New Build Day - JayWood Partscaster!

MrBump

Or rather - resurrecting an old build and actually pulling it off!

This was the project that prompted my "done with partscasters" thread a while back.  I was so hacked off with it after that, I left the abysmal project sitting on it's arse in my guitar room.

But a little while ago I started to pick it up and strum it, and it became clearer to me how to get it better.

And this is where it is now.



I removed the Bulldog humbucker and replaced it with a £20 Vanson P90 from t'internet.  Don't get me wrong, the Bulldogs are excellent, but I just couldn't get the humbucker and the single coils to sound good together in the same guitar.  Both excellent separately, but not together.

Then I had a proper go at the frets - a good hard levelling, then hours spent crowning them.  Took me a long time, but for probably the first time ever I actually did it properly, rather than in a half arsed way - and the results are really excellent.  Pass after pass with a levelling tool until the frets were completely flat, and it's made a massive difference to the playability.

Also had a go at the scratchplate - it wasn't fitting 100%, and so caught the tremolo making it suck at staying in tune.

Net result - it's really, really good!  Playability isn't perfect, but so much better.  It sounds awesome - I've never owned a P90 guitar, but it sits really well harmonically in a Strat bridge - kinda fat, but not muddy.  One thing I didn't expect - I'd forgotten that the Bulldog middle pickup was RWRP - so that means the P90/Middle selection is out of phase.  Which is actually kinda cool - some very interesting tones available there.

It's not perfect - I'm not 100% convinced by the Earvana nut - it's stickier than the nuts I usually use, and is causing some tuning instability.  And my Dremel work to enlarge the scratchplate hole for the P90 is amateurish to say the least...  But it's so much better than it was!!!

Neck and body were supplied by guitarbuild.co.uk, and it was finished by Relic169 - a vintage nitrocellulose finish which is really nice and already suffing up!

This is me in shorts.

https://youtu.be/MX5k6mtGIsY

mr-mac

Lovely looking machine