Black Jazzmaster Project

Painting? Routing? Set-up tips? Or just straight-up making a guitar from scratch? Post here, and post pics!

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Rhysyrhys
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by Rhysyrhys »

Got a colour coat on. My enthusiasm got a bit swallowed up by a big work project and a few other things.

There are some imperfections but overall I'm happy with the quality of the job, gonna let it cure for tonight and then do the front. This paint dries a lot faster and drips way less than the primer coat.

Primer overall I had a few small drips with along the way and issues with it heating up when sanding and smearing ever-so-slightly which was annoying, even though I had left the coats dry for 48hrs. There's a small imperfection on the back and a smaller one on the front which I sanded out and seem to have covered fairly well with a colour coat. It's on the lower horn, I could've sanded back and resprayed it and waited a few days again but tbth I want my little garden back in working order and with it sprayed in colour I think it looks fairly charming, with the dark wood and the colour I've picked I think maybe even a very light relic could look good.

So far so good, I think.
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Thomas
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by Thomas »

It looks great!. I love that colour.
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Hurb
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by Hurb »

great colour ~(bravo)
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Thom
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by Thom »

Looking good!
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Rhysyrhys
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by Rhysyrhys »

Front colour photos, now curing. 12-18hrs according to the tin.

Excitement building here at in the Rhys household.
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dots
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by dots »

that color, rhys...

ME-OW!!!

so pretty!
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Rhysyrhys
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by Rhysyrhys »

I got the pickups and the pickguard out and put them on the guitar so I could figure out how I feel about the eventual colour combo - here's how it's gonna look, kinda:
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plopswagon
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by plopswagon »

TASTE-EE!
► Show Spoiler
ekwatts wrote: Wed Dec 21, 2022 12:53 pm The word "moisty" has made me irrationally angry.
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NickD
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by NickD »

Looking good Rhys.
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Rhysyrhys
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by Rhysyrhys »

So I got two identical decals from StringKraft in the Jazzmaster Style that say "Billy's Uddmaster" in Metallic Silver. My online handle since I was a kid is Billy Udders/BillyUdders (random name generator online when I was twelve looking to make a character in Diablo 2), so I thought it would be a fun lil' tribute to my alter ego that's brought me so much joy over the years. I guess also now since the pandemic a fair amount of online people know me as Billy or Bill because it's my Github handle and Discord name lol, so it's weirdly become a name I respond to haha :D

Decal here

Absolutely magical video of a fella from up norf teaching me how to get the headstock decal to look like the fender factory one's do. Really good, good shit in this video, and I could listen to this guy talk for hours, totally makes sense that you lacquer/sand/lacquer/sand etc.

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Rhysyrhys
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by Rhysyrhys »

Fuck my ass. Fuck.

So I was basically done, buffing the body with the orbital sander took off a chunk of finish and not even in a cool looking way.

Heart in mouth, figurative dick in hand, I decided to sand back the area and build the finish back up again progressively blending into the current finish.

I’ve not clear coated it and it’s chilling inside today cos it’s raining randomly in NorCal. Think I did ok again, learned how to dig myself out of a hole but also don’t want to do that again so the sander is going away, it’s not variable speed and I’m sure I can just get a polishing cloth and go real fucking hard for an hour or so idk.
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Rhysyrhys
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by Rhysyrhys »

Body clear coat on.

Neck now looks like:
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Rhysyrhys
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by Rhysyrhys »

So now the only real tricky thing left to do is try to solder on a new wire on to the prebuilt harness I have from Guitarfetish, to extend the telecaster switch out to the right place. I'm not doing the soldering right now but today after I get back from SF tonight or tomorrow.

My hands are far less shaky these days, I think because I don't drink now? I used to fucking suck at soldering, so luckily it's only one wire. I bought some new clean wire from ACE of what looks like a similar gauge, that I can use failing that I have the old wiring that I ripped out still and I can probably borrow from that, at the very worst. I got enough wire and some old components in a bag so I'm just gonna spend 30-40 mins first soldering shit to other shit and getting my brain wrapped around the idea again, activate the muscle memory a bit..

