Wed Jan 31, 2007 4:59 am

ok, so i decided to go ahead with my jazzmaster project!

im startuing from scratch meaning that right this moment, i have NO parts.

ok, so, start with the body.

warmoth has good prices on jaz bodies. what type of wood should i use? alder? ash? basswood? no clue.

as soon as i get the body issue sorted out, ill start on everything else!
=--->christopher

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luau
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Re: Building a Jazz from scratch!!

Post by luau » Wed Jan 31, 2007 6:14 am

This set of descriptions would be a good place to start.

As I see it, you've got four main things to consider: weight, tonal characteristics, desired finish, and price. Finding a happy balance of those things is something only you can do.   
Bigger in sum than parts.

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StevenO
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Re: Building a Jazz from scratch!!

Post by StevenO » Wed Jan 31, 2007 12:52 pm

Remember, you have to route the body a bit.

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i love sharin foo
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Re: Building a Jazz from scratch!!

Post by i love sharin foo » Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:16 pm

StevenO wrote: Remember, you have to route the body a bit.
I built my Jazzblaster up using a mid '90s MIJ body and I haven't done any routing at all to get everything in there. The Widerange humbuckers mount pretty shallow, so I was able to shim the neck enough to get the clearance I needed.

Justin
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Jay
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Re: Building a Jazz from scratch!!

Post by Jay » Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:21 pm

i love sharin foo wrote:
StevenO wrote: Remember, you have to route the body a bit.
I built my Jazzblaster up using a mid '90s MIJ body and I haven't done any routing at all to get everything in there. The Widerange humbuckers mount pretty shallow, so I was able to shim the neck enough to get the clearance I needed.

Justin
I still don't know how this worked for you.  Mine wide rangers need at least another 3/8th of an inch even with the neck shimmed way up.  I guess my neck is more shallow somehow but I've got my bridge pretty high up too I think.

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Re: Building a Jazz from scratch!!

Post by i love sharin foo » Wed Jan 31, 2007 1:25 pm

Jay wrote: I still don't know how this worked for you.  Mine wide rangers need at least another 3/8th of an inch even with the neck shimmed way up.  I guess my neck is more shallow somehow but I've got my bridge pretty high up too I think.
I only used a small shim on mine too. I am using a later '60s bridge base, so the legs are a bit longer because of Jaguar mutes. But that shouldn't make much difference because I still didn't have to shim much at all. I did clip the height screws for the pickups in order to fit them in there, which made it possible to NOT have to route for them to fit. I cut them to the exact maximum length that I could fit in there. So even when lowered as far as they go, you still wouldn't have enough clearance with a mildly shimmed neck?


Justin
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Re: Building a Jazz from scratch!!

Post by Jay » Wed Jan 31, 2007 2:18 pm

I've got it set up right now with no pickguard and just a JM neck pickup and I can't even fit the wide range underneath the strings without any screws or anything installed. I've got a three stack of business cards shimming the neck up to get some extra clearance but I wouldn't feel comfortable shimming any more then that. My bridge is a vintage Mustang with long posts and is down almost as far as it can go but still is reasonably high above the body.

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Re: Building a Jazz from scratch!!

Post by i love sharin foo » Wed Jan 31, 2007 3:17 pm

Jesus. I wonder what the big difference is between what we're using. You said you are using a AVRI body with yours now, aren't you? I didn't think there was much of a difference in the depths of the neck pockets on those versus MIJ, but mayber there is. Or maybe it is a combo of a sligtly shallower pocker and a thinner heel. Also, it is possible that the stock pickup routes are different depths. Are you using the shielding or foam in the pickup routes? I'm not.. I just have the stock shielding paint. Did Neale or anyone else ever mention having to do any mods to get it al ltogether? I can't remember.

Justin
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Re: Building a Jazz from scratch!!

Post by Jay » Wed Jan 31, 2007 8:20 pm

No shielding at all and I originally had a CIJ body that was routed to the same depth so far as I could tell.  The neck pocket could feasibly have been shallower but when I kinda held the parts together it was pretty obvious that the pickups were going to be too high still.  I'll take some pics of it.

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Re: Building a Jazz from scratch!!

Post by mewithoutus » Fri Feb 02, 2007 6:16 am

where can i get sheilding paint?
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Re: Building a Jazz from scratch!!

Post by mynameisjonas » Fri Feb 02, 2007 6:22 am

i love sharin foo wrote: Jesus. I wonder what the big difference is between what we're using. You said you are using a AVRI body with yours now, aren't you? I didn't think there was much of a difference in the depths of the neck pockets on those versus MIJ, but mayber there is. Or maybe it is a combo of a sligtly shallower pocker and a thinner heel. Also, it is possible that the stock pickup routes are different depths. Are you using the shielding or foam in the pickup routes? I'm not.. I just have the stock shielding paint. Did Neale or anyone else ever mention having to do any mods to get it al ltogether? I can't remember.

Justin
it could be that the japanese pickup routes are deeper because they have taller pickups, remember that stock MIJ/CIJ pickups are almost twice as tall as "real" ones.


edit: ooops, didn´t notice that jay used a CIJ body. maybe the MIJs are routed deeper than the CIJs..? or it is the neck pockets that are different, as jay said.
Last edited by mynameisjonas on Fri Feb 02, 2007 6:25 am, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Building a Jazz from scratch!!

Post by i love sharin foo » Fri Feb 02, 2007 7:04 am

mewithoutus wrote: where can i get sheilding paint?
StewMac.com has it. It is kind of expensive though, but a little should go a long way.

justin
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Re: Building a Jazz from scratch!!

Post by mcjt » Mon Feb 05, 2007 11:33 am

hey!
good luck with this project.
i built my JM from the ground up, starting with a no-name aftermarket neck and a 1960 body. SD vintage and then mostly RI parts.
it worked great....
i would go warmoth. i think you'll perhaps have to adjust the body a bit (to accomodate RI parts, guards, etc), but i have several bodies and necks from warmoth. They're AWESOME.
get a warmoth pro neck with brazilian board and nail the original tone.... if you write ken and ask, he'll make you one without the gotoh side adjuster...
write me and ask if you have any questions.....
todd
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Re: Building a Jazz from scratch!!

Post by JazzBlaster » Mon Feb 05, 2007 4:35 pm

my main jazz is made of alot of diffent parts I been thinking about building my own to. Seems like the way to go you can choose the color and electronics and not have to pay $1400 all at once.
It's not about the gear! It's about you, your hands, your imagination, your feelings.

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Re: Building a Jazz from scratch!!

Post by mewithoutus » Tue Feb 06, 2007 5:03 am

ok so ive decided on a few things so far...

not sure on the bdy yet but ive had a few recommendations im checking out.

the pickups will be seymour duncan hot for the bridge, vintage for the neck.

the neck will be a CIJ from ebay.

the electronics will  be reissue.

the tremolo will be a reissue floating with a mustang bridge.

the finish will be a relic'd black.

the pickguard will be tortoise shell, of course.

its gonna be cheap as i can make it, but solid, awesome sounding, and badass looking. im so excited!!
=--->christopher

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