Home-made Jazzmaster... or Surfmaster.

[DrippyReverbTremolo]

Congrats on excellent work and a very striking guitar! Very well done and thanks for sharing

Looking forward to your next build!

Thanks! I play it almost every day. Am planning to have it repainted by a body shop (in the same color). Still a bit bumbed out by messing up the laquer...

Work has been very busy, so I haven't been able to start on the second body.

[DrippyReverbTremolo]

I have been playing this JM almost daily (and exclusively). But I was still bummed out because of the less than great application of clearcoat, particularly on the back. So I pulled it apart and sanded the body with 400 grit, put on a coat of primer and sanded that with 800 and 1000 grit. I also softened a few curves and removed any trace of the round-over router bit witness lines (which I thought looked nice at first). Also filled a few dings.

Then I dropped the body of at an automotive repair / body shop. My friend works there. He used my left-over rattle can paint to scan the colour (I asked for maximum metallic). They mixed up a batch of modern automotive paint (the water based version) and covered it with a clear coat. A bit of a shame that their system can't deal with the original colour codes from the fifties and sixties that Ford and GM used).

One day later I could pick it up. It had a bit of orange peel but my friend told me to not sand or polish it, just give it a few days. And he was right, it disappeared. The paint feels smooth. It's a really thin coat, based on the masking tape I removed. Nothing like the polyester or polyurethane finishes. So I better not throw it around.

[DrippyReverbTremolo]

I also fitted a BEAUTIFUL new pickguard from General Vintage Tone. It's a "1963 Vintage Brown Tortoise Nitrate for Jazzmaster Pickguard 4 layer Top real nitrate celluloid". It fits AVRI models. And more importantly, it fits the guitar I made from templates based on a sixties model JM (bought from Guitar and Bass Build (UK).

Advertised as real nitrate celluloid, and it did start to cup a bit after laying on my desk for a week. Nicely priced. Seems a good alternative to the (in my mind very expensive) Spitfire guards. One small thing: the tightest curves and points needed a bit of razor blade scraping due to having flat spots / looking too square.

I bought it at General Vintage Tone's Reverb store. He was good to deal with and sent it out quickly. The company is based in Spain, EU. General Vintage Tone

[BoringPostcards]

Looks great. Good job!

[DrippyReverbTremolo]

Looks great. Good job!

Thanks!