There's also the switch from the old wiring that cuts out the tone/vol pot from the circuit to give you a clean boost and some high end... It's very tempting to incorporate it into this build seeing as I still have a hole in the new 'guard anyway - it was pretty fun for solos. I'm gonna meditate on it as I walk around town today and figure out how I feel, mainly I think if I put it in the guitar now I probably won't feel like getting creative and doing something interesting with it further down the line and that might be totally ok but worth weighing up...

Interestingly I always used to LOVE the neck pickup in this guitar and always used to think that Dimarizio Super Distortions are really sweet and open in the neck position, sounds like a Les Paul!! WELL... lol, the neck pickup is a bloody Gibson USA something something, it's most probably a 498T because it sounds so much like my old LP Studio, but could be a Burstbucker too - there's no marking on it to discern. Anyway, lovely pickup and it might have it's time in this guitar again... lets see how the Guitarfetish gear performs I guess.

I don't want to see a foam sanding block again for a little while and that's ok but also honestly I think I might start a Telecaster directly after this or an SG because I don't think I'll know what the fuck to do with my life when this is over!!!!!
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dots
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by dots »

looking brilliant, my friend. those pickups should compliment each other well, too.
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by Dillon »

Rhysyrhys wrote: Sat Mar 05, 2022 8:55 pm the neck pickup is a bloody Gibson USA something something, it's most probably a 498T because it sounds so much like my old LP Studio, but could be a Burstbucker too - there's no marking on it to discern.
If it's a BB it ought to have a sticker on the back saying which one it is. Someone could've removed it I guess, but why? Anyway that's more likely a 490R, since the screws are above the logo, meaning it's a neck pickup. If you measure the resistance it ought to help give a better idea of what it is.
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Rhysyrhys
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by Rhysyrhys »

Hi I did usual Rhys things and kicked a grenade into my life, this time it's *just* a 500 mile south move. I'm in Glendale (CA, not Phoenix) now, if ur SoCal I got a pool and two spare rooms (one is a guitar room rn), come say hey I love you. Lemme host the next west coast meet up... think about it, I got a place now!!

TL;DR I appreciate paint now, here's some photos of a guitar just out a box still with no pickups cos I'm a lazy asshole, determined to fucking finish this bastard this week. Paint too good.

Boys....

I just got this guy out the case again and holy fuck the colour is insane its better than the photos. It's just been in a little case for the last few months and idk, maybe the coat cured or something???? It's GORGEOUS. It was awesome before but its like........... set? The sparkle is less but its much more like a professional finish.

It dents insanely easy, I'm gonna hit it again with a can of clear coat... but like, it has two cans of clear on it and I'm like how much do I need to do? My Pacifica 112 cost 110GBP in 2003 has done 400 gigs, flown to other countries, has had one pickup replacement and has minimal dents for what it saw, I know my current finish on this guitar would relic extremely quickly but probably look cool.
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Rhysyrhys
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by Rhysyrhys »

My original problem with finishing the project was that the pre-wired loom from GFS was too short to hit the tele switch on the bottom horn and I would have to redrill to get the cloth wire through the cavity.

Literally that week I broke up with my girl, decided that moving out of my house and travelling for a while was best and got in a car, spent like 2 months seeing California. This guitar and the rest of my shit went into a lock up in Pasadena, I just got it all out like 6 weeks ago...

Low and behold I crack a case and this fucking beaut comes out at me. I'm putting the tuners in tonight lol, I love this fucking thing...
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Rhysyrhys
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by Rhysyrhys »

Sigh.... Fender standard locking tuners too wide for the holes that are drilled.

Far too late to get in the garage now, but I'm gonna redrill a bunch of stuff tomorrow, I need to feed the loom for the pickups and bore just slightly wider for my tuners (more than likely I fuck that up, swiss cheese headstock shit, if I do you'll be here for the lolz and eventually allparts reorder).

I also have no idea how to clip the wires into my GFS slots on my pickups with the pickguard turned over towards the body, I guess I'm gonna have to feed it into the cavity then hold it up slightly and get tweezers to grab and push.
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NickD
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by NickD »

If you re-drill the tuner holes they will go off centre, even if you have a drill press. Either buy a stepped conical drill bit, some reamers, or some different tuners.

On the clear coat - you don’t have to clear coat it, if you like how it is now it won’t be a problem leaving it as is.
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Bacchus
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Re: Black Jazzmaster Project

Post by Bacchus »

Smash the Fender ones in with a hammer.
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