Starting my Jazzblaster project

[i love sharin foo]

Here is my rationale:

I use my Jazzmasters (and Jaguar) about 90% of the time. Since I bought my first, I've never felt more at ease with anything else. But honestly, I can't justify having more than 3 stock Jazzmasters. Sure there are slight differences in sound and feel, but on a recording or blindfolded, most couldn't tell the difference. So..  I want another, but I need it to be something way different... like humbuckers  Not quite an original concept  **cough** Lee Ranaldo **cough**, but a great sound none the less.

I'm not sure how I want to go about it though. Right now I am leaning towards starting with a stock Japanese JM. The other route is Warmoth or similar. I like the idea of starting from scratch and doing some of the routing and all of the finishing and fitting, but I am not sure I will get it exactly the way I want. I am really picky about neck and Warmoth doesn't have the balance I want (mainly 7.25 radius with an old style truss rod at the heel, 21 frets, and the correct headstock). I could go with the CBS headstock, which would look cool, but not having binding and blocks would play tricks with my head. I'm going to make the pickguard myself, probably out of a thin piece of black plexiglass. I may make it from aluminum stock, but the plexi should be easier to work with (from my past experiences at least). I am going for super simple wiring with only the 3 way toggle and a tone pot. I am pretty excited about this! I would LOVE to get ahold of a really beat MIJ or CIJ body to start with, but I'll probably have to resort to buying a complete one.

Justin

[mezcalhead]

CIJ neck and a Warmoth or USACG body, would that work?

I think Warmoth, last time I looked, would rout for whatever pickups you wanted.

[mynameisjonas]

i also have plans of putting together a jazzblaster, although i can´t really see it happening within at least a year.
i´ve basically decided to go for allparts neck and body. the neck will be an LRO ( 7.25" radius, 21 frets, heel trussrod adjustment, CBS headstock) which i will reshape. i´m also going to keep it simple, but i´ll have a volume pot instead of the tone.


hopefully, this will be the result:

[zhivago]

are you guys gonna go for real 70s wide range pups?

[i love sharin foo]

CIJ neck and a Warmoth or USACG body, would that work?

I think Warmoth, last time I looked, would rout for whatever pickups you wanted.

Yeah, the CIJ neck should fit the other bodies just fine. It is always hard to find just a stock neck though    You are right about the routing, Warmoth can do any configuration that you want. I'm not worried about starting with a Japanese body and doing it myself though. I have all the tools I need and I don't think it will take an extensive amount of wood removal to fit them in there.

are you guys gonna go for real 70s wide range pups?

I have a set of reissue wide range HBs that I just bought for now. Eventually though, I'd like to try to find a set of originals or at least one for the neck position. I don't have much free money right now so I have to keep it as cheap as possible (I just ordered a new car which should be delivered within the next few weeks, so I have NO money  ).

Justin

[i love sharin foo]

i also have plans of putting together a jazzblaster, although i can´t really see it happening within at least a year.
i´ve basically decided to go for allparts neck and body. the neck will be an LRO ( 7.25" radius, 21 frets, heel trussrod adjustment, CBS headstock) which i will reshape. i´m also going to keep it simple, but i´ll have a volume pot instead of the tone.

It looks great Jonas! I almost never use a volume knob, but I do use tone a lot. I have a volume pedal after my gain boxes, so I use that whenever I need to. I haven't looked into Allparts yet, but I'll have to check them out. I knew there were more places whose names escaped me and that is definitely one of the main ones.

Do you have any idea where you can get pickup mounting rings for the wide range humbuckers? Lee had them on this Jazzmaster below:
UPDATE with post Jazzblaster build knowledge... those are Starcaster mounting rings for those interested...


For some odd reason, I like the way the stock pickguard lookes with the holes from the second pot and the rhythm circuit. If all else fails, I may just make a set from the ground up and then decide if I want to use them or else build a new pickguard.

Justin

[fullerplast]

Cool ideas, nice pics (both of them).

FWIW - The quality of Allparts necks has really gotten good. I bought a maple neck for my '54 $trat project. It's MIJ, real nitro, correct in detail, and superb in quality. I wouldn't be surprised if they actually come from Fuji Gen Gakki where the FenJap necks are made.

