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MatthewK

So I picked up a Mory Jazzmaster - when the seller got it it had a thick white refinish and a Fresher neck with broken trussrod.

After some stripping adventures and misadventures, and switching the neck for a very nice Tokai neck with a perplexing Jaguar letraset on it, it came to me in this state:

and after some diligent razor scraping I've got most of the original sunburst visible:

Problem is, there are gouges into the original burst, the back is a train wreck, and the wood itself is quite ugly under the burst.

I can imagine the chorus of "that looks amazing, don't touch a thing" but it photographs better than the reality, which is like smeared paint stripper residue, sander marks and scraper gouges. The burst itself looks like a cheap Chinese Strat knockoff, colour wise, and the pickguard is brown, which looks all kinds of wrong as a combination. So it's clear I will need to refinish it, which I plan to do by surface filling on the original finish (leaving it there) and giving it a coat of primer. Originally I had thought yeah, white, like it had been, and that's not a bad choice. But the seller and I were talking it over and he suggested gold, which is a very fine idea I think.
Just to finish, a couple of shots of the incredible pickguard, originally made by a soapdish company apparently, and which can only be described as "mocha sparkle swirl". I reckon an aged gold would set this off nicely, in fact the yellow paint in the pickup cavity gives an idea of the possibility. I've been leaning toward a gold guitar in the last few years and I think this is the one!

Spent today filling the nicks and gouges in the body, was not an easy job and I have to come back for more sanding. Hope it's worth it.

sholkham · . Joined: 13 Feb 2011 Posts: 835 Location: S.E. UK

Nice find, I think gold will look good with that pickguard
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vojtasTS29 · . Joined: 03 Aug 2015 Posts: 313 Location: Prague

Man i dig that so much. Don't change a thing about it really. It reminds me of the JM J Mascis plays. I might be weird, but i really think that guitar is stunning.

MatthewK · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2016 9:58 pm Post subject:

Thanks for the compliments guys - believe me, I am ALWAYS in favour of preserving the original finish, but the stripping job had left it in such a bad state that it looked like the worst kind of amateur relic job. Craig, who sold it to me, thinks the first layer of red was a factory refin anyway, so the burst was probably never any good. I've been using a polyester filler to level out the gouges in the surface and it feels so much better. This weekend I will hit it with a white primer to see how the surface looks. The good news is that it's very light and resonant, and the Tokai neck is so good, that I reckon it will be a killer guitar. I just want it to look great as well. The brown swirl is a difficult colour to work with, which is why I originally thought white or black - black is option 2, but I think it would be difficult to get a good quality finish with amateur gear using black.

vojtasTS29 · . Joined: 03 Aug 2015 Posts: 313 Location: Prague

Imagine painting it white and making a custom gold pickguard tho. That would look sick as well! Smile

MatthewK · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2016 11:25 pm Post subject:

Yeah but it would look like a Squier J Mascis then! These Mory Jazzmasters are pretty rare, and the one thing which is unique about them is their incredible swirl pickguards made by a soapdish manufacturer.
http://www.electric-deer-guitarworks.com/guitars/mory-madness-an-obsession/

vojtasTS29 · . Joined: 03 Aug 2015 Posts: 313 Location: Prague

Yeah, i looked it up like haha a vintage jazzmaster like guitar i could probably afford and then saw it costs more than an actual jazzmaster. Very Happy

MatthewK · Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2016 5:13 am Post subject:

For once, a warm day and still air. What the heck, let's paint in the garden!

A few dings to fill and a few spits from the can, but I warmed it up first and it sprayed quite nicely.

MatthewK · Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2016 3:58 am Post subject:

So last weekend I thought, let's give that a quick wet-sand to make it nice and flat. Naphtha should do the trick, evaporates nicely. BIG MISTAKE. Rustoleum spray paints use xylene as a solvent, and xylene is a component of ... naphtha. So it came off in a sticky mess. Had to respray the primer. So not until this weekend did I get to try out the next stage, GOLD.
Hard to capture this but it's gone on evenly with the exception of one slight "sag", and my test earlier in the day shows that it dries to a nice even tone. More Shoreline than Firemist, but it should darken slightly when I add a clearcoat. My intention is not to sand or polish until I have some nice thick layers of clear.

The test piece sat very nicely with the pickguard so I hope it will all be worth it!

MatthewK · Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2016 6:32 am Post subject:

Yes I definitely think we are getting somewhere:

Thomas · . Joined: 09 Oct 2008 Posts: 3305 Location: Glasgow, UK

That colour looks ace with the guard.

MatthewK · Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2016 9:54 am Post subject:

Thanks! I'm getting pretty excited here!

ekwatts · Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2016 10:12 am Post subject:

This looks great.
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MatthewK · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2016 11:22 am Post subject:

So we are mostly done! Decided against a clear coat after a few tests - added nothing to the finish but increased the chance of spits, dust etc. So I decided to pull the trigger and put it together! Wiring was a head-scratcher until I realised the lead-circuit output goes through a parallel resistor-capacitor, which I presume just takes the edge off the treble. Broke a stupid string putting it back together and I don't have a fresh set, sigh. But oh my, it's nice. Even with 5 strings these are big punchy pickups.
Gloomy phone camera pics, sorry.

Now ... matching headstock? It needs a refin anyway.

Nick · Posted: Sat Oct 08, 2016 12:24 pm Post subject:

That looks so cool, I love it!

Thomas · . Joined: 09 Oct 2008 Posts: 3305 Location: Glasgow, UK

Love it!!

jamba72 · . Joined: 06 Aug 2011 Posts: 333

good job!

goldtop jags/ JM are just georgous

just the bridge seems a little off, the old original neck may be a little wider..?

MatthewK · Posted: Mon Oct 10, 2016 10:58 am Post subject:

Thanks guys. The bridge is an aftermarket Mustang bridge with the posts drilled out and the spacing works well - it actually plays beautifully, wish I could too. It was missing a string at the time of the pics and it's now in pieces again for the matching headstock glory. And I'm working on a Mory decal to cap it off.

MatthewK · Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2016 8:05 am Post subject:

Well I am feeling pretty damn pleased. A little more paint, some laser decal paper, picture research and a few sessions in Illustrator later ...

and we're done. Sounds amazing, looks amazing, 50 years old (except for the neck!), a true gem from the Moridaira factory.

Thomas · . Joined: 09 Oct 2008 Posts: 3305 Location: Glasgow, UK

Lovely!! Was the old truss totally gone or was the nut broken?