Telecaster pickguard with jazzmaster route

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kevinpmajka
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Telecaster pickguard with jazzmaster route

Post by kevinpmajka » Fri Oct 02, 2020 4:03 pm

Hi All,
I know this is blasphemous, but I don't love my Jazzmaster body shape. I'm interested in putting some great pickups in a tele body with Jazzmaster pickups. I got the Creamery Dominos for my American Origial 60's Jazzmaster with a mastery bridge, and it just doesn't get played as much as my tele or tele-strat. It's the shape and the trem. It sounds great, and while I know the trem is a big part of the sound, I think those pickups are really good.

Does anyone have a source that can do a telecaster pickguard with a jazzmaster routes.

I'd like to send it along to MJT so they can make the body with the route in the right spot....

Thank you in advance if you know of anyone that has this as a stock choice.

I don't dig the material for tortoise shell that Pickguardian or WDmusic use.

I just love the tele shape. I got the jazzmaster when this was being put together.

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Last edited by kevinpmajka on Fri Oct 02, 2020 10:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Embenny
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Re: Telecaster pickguard with jazzmaster route

Post by Embenny » Fri Oct 02, 2020 4:22 pm

Well, Curtis Novak makes the JMX-tele, which is a Jazzmaster pickup made to sit in a normal Tele neck rout, with a super shallow bobbin and cover on top.

I know that Pickguardian can make pickguards to go around it, but it allegedly fits in some Teles even with stock guards.

I'm also interested in hearing more about your Dominos, those look like really great pickups. How do they sound compared to your more traditional Fenders?
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

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kevinpmajka
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Re: Telecaster pickguard with jazzmaster route

Post by kevinpmajka » Fri Oct 02, 2020 5:29 pm

Yeah - the Dominos clean and punchy compared to my AVRI 65 pickups.

I thought the 65s sounded like Big Tele pickups - the dominos don't match that description. They are noiseless which was a goal and they sound great. Honestly, I don't wide range pickups enough to know if they are wide range sounding. (Those are on the list.... after the Jazzmaster Tele, TV jones tele....) I love having different pickups in the same platform whether it's Telecasters or Precision basses. (I'm short)

I think for the price - they are very cool and I am a fan of split coil designs from basses. And yes, I should have bought the aged covers....

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Last edited by kevinpmajka on Fri Oct 02, 2020 10:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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epizootics
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Re: Telecaster pickguard with jazzmaster route

Post by epizootics » Fri Oct 02, 2020 9:32 pm

kevinpmajka wrote:
Fri Oct 02, 2020 4:03 pm
Hi All,
I know this is blasphemous, but I don't love my Jazzmaster body shape. I'm interested in putting some great pickups in a tele body with Jazzmaster pickups. I got the Creamery Dominos for my American Origial 60's Jazzmaster with a mastery bridge, and it just doesn't get played as much as my tele or tele-strat. It's the shape and the trem. It sounds great, and while I know the trem is a big part of the sound, I think those pickups are really good.
Jazzmaster pickups sound great with a Tele bridge. Different, but great all the same. You get the same 'workhorse' feel you get with standard Telecaster pickups - two pickups and three positions, but all three of them equally appealing with a clean or dirty sound. Less twang, more depth.

I can't see the pictures for some reason?

The second guitar I build a few years back had this configuration. 3-saddle bridge, 2 x JM pickups. I must have wound sixteen different pickups for it, in all shapes & designs (classic, underwound, overwound, P90s, a Charlie Christian from Hell, humbuckers and Gold foil...) and ended up settling for...classic Jazzmaster pickups. They just sounded right. Alnico V in the bridge and Alnico II in the neck, with 1meg pots and a .33uF cap.

It doesn't really matter who you get your pickups from as long as they are built correctly and have the right specs (hand-wound, 1/8" thick bobbin, pole piece length in the 1/2" ballpark, 42 AWG either in Polysol or Plain Enamel, although the latter is more expensive and there's no good reason to use PE any more).

If you like a fatter bridge pickup, a JM-sized P90 works great too. I make mine with humbucker slugs rather than the usual spacer-and-screws arrangement, it gives them a bit more oomph in the mids (more ferromagnetic material in the bobbin core).

One last thing. If you go for a 3-saddle bridge, you can closer to the soft, clicky Jazzmaster attack by swapping the brass saddles for aluminum one. Still not a JM sound, but closer.

I hope this helps :)

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Re: Telecaster pickguard with jazzmaster route

Post by kevinpmajka » Fri Oct 02, 2020 10:33 pm

That sounds like quite a build! I updated my pictures.

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