[i love sharin foo]

Your list looks complete to me  The only other thing I can think of is the mounting cups for the bridge.
Are you planning on having somewhere cut the pickguard for the WR hbs? I am kind of torn right now between having the cleaner look of a specific pickguard for them, and using a stock one with extra holes  :-\  I think both ways look cool in their own ways.

Jonas:
I saw the Allparts neck you like on their site. It doesn't mention a bullet truss rod in their description, but it has one in the photo... If it does indeed have the old style heel rod, I think it may be one of the better necks available for a close JM copy (after reshaping the headstock). Their JM bodies look really nice too. I would prefer their's over Warmoth I think because Warmoth has seemed to slightly tweak some of the routes and things like that. We'll see.... I have time to decide.

Justin

[mezcalhead]

Justin, I don't see tuners in your list .. also, don't forget screws for the neck plate and trem block (that's held me up for a couple of weeks before)!

Should the 1M pots be one audio, one linear taper?

Also, you might consider the treble bleed mod since you'll be wiring anyway and you'll only need one more cap and a resistor .. I have it in my '61 and I like it, it just preserves some of the treble frequencies. Here's a link to Project Guitar where they discuss using it with humbuckers:

http://www.projectguitar.com/tut/potm.htm

[i love sharin foo]

Also, you might consider the treble bleed mod since you'll be wiring anyway and you'll only need one more cap and a resistor .. I have it in my '61 and I like it, it just preserves some of the treble frequencies.

I wired up  my '94 MIJ Jaguar with that. It really helped a bunch. I generally don't use the volume control much though, but it is nice to have the option.

Justin

[i love sharin foo]

I have a few ideas for diffferent aspects of the Jazzblaster. Allparts makes the '65 BOUND $trat neck. I can't tell how big the headstock is though. Everywhere that sells them has the same stock photo from a crappy angle. Being '65, I expect it to be standard (not big) size though. Either way, Binding and dots would be cool    The shape shouldn't matter THAT much. The Allparts site has the price at $195 for that neck, while another site (Relicmasters.com) has the same one for $140! Also, I emailed Allparts about the trussrods on the one CBS headstocked one that does NOT mention having a bullet rod in its description. I haven't heard back from them yet.

Also, Allparts lists the price on an unfinished body at $230. The other site carries them, but you have to email for a price. I'm expecting it to be $200 or a little less, though I haven't heard back yet.

I have been looking at the finishes on Reranch's site also. I can't decide what would be cooler, Sonic Blue with a mint guard, or white with a black one. Then I don't know if I want to do a matching headstock or not.

Justin

EDIT    Relicmasters got back to me. $195 + S&H for an unfinished alder body with traditional routes.

[mezcalhead]

Man, that's as cheap as chips ..

My current crazy idea is a CIJ JM neck on a USACG body routed for Strat pups .. but with lipsticks, and ideally a gold guard (on black). The inspiration is from a couple of discontinued guitars: the Charvel Surfcaster and the Reverend Spy.

Where I'm going to get a custom-shaped gold guard is anyone's guess, but a man can dream can't he .. ?

[daydreamdelay]

Justin.. USACG can rout the body for WR's and the alder body is only $160... not sure how much more with the custom routing but I can't imagine it'd be considerably more. definitely worth checking into though

[i love sharin foo]

So the $160 is for alder with the stock routes? I would like to get one with the stock routes and then only take away wood where I need to. It would look more "correct" to me that way    I don't think it will take much because the WRs don't mount quite the same as most normal HBs. I just can't figure out what to do about the neck . I really want to end up with a stock JM headstock. I still haven't heard back from Allparts about whether or not the one CBS model has a bullet truss rod or not. So far, I think it is the best bet that I've found. Do you know if USACG will do the correct headstock? Or at least a larger CBS one with a trussrod at the heel?

Justin.

[i love sharin foo]

Ok, for the ten millionth update, I am pretty sure I could get the enck I want from USACG. I'm not sure if they have template (or more accurately, probably a program) for the correct JM headstock, but... They CAN do the 21 frets, HEEL truss rod adjustment, and 7.25" radius. They have a pseudo CBS shape, so I COULD get that and whittle it down as needed to get closer to a proper shape.

I did email about it and I also asked about having a body with WR routes superimposed over the stock ones. I'll let you know when I hear back.

Justin