'59-ish Firemist Gold Jazzmaster project

Bringing your older offset back to life.
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k o y l
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Re: '59-ish Firemist Gold Jazzmaster project

Post by k o y l » Sat Dec 08, 2007 9:08 am

stereordinary wrote:
Dane_Brammage wrote:...I'll buy new parts for now and try to replace them with vintage parts as I find them.  (That way I'll eventually end up with two guitars without my wife noticing!)
You're my hero.
mmm.. It seems we all use the same "techniques"...  ;D

Nice project btw ! Good luck !

Here is your new avatar:

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;)
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Re: '59-ish Firemist Gold Jazzmaster project

Post by Dane_Brammage » Mon Dec 10, 2007 10:04 am

k o y l wrote: Here is your new avatar:

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Ha!  I'll take it!

Thanks to everybody who posted pictures.  After seeing all the options in real life, I think I'll go for the gold.  RumorsOfSurf, if you're reading this, where did you get your gold guard?

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Re: '59-ish Firemist Gold Jazzmaster project

Post by Dane_Brammage » Mon Dec 10, 2007 6:52 pm

Never mind!  I found the thread index.php?topic=6966.0, and I agree that is the best of the reproduction gold guards, so it's off to Allparts for me.

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Re: '59-ish Firemist Gold Jazzmaster project

Post by Dane_Brammage » Sun Dec 23, 2007 1:36 pm

Hello again everybody.  I received some of the parts I ordered and started putting things together. 

Two things cropped up immediately:
1.  The bridge thimbles are pretty loose in the body holes.  Are they supposed to be?  I'm guessing not.  Suppose I'll have to plug the holes and re-drill.  Or I might just wrap the thimbles with teflon tape for now.
2.  I have the vintage-style shielding tub and plates, but I'm not sure how to attach them to the body.  The devil sitting on my shoulder says, "Staple them on!" but that seems a bit crude.  I remember seeing a thread here where somebody installed these, but now I can't remember which one it was.

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Re: '59-ish Firemist Gold Jazzmaster project

Post by mezcalhead » Sun Dec 23, 2007 11:51 pm

They're attached using glazier points, I think the restoration you're thinking of is probably Doug's "Buildup of a 1963 Fender Jaguar" which used to be a separate web page but is now hosted here (I've linked you to the thread about it since there are some interesting comments).
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Re: '59-ish Firemist Gold Jazzmaster project

Post by glimmertwin » Mon Dec 24, 2007 10:02 am

All Parts sells gold guards that are pretty accurate now.  The old All Parts guards I don't think were, but the newer batch is suppose to be close minus being a tad thinner and not lacquered...actually I'm not sure if they are brushed the same way either. 
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Re: '59-ish Firemist Gold Jazzmaster project

Post by Dane_Brammage » Wed Dec 26, 2007 4:30 pm

Mezcalhead, thanks for the link to the '63 Jag thread.  I hadn't seen that before, but it was very cool.  The one I was thinking of wasn't with a Jaguar, it was a Jazzmaster with the tub in the main cavity.  Glazier's points make sense for the flat plates, but are they used on the tub, too?  ???

Glimmertwin, we'll soon see what the Allparts guard looks like.  That's the one I ordered.  If the post office is open tomorrow, I'll pick it up.

Let me take this opportunity to thank GuitarPartsResource for 1. not answering my e-mail, 2. taking three days to get around to shipping my order, 3. sending me two 1 M Ohm roller pots instead of one 1 M Ohm and one 50 k Ohm pot like I ordered, and 4. selling me a control bracket with holes too small to fit their own pots.  Impressive!

I picked up a pre-CBS bridge on ebay.  Here it is disassembled for cleaning.  Hope that mangled low "E" spring doesn't cause any trouble.  Looks like it came out of a pre-CBS Bic pen.  Plenty of crud mojo in there!
ImageImage

Looks better now.  Complete with rust spots to show where the saddles go.
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A close-up of one the bridge holes.  I think the original thimbles must have been rocked out rather than pulled straight out.
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New pickups from Mr. Novak.
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Re: '59-ish Firemist Gold Jazzmaster project

Post by the older brother » Wed Dec 26, 2007 5:15 pm

The tub is just held in place by the pickguard (where would it go? ).
Someone knows where I can find the nearest woodchipper to throw my pieces of junk into?

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Re: '59-ish Firemist Gold Jazzmaster project

Post by the older brother » Wed Dec 26, 2007 5:17 pm

Looks like it came out of a pre-CBS Bic pen
;D

indeed
Someone knows where I can find the nearest woodchipper to throw my pieces of junk into?

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Re: '59-ish Firemist Gold Jazzmaster project

Post by Dane_Brammage » Wed Dec 26, 2007 7:22 pm

the older brother wrote: The tub is just held in place by the pickguard (where would it go? ).
Excellent.  Mr. Fender, thank you for being such a lazy (and smart) man.

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Re: '59-ish Firemist Gold Jazzmaster project

Post by Dane_Brammage » Fri Dec 28, 2007 8:10 pm

I got my gold guard from Allparts today and I have to say it's pretty cheezy.  The colour looks not bad, but the thickness is only .062" / 1.5mm.  It is so thin, the countersunk heads of the screws pass entirely through the guard and bottom out on the wood of the body and on the metal of the rhythm circuit slider switch. 

I am tempted to buy the aluminum shield that's supposed to go under a plastic pickguard and stick it in there as a spacer...  :-\

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Re: '59-ish Firemist Gold Jazzmaster project

Post by mcjt » Sat Dec 29, 2007 8:47 am

indeed, i got my guard from GPR, and it is a bit thin too (1,5mm)
It LOOKS good, the colour is correct, but i don't think it is as thick as an original. can someone verify the thickness of an original? David (Soiouz) and i had a beer recently together and thought that the GPR -allparts guard is probably thinner than the 58-59.

nevertheless, it is not a 100 GBP Scot guard or a super thin ishibashi- AND it will look great on your Firemist!
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Re: '59-ish Firemist Gold Jazzmaster project

Post by Dane_Brammage » Sun Dec 30, 2007 8:06 pm

I'm still fiddling with the pickguard.  It's as if the pickguard and body have the same hole pattern, but it's been scaled differently.  When I line up one hole in the middle, the holes to the right all all too far to the right, the holes to the left are too far to the left, and the holes at the bottom are too far down. 
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I wonder if the holes in the body were plugged and re-drilled before the refinish, maybe to accommodate a shrunken celluloid guard.

The shape around the neck pocket is a little wonky, but nothing a little filing/sanding can't fix.  You can see my pencil mark around the treble side corner where a bit needs to be removed.
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Hopefully when that's done, it will allow the guard to move far enough toward the neck to cover the bridge pickup cavity.
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Starting to look like a guitar!  It's amazing how much the colours shift depending on the light.  The pictures up top were taken under incandescent light, no flash.  The one below was taken under mixed fluorescent and halogen light, with flash.
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Re: '59-ish Firemist Gold Jazzmaster project

Post by the older brother » Mon Dec 31, 2007 12:41 am

That guitar will be amazing!  :?
Someone knows where I can find the nearest woodchipper to throw my pieces of junk into?

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Re: '59-ish Firemist Gold Jazzmaster project

Post by northern_dirt » Mon Dec 31, 2007 1:58 am

the older brother wrote: That guitar will be amazing!  :?
Agreed..
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