One Pickup Jazzmaster V2

[Azureglo]

I did an earlier thread about moving away from my big jazz boxes ( specifically an L4 and ES175) to offsets for comfort:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=122362&p=1722001#p1722001

So I really like the whole offset + string through based on this, which is getting some Roswell Charlie Christian P90 type pickups as well as a more adventurous semi offset with the £250 UK made "authentic" repro of an ES250 pickup.



For a quick build and testing my finishing skills I picked up this wee beastie for pennies. I have plenty of Squier CV60s necks that I absolute love so thought this would make good backup 1 pickup Jazzbox. I also really like natural finished guitars, actually natural finished wood for anything as I've started weekly lessons in woodworking from a master cabinet builder who's retiring and offered to gift me his entire workshop and 50 year collection of tools if I spent at least year learning how to use them (or rather not break them!)...bargain. This to chagrin of his PR lady daughter who was eyeing them up for ebaying.




Sanding off the poly & sealer was 45 minutes with a DA sander and 40/60/ 80 grit but revealed a bizarre veneer.




It took me a few minutes to figure out that this was many, many glued bits of random wood and the veneer is a cheap way to do sunbursts and give the illusion of a 2/3 piece body.

Another 15 minutes and an acceptable patchwork of 6 pieces of what my mentor identified as mostly alder offcuts with some mystery woods thrown in. I quite like the honesty of things like this in the throwaway- if-not-perfect world of superficiality we live in, with AAAA flame tops etc. As someone who half owns an organic farm, I like wonky fruits, vegetables, even odd looking pigs and think all wood is beautiful, even if has knots and flaws- it’s a tree,not a lifestyle accessory..




There was a major knot which I needed to address:



Anyhow, my plan with this is to seal the grain (I’m using sprayed cellulose sanding sealer as suggested by my mentor) and then having done some tests, water poly sprayed in 3-4 coats with flow improver- then buffed using compounds & swirl remover. The tests show I can get factory fresh mirror gloss that’s durable without being 1mm thick and its done in two days. The water poly is down to using fewer VOCs- HVLP guns release clouds of vapour and I want to start reducing my VOC footprint:

Water poly on far left and Oil poly on far right. Nice to see only 2 coats lets some grain show but I may go full mirror surface. Middle was Rustins wipe on grain filler + water poly but even with 1200 grit keying, it lifted with low tack painter’s tape. I did another test with 600 grit keying that was fine with no lift but preferred the "warmer" finish given by the cellulose sealer



So stage 1 sealing done and waiting for some minor routing to fit a Roswell CC pickup. Then more sealing/sanding & top coats.




The stock bridge is a rather clunky narrow spaced item that I decided to change to the stock Fender hardtail that's on my Strats and Tele Deluxe: very minor , three new holes and plugged one that's close to the new hole plus some widening of the string through holes.




Knot filled with sawdust, Titebond aliphatic and acrylic paint to match.



Here's a mock-up with the donor neck, looks promising. A quick weigh in showed an all up weight of 6.5lbs, all good. Having great fun, especially all the wood shop stuff I loved in the early 70's at school and never did again till now!



Later,

Anil

[BoringPostcards]

Nice. It’s going to look great, I think. I have always been curious about those Charlie Christian pickups. Never had a guitar with one, so I have no idea how they sound, but they look the business.

[Azureglo]

Nice. It’s going to look great, I think. I have always been curious about those Charlie Christian pickups. Never had a guitar with one, so I have no idea how they sound, but they look the business.

Most of them are glorified P90s but with thicker 38AWG winding., e.g Lollar, Mojo , Roswell, EY et al. They tend to be pretty high output and a rounder sound than than most single coils when you run them with 250K pots.

The real deal is a brute of thing with two huge magnets set perpendicularly to the coil, a heavy duty three bolt mounting system and a price tag to match.



https://www.wdmusic.co.uk/cc-pickups-m22

These sound like well, Charlie Christian, as heard on Rose Room et al if you have the chops, loud, woody and throaty. That said apparently the cobalt steel magnets lose their magnetism and the the vintage ones I have tried apparently are performing at less than 70% of what they left factory with, even if I could clamber over the incredibly pricey ES250 they were screwed to.

The Lollar ones are well thought of in jazz circles mainly due to this wonderfully talented chap:

https://youtu.be/JgYsugjmITc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqHdyhatjHY

[Azureglo]

This one languished a bit as I had a lot of learning to do about wood finishing and got myself a publishing deal and this lot with the advance, which took a bit of time to understand...



So here it is:

















Despite owning a high-end Makita router, learnt routing without templates is unpredictable especially when working with a composite of offcuts. The additional (messy) routing is for trying out the “proper” ES 250 pickup later on this year

The finish is a good first attempt, uses a cheap off the shelf water borne (Rustin’s) that perhaps is not ideal but worked ok. Cut and then buffed used Farecla G3, finished with Autoglym resin polish. It’s pretty shiny (apart from the lower bout that I left satin as I’m sit-down player and shiny guitars sliding off my thigh is plain irritating) and reasonably durable but nowhere near tough as the 2-pack catalysed stuff used in most mass-produced guitars

That said, its eco-friendly, easy to sand and refinish as it ages and at 5 thin coats hopefully not the resonance deadening cocoon some hapless guitars are encased in. The cheap and cheerful patchwork body also looks good to me, perhaps more honest for a working session Joe like me than a blues lawyer AAAA flame top for impressing folk at bar gigs...

I learnt doing a natural finish guitar is also a lot harder that smearing on Truoil et al or blasting away with nitrocellulose aerosols: I used a De Vilbiss FLG in the end which worked well with water poly at 20 PSI

Sound wise, the Roswell CC (P90) ticks the boxes, this is what I’ve been looking for in both sound and playability for the last few years as I’ve tired of my L4’s bulk. It’s dream for solo work though the Minibrute, perfect for comping with a sax quartet and was a honey, accompanying a female jazz vocalist at a local wine bar. I've recently changed to Thomastik 10 Flatwounds down from my usual 13 Chromes and enjoying the lighter feel and more pronounced mid-range of these string that seems to work mesh perfectly with the Roswell CC/P90 and my 1988 Minibrute.

All this in a 6 and a 1/2lb package that costs less than £300 and is built around me.

Peace

Anil

[MattK]

Brilliant work! Love the singleminded sense of purpose and the woods look great, who cares if there are some seams. Truth in materials.

[Embenny]

I love that it's an actual Jazzmaster. I can't remember the last time I thought about actual jazz when talking about JMs. Nice work!

[Azureglo]

I love that it's an actual Jazzmaster. I can't remember the last time I thought about actual jazz when talking about JMs. Nice work!

This chap used one to good effect...

[Embenny]

I love that it's an actual Jazzmaster. I can't remember the last time I thought about actual jazz when talking about JMs. Nice work!

This chap used one to good effect...

He sure did - but you don't hear of too many people doing so this side of Y2K!

Don't know why not. Like you've pointed out, it's an incredibly ergonomic guitar that can be bought/built/modified with any bridge or pickup desired.