Finished my first build... something a little different

[dbishopbliss]

Details:

• Warmoth conversion neck (24.75" scale) that I stole from another guitar I purchased.

• Wildwood Jazzmaster body, custom Cabronita-style routes with rear control route.

• MJT relic finish on the body and neck. Sonic blue, aged with glass checking.

• TV Jones Classic Neck and Classic+ Bridge Pickup, nickle finish.

• Kluson Revolution Tuners, aged by Real Life Relics.

• 1959 Harmony screws used to mount the tuners (I had them laying around).

• Fender Hardtail Bridge, aged by Real Life Relics.

• Highwood Saddles, aged finish (actually they are too small, might have to replace them).

• Dome knob, aged finish from Stew Mac.

• Gretsch strap buttons.

• CTS 500K Push Pull volume pot wired for Cabronita Especial circuit (pull to engage tone capacitors)

• Panasonic polyester tone caps 2x33pF in parallel, 10pF and 33pF in parallel.

• Switchcraft 3-way switch.

• Custom pickguard designed and cut by me using WD Pickguards, aged pearl material.

[dbishopbliss]

[HNB]

I like the pickguard. Very retro futuristic.

[Embenny]

Fantastic job, great specs, and awesome execution of the pickguard! It's like a larger Kauer Arcturus pickguard, but I like the shape even more.

You certainly set the bar high with your first build.

[HarlowTheFish]

That looks super sweet.

100% not my kind of thing but also 100% the kind of thing that makes me reconsider that statement

[mackerelmint]

Oh, wow, that's great. Props for the pickguard, and also the color scheme. The matching headstock might look a bit much with a regular JM/Strat headstock, but with the tele style it's not too much color for the maple fingerboard to carry. The shape of the guard makes the pearloid material work. Pearloid guards and matching headstocks aren't things I usually like, but you really pulled it off.

[jvin248]

.

Looks nice!

Then the pickguard reminded me of a build from another thread...


https://www.tdpri.com/threads/yeah-anot ... 2.1049781/

.

[antisymmetric]

I like the visuals, can you explain a bit more about how you've got those tone caps configured?

[dbishopbliss]

Thanks for all the feedback. With regard to the pickguard, I had something completely drawn up, but when I got the actual guitar in hand and cut out a paper mockup I didn't like it so I started over. I realized there is a reason the traditional Jazzmaster's had their controls on an angle. My attempts at having a pickguard extend down around the tele-style controls were not very successful. Everything looked off. On a whim I thought I would try something that looked more "mid century modern" and it worked.

I had never seen the Kauer Arcturus before I just googled it. And, I never saw that particular First Act guitar before either - although I will admit that I actually kind of like a lot of First Act designs because they are funky and original.

With regard to the tone caps... I followed the directions found at the Axecaster found here: https://axecaster.co.uk/blog/?p=503. The big difference is I used a CTS Push Pull pot which has a little circuit board instead of the solder lugs. Took me a little bit to figure out which pad corresponded to which lug.

In short, with the pot down there are no caps in the circuit. Just pickups going straight through to the amp. When you pull the pot out then the Bridge has two 0.0033uF (33pF) caps in parallel. The Neck pickup has one 0.001uF (10pF) and one 0.0033uF cap in parallel. This seems to be more of a mid-boost than a treble roll off like a typical tone circuit with a cap and a pot. Not sure why, I just followed the circuit. Maybe because it is just a cap??? But when playing with some gain and then you pull the pot it seems to cut through a little more.

It was a very tight fit in the control cavity. I wired different than the axecaster post recommended. Let me know if you are interested and I will post pictures and a drawing of how I wired things. Personally, I think it worked really well and was much easier to solder than what was suggested.