JazzBlaster build COMPLETE!!’

stickyfiddle

I've wanted one of these for ages and having narrowly missed out on a restomod vintage JM with WRHBs, I spotted a sale on some reliced Fender CuNiFe pickups, so I went mad and ordered everything I'd need. 

Watch this space  

Lebarque

Love a 'blaster. Watching with interest. My own creation is currently being sprayed, although it's not a trad 'blaster: TOM bridge and PAFs, like a Fano.

stickyfiddle

Initial inspiration:

stickyfiddle

Ok, so The Plan is as follows. 

First, I spotted good-value pickups and bought those, along with a few other sundry bits from the same place to save on postage. 

I then started talking to MJT about a black body and Musikraft neck following very much the path of my beloved silver JM and basically building my own version of the inspo above. 

But then... I saw a heavy-relic sunburst body on MJT's eBay page and was able to grab that for a decent price without having to wait weeks for production. Since I don't even technically know if I'll like the pickups yet, I figured that's a good starting point. 

Similarly, rather than spend hundreds on the absolute perfect neck and wait months for delivery, I've grabbed a cheap one  with roughly the spec I want to get it to a prototype stage and check I like the pickups and general vibe. Assuming that gores well I'll then work out whether I trade up to a posh neck and possibly swap to a black body per the original plan. Likewise I haven't bought a proper guard because that will be either Lava or Spitfire and shit's expensive yo. 

It's also fun so far, though I need to deepen the pickup routes a little bit and take some sandpaper to neck and/or body to get it to fit. And I need to make whatever adjustments are needed to kludge these pickups into roughly the right place... Then we're away!!

I'll most likely use this thread almost as a notebook and to-do list. I just realised I need to find an appropriate capacitors and an output jack as well. I must have those somewhere

Here's a gratuitous picture of the old silver one, for reference. It's pretty much unchanged since I built it 5-6 years ago except it now has a Mastery: 

Lebarque

Can't see the initial inspiration photo. 

stickyfiddle

Lebarque said:

Can't see the initial inspiration photo. 

My fault for trying to be clever and embed a gif! 

This guy's entire feed is GOLD, and I suspect this build is going to turn into a cross between the black one and the sunburst '59 behind it.

stickyfiddle

And this is the body as new from MJT. Knackered slightly-3-tone sunburst on ash

stickyfiddle

Minor update. Having convinced myself I only need to accommodate the pickup legs and screws, today I bought a chisel...  

I'm actually quite happy with it. It's far from perfect, but by the last of 4 sections I had a reasonable bit of control. Everything could do with a little tidying up and I haven't decided whether I'll show you lot yet, but for a "vibey-relic" that won't even be visible it's ok, and certainly preferable to spending on big tools I don't have space for, or need to use again

impmann

Thats going to look very Sonic Youth... I approve. :-)

stickyfiddle

That’s the plan. I’m not really into SY or heavy relics but you can’t have a Blaster that isn’t at least a little beaten up 

stickyfiddle

Hoping to get this moving again tomorrow - been stuck in Riyadh working late nights and weekends the last couple of weeks. 

I think I have everything I need to get a playable guitar, then I’ll take a call on fancy neck and guard. Can’t wait to try the pickups. 

There will be photos, as always

TheMarlin

I might be selling my Fender Wide Range Cunife pickups if anyone is looking. 

stickyfiddle

Decent progress this afternoon