Re: 62 Jazzmaster Project

[paescu]

nice... good looking neck. interested to hear how you'll like, i'm really thinking about ordering a neck from them with ebony fingerboard as well...

[wilco]

Lovin that pickguard, seriously thinking of leaving the tort on my white JM now 

[dug]

Look'n good!

[nonemoreblack]

Time to wrap this thing up.

The neck ready for finishing


I misted a couple of coats of clear to seal the wood then just used a standard home depot stain to tint the back.


Here's how it looked after a couple more coats of clear.


Musikraft slab boards run straight across the headstock but I thought I'd try to give it that convex look of an original fender, wasn't too successful as you'll see later.


Headstock painted


Wetsanding


Sanded and polished.  I kind of oversanded at the end of the neck and also at the end of the fretboard.  It didn't look too bad and at this point I just wanted to finish up so I let it be.  It's fake M@J@ anyway!!!


The neck polished.  I used Rustoleum lacquer (acrylic I assume) and it feels great, I'd definitely use it again.


I used the clamp method (which I learned here) for popping in the tuner ferrules and it worked like a charm



Drilling tuner screw holes.  This little piece of tape stopped me from drilling right through the headstock




A decal from FenderBob, these really are amazing quality.  I had also cleaned up the the excess white paint on the sides of the headstock but forgot to take a finished picture.


Pre-slotted Tusq nut shaped and installed


Once upon a time somebody tried to MacGuyver the trem together.  It still works fine but I just hope that I never have to change the collet 


I only had 3 trem screws so I figured I could easily find three more that were similar looking at a hardware store.  But this being the land of the Robertson screw (a great invention by the way  ) I couldn't seem to find any Phillips screws with a convex head that were the right size.  So I found some with a flat top and just spent a couple of minutes with a file.


The new ones don't look too out of place


One final step.....


And this one's in the bag!


From this...


to this....


For a first timer I'm happy with the way things worked out.  There are a few flaws in the finish, but nothing major so I can easily live with it.  I still have to tweak the setup a bit, but this guitar is amazing.  Such a rich sound that I'm actually liking way more than my jags right now.  The Musikraft neck looks and plays great.  I was expecting to maybe have to dress the frets slightly, but so far it seems perfect right out of the box.  I'd definitely buy their necks again in the future.  Thanks to all the people who've posted detailed Jazzmaster builds on this site.  I stole alot of info from y'all since when I started I really had no idea what I was doing.

I'll post a bunch of finished pics since that's what everyone's here for anyway   

[nonemoreblack]

I think I'm officially a Jazzmaster convert now, I'm lovin' this thing.

The goods:























...and the money shot

[mcjt]

congrats, man! a keeper!

[ohm-men]

Very nice! I like it a lot. Good work.

Could you shed some more light on the tinting procces for the neck? What was the stain exeactly? I really like the vintage honey amber colour of it.
+ the fact it looks very, very good. 

[nonemoreblack]

Very nice! I like it a lot. Good work.

Could you shed some more light on the tinting procces for the neck? What was the stain exeactly? I really like the vintage honey amber colour of it.
+ the fact it looks very, very good. 

Thanks.  First I just misted a couple coats of lacquer on the neck to keep the stain from soaking into the wood.  The stain I used was 'Varathane' brand and the colour was honey oak, but it was just a typical hardware store wood stain.  Then I'd just brush it on, let it sit for a few minutes and wipe it off with a rag.  Each time I did this the neck would be tinted a little bit more, I just repeated this until it looked good to me, maybe 10-15 times or so.  Then once the stain was dry I sprayed a few more coats of lacquer.

[powerdroid]

Beautiful! Great work you've done on it. 

[the older brother]

Great work!



The action seem a bit high - try a shim maybe?

[dragonjazz]

Great work!



The action seem a bit high - try a shim maybe?

I have a 63 being restored. Luthier told me the neck rake on the JM was tilted back by Leo to get that jazz guitar effect, hence the shim in the pocket.

[nonemoreblack]

Great work!



The action seem a bit high - try a shim maybe?

Yeah, the action's really high in those pics cause I had just put it all together so I could take some photos before I ran out of daylight.  I did a full setup last night, shimmed the neck and tweaked the trussrod and now it's playing great, do I dare say like buttah?    Definitely a keeper .

[Fiddy]

Awesome work made in Canada. 

[Stratelejazzuar]

Awesome work made in Canada. 

+1

And i have to say SNAP! tort on oly white GAS!!! 

[shikantaza]

Totally freakin' awesome! Looks better than quote "re-issue" models, they got no mojo! Wanna trade?!?!