C18Q1. Jazz Box Tart-Up

Nomad

Even though I don't play jazz, I've had this Ibanez AF-55 cheapie hollow body jazz guitar for a while...

Overall, I like it - looks pretty, nice neck profile, and the machine heads are decent. However, there are a few things that I'd like to change...

• I don't like the matt finish. It's noisy when a sleeve moves across it, and it doesn't feel right in terms of a guitar finish.
• The pickups don't impress me. They seem to be some sort of hot winds more suited to a rock guitar.
• The black plastics look naff - hardly trad jazz style.
• The lump of tunomatic metalwork on the floating bridge looks wrong.
• The frets need levelled, and the action at the nut lowered.

I should mention that I don't want to remove the existing finish - I like the look of the guitar as it is - I just want to get it away from being matt. To this end, I did a little experiment just after I got it - I smeared a little bit of Tru-Oil on the back, near the heel, to see what happened. The result was good adhesion and a more satiny sheen. So, the plan is to strip all the hardware off and give it, probably, a single coat of Tru-Oil. I'll probably avoid the back of the neck because that's already some sort of satin finish and feels fine.

I don't know what Ibanez were thinking with the electrics on this. It might be argued that the guitar is aimed more at driven sounds, but the faded woody burst puts the lie to this - it looks like an old jazz box that's had cheapo shred-tastic bits screwed onto it. Naff.

More anon...

poopot

Try a bit of T Cut somewhere discrete to see if it glosses up... most finishes do...

that said all the paint fell of my project earlier today so I may not be best to comment!!!!

Nomad

Thanks for the tip, @poopot - I hadn't thought of T-Cut. Since T-Cut means I wouldn't have to wait for the Tru-Oil to cure, I went out and got a tin to try, and it seems to bring up the matt finish to the sort of satiny sheen I'm after, so T-Cut it is.

Anyway, last night, I did the frets. The nut turned out to be plastic, so that will be replaced with a bone one.

After getting the neck straight using a notched straight edge, a lot of uneven frets became apparent when I went over them with a fret rocker.Here it is, masked up prior to levelling...

And after crowning and polishing, and a lick of boiled linseed oil on the board...

The oil is still a bit glossy here - it'll go more matt as it cures. I still need to work on my crowning and polishing technique - this is only the second time I've tried it, and the first attempt is still a neck that isn't attached to a body yet. I'll see what I think when this guitar goes back together.

Today, I started on the T-Cut. Although a little check on the back near at the heel indicated that it would work, I wasn't sure about the logo bits on the headstock. They just seem to be screen printed, and I was concerned that the edges might buff away, so I gave it a try on the back of the headstock, where there's some CE marking thing that I'm not bothered about damaging...

It seemed to survive okay, and I'm surprised at how much the finish changes with the cut and buff - there's a clear edge between the original and treated areas.

The front of the headstock has a matt black finish and needed about three applications of the T-Cut to get some sheen into it.

Headstock before...

And after...

That's come up looking much better - I'm not after a glossy finish with this, but something that looks like an old glossy finish that's become a bit dulled down with age and use (without actually doing a relic job on it).

I've also done the back, which so far has only had one going-over with the T-Cut.

Back before...

And after...

Again, it has a nice sheen, but I think it needs another go - I've got some swirl marks in places.

Looking good so far. I have a tin of Renaissance Wax, and I'm considering trying that in a discreet spot to see what effect it has - if anyone has any thoughts on that, I'd be glad to hear them.

m_c

That's looking much better.

Regarding the fret dressing, do you have any suggestions for guides?
I'm going to have to do it to my Tele build, and it's the bit I'm least looking forward to, so any recommendations are welcome.

TTony

Like the effect so far.

Nomad

Thanks, chaps.

For fret dressing guides, Ben Crowe at Crimson Guitars is as good a place as any to start with. Episode 58 (and then 59) of his Clarity build...

In that, he uses a fret levelling file, but he's also done stuff with levelling beams.

This two-part tutorial by Duncan Wallace shows the levelling beam in use...

Nomad

And the front.

Before...

After...

What a difference.

WezV

That’s so much better

Jez6345789

Just to ask a question here as I am dead lazy on fret setting up etc and normally hand it to someone who knows. 
In the video with the Scottish guy Ducan, he checks the neck without strings with his slotted straight edge says the neck has a back bow without the strings so no opposing tension on the neck. Then adjusts it to straight does the fret dress. When its back at tension will it not be incorrect or he adjusts the truss rod again.

Is that the correct way to do it

thanks

PS: T Cut is doing wonders for that finish

PVO_Dave

Looking so much better!

WezV

Jez6345789 said:

Just to ask a question here as I am dead lazy on fret setting up etc and normally hand it to someone who knows. 
In the video with the Scottish guy Ducan, he checks the neck without strings with his slotted straight edge says the neck has a back bow without the strings so no opposing tension on the neck. Then adjusts it to straight does the fret dress. When its back at tension will it not be incorrect or he adjusts the truss rod again.

Is that the correct way to do it

thanks

PS: T Cut is doing wonders for that finish

He will likely need to adjust again after 

there are other methods that that let you level under “string tension”, but straightening the neck is a reasonable way to go.


if using a traditional 1-way truss rod it sometimes makes sense to add a tiny bit of back now before levelling by tightening the rod.  It allows you to add a bit of relief after  when you loosen it.  Normally 1-way rods don’t let you add any relief, you are reliant on string tension to do it.  This is a cheats method to get relief on a vintage style neck that’s too straight.

Nomad

Thanks again, folks.

A couple of shots of the sides...

Didn't think to take a before shot of this side, but never mind...

It's surprising how much even a satin finish helps to bring out the shape. The back and front in particular look dead flat in the before shots.

I think I'm happy with the level of sheen that resulted from the T-Cut, so I won't bother with a wax polish. It was quite interesting when doing the cutting - the swishing noise that I get from a sleeve brushing over the body was noticeable when cutting, and it reduced as the T-Cut started to take effect. Even so, I managed to miss a few bits, and ended up going over most of it twice.

Next up is the electrics. I just tried a pot for fit through the F-hole, and it doesn't quite fit, so I'll have to insert them via a pickup hole, which means the strings will have to stay off for now.

paulnb57

Thats made a huge difference and looks much more classy, I did the same on an Epi Studio Dot and it had a similar improving effect....

poopot

Looking great!!! A bottle of T Cut is a good thing to have in the shed... polishes everything from an old cortina through to guitars

fyi, you can get a really gloss finish using it providing the clear coat on the guitar is thick enough. (If its too thin you can actually buff it off)...

Roland

That looks nice. A quick and easy improvement. Are you intending to upgrade the pickups?

thecolourbox

Sorry to jump in on your very interesting thread but would the Tcut method work on a dull looking acoustic then as I assume it's quite a similar principle? 

m_c

Looking even better!

Thanks, for those vids. Things are much clearer now, but it does mean I'll need to spend even more money..

Nomad

Thanks, folks.

poopot said:

Looking great!!! A bottle of T Cut is a good thing to have in the shed... polishes everything from an old cortina through to guitars

Aye, don't know why I don't already have some - it'll go with the Autosol and Brasso (and the myriad compounds and buffing wheels). Can't imagine it getting near my minging old Land Rover, though...

poopot said:

fyi, you can get a really gloss finish using it providing the clear coat on the guitar is thick enough. (If its too thin you can actually buff it off)...

A good point. It does seem to be quite a thin finish. when I went shopping, the first thing I saw was T-Cut Rapid Scratch Remover, and I reckoned that would be too aggressive (probably closer to Brasso).

Roland said:

Are you intending to upgrade the pickups?

Yes. The only electrics that will be original are the jack socket and the earth wire.

thecolourbox said:

Sorry to jump in on your very interesting thread but would the Tcut method work on a dull looking acoustic then as I assume it's quite a similar principle? 

Well, that's the first time I've tried T-Cut on a guitar, so I wouldn't like to say for sure, but I'd imagine it depends on what the finish is. I think most guitar finishes would be okay, maybe apart from oils like Tru-Oil.

Nomad

On with the electrics. The bits I plan to fit are...

Pickups: a custom set of Oil City Blitz Spirits - fitted with Alnico 3 magnets on the recommendation of Ash. These should have a more even frequency response than the likes of A2 or A5.

Two 500K log CTS push-pull pots. These weren't what I originally intended to get, but they're what I've got, so, rather than just fit them and not have the switching do anything, I'm going to try an experiment. The switch on the volume control will disconnect the tone circuit - a blower (hardly needed for a jazz box, I know). The switch on the tone control will put a second capacitor in series with the main one.

The toggle switch will be changed to a Goldo one, because that's what I've got (bought ages ago). It has gold plated switching bits and looks to be well made. The original jack socket will be reused because I don't have anything else (and has hardly been used).

The plan with the caps is to change the resonant peak when the tone control is set to bring the capacitance significantly into the circuit. The inductance changes when both pickups are on (it roughly doubles), and this has a direct effect on the resonance. The idea is to be able to tune the resonant peak depending on whether one or both pickups are on, and for this to hopefully be somewhere around the upper notes. Will it work? I have no idea, but I have a free switch to play with, so I might as well give it a go. The plan at present is for the normal tone control to have a 22nF cap, and then switch in either another 22nF (to give 11nF), or a 47nF (to give 15nF).

I'm open to suggestions one what else could be done with the switch on the volume control. I did wonder about series/parallel wiring, but I'm not sure how feasible that is with single conductor braided coax. It would be a better blower (louder), but could be susceptible to noise if it means that one of the braids becomes a signal wire.

Comments and suggestions welcome on this.

Nomad

m_c said:

Looking even better!

Thanks, for those vids. Things are much clearer now, but it does mean I'll need to spend even more money..

The levelling beam and files can be made quite cheaply if you have suitable facilities. The beam is 50x25mm ally box section with the narrow faces machined/ground straight. The files are just a triangular one with the edges ground off (crowning file), and a flat with one edge ground flat and the other ground convex (fret end file). The fret levelling file just seems to be a flat glued to a block of wood - the long edges are rounded over a little, and the edges at the ends have a fairly big roundover to lead it over the frets as it moves back and forth. The ground edges on the files are all very smooth.

I bought the files from Crimson, but made my own levelling beams. I used a decent mill at work to take the faces down to flattish, and then spent a while at home grinding them against each other with valve grinding paste. I get abrasive for the beams from Axminster and stick it on using the superglue and masking tape trick. I used a somewhat worn 400 grit for the levelling on this, and it still cut pretty quickly with only gentle pressure.

Jez6345789

The wiring sounds good, I did like idea of the Bass cut on the Yamaha Revstars, handy to give a bit of emphasis to solo's