I have to wait 'til next paycheck for buying the last parts (body/bridge/pickguard) - but until then I may have time for somethinge else - and that would be this:
I have a MIJ OLY JM with poly (I guess) finnish and non matching headstock. Like this:
I plan to strip the poly and refin with nitro (OLY) - sand off the poly on the neck and refin it with clear nitro and add a matching headstock. Also I have a transit decal that I tend to put on. I'm awaiting white witch hats from "You know who" too wich will also be added....Like this:
That'd make it to something of a 64/65 RI instead of a 62 RI
As I've decided to go "all white (mint on white actually) i add this pic:
I will start with the neck in case I decide it's not worth the work effort.... and if I don't find the time before I can move on with my JM DL!
...so what do you think - let me know!
Oct 15:
So I've been Tinting/spraying/sanding/spraying/wetsanding/spraying/wetsanding the neck (3-5 thin layers of clearcoat between each sanding - still some orange peel feeling to it, but I'll let it rest for now until final wetsanding/polish/buffing). Here's some pics:
Tinted:
I mixed yellow with a little walnut and a pinch of bright oak for a more vintage feel.
After some coating/wet sanding:
.....not cleaned after the wetsanding - that's the white "dust" on the neck....
also I missed a spot with the dye (on the edge - you'll see it in the pic). I will try to fix that with tinted nitro clearcoat later on (I'll be aging the OLY with some).
To the body.
I've stripped/sanded/woodfilled/sanded the body.
Before:
Stripped:
Woodfilled and sanded:
...some traces from a bad tint. I tried to use the same mixture as I used on the neck, but as the end grain soaked much more on the body than on the neck it got awful, so I sanded it off.
I've sanded some more and dyed with only yellow:
On a homemeade paint stick:
This week I got TAS (Tool Aquisition Symdrome) and bought me an air compressor and a spray-gun.
Tomorrow I'm off to GNU and some OLY paint shopping!
Oct 19:th
Just had my virginity on spray guns taken
It's like 1000 times better (and funnier) than aerosol-cans!!!!
Ok - It's my first off and i need to wetsand off some orange peel and then go to clearcoat, but I'm pretty satisfied though. (next time = way better sanding/filling etc before colour, but somethings you need to learn the hard way...)
Pics:
The matching headstock.
Body front and back.
Together.
Trying out the decal.
...wich actually is two decals. I had one of those from ebay with the "JAZZMASTER" in way too big letters and then I got this awful looking spaghetti logo wich was actually too small, but with the same oversize on "JAZZMASTER". I cut them together and if I can get the cut line inbetween pretty invisible (dripping some clearcoat or so) it will turn out pretty nice I think.
8th Nov
Neck is finnished. Final wet sanding and polish/buffing done. (not too shiny as I'm after a light relic touch).Also the decal is applied:
As said - it's actually two decals cut together. Came out pretty good IMO (you can spot the edges viewed from a certain angle, but I'll leave it for now - if i stumble onto a better decal in the future I'll change it then).
You can also see the rosewood bleed as I've mentioned. I left that too (obviously) because it gave a kind of "vintage" feel to it (like a cigarette burn or something - if it bothers me in the future - I'll try to repair it at the same time for the decal swap).
Next up is some tuner/string tree assembly.
Also the body is ready painted:
As you can see it needs final wet sanding and polishing. What you can't see is that it's tinted, but not under the picguard and trem - I'll try get some better pics this weekend.
It have cured for a week and I'll let it cure three or four more. I try to keep it in a warm place (not in my garage), so when I throw it in the freezer for some light checking to appear, it'll hopefully work....
My new mint coloured pickguard left the US this monday (at least that's what USPS site says), so some test assemblies of the whole guitar may be done this weekend (or next).
10th Nov
Last night i got the neck finnished.
Bushings fit in place with a little help from a quick-grip bar-clamp (snabbtving in Swedish) - It made the job pretty easy:
Tuners in place:
...and complete with stringtree:
Today I did a "fake" assemble of the guitar (mostly for checking colour scheme and for some shots for Rumors "family" thread:
With the gang:
...the last few days I've got a GAS coming on though.... I think I'd like to try a vintage tort (I got a red MIJ and a brown AVRI - the AVRI is better then the MIJ - but none of them really does it)....hmm :-\
Nov 18
Project is finnished. I've been doing the final sanding this weekend. I found that my paint job could have been better (especially the woodfiller part...). This made me take a decision - I'm gonna relic this axe! Not much - but some armwear and paint chippin. I also wetsanded the pickguard with 2000 grain to get the used look. The light relicing is matching the '65 Trem and the authenticly aged pup covers really good.
No pics of the process though, as the camera was with my wife on a different location...
After that - Time for final assembly!
First: New pup foam. Bye bye mouse pad.
...and welcome pup foam stripes.
With some carpet tape (sticky on both sides) they're fitted into the cavities.
Then I moved the wiring stuff from the AVRI tort guard to the (Allparts) mint guard. I had to redrill the holes for the pots (because of size) on the pickguard and the jack (because the shield and the guard holes didn't align 100%) on the alu shield, but other then that it fitted real nice.
Pickguard assembled.
...then the trem (Yes, I saved the "old" strings - I've just had it strung up with a new set when I decided to take the guitar apart...) .
Next up was some neck shimmin (because the neck pocket surface is even as the rocky mountains and makes the neck tilt in the wrong direction without).
cardboard.
Cut and in place.
25th Nov
My crappy cam is about to give in, but here's some almost decent pics.
Body front/back:
close ups:
I wasn't going to relic it at first (I have ranted some against relicing at this forum
), but when the colour and coats where done there was a bunch of dings that "shone through" since earlier. Also It looked kind of wrong with those authenticly aged pup covers and the coffee'd witch hats along the new fin and the shining pickguard. I think I'll get a try with the checking sometime in the spring beside that - It's finnished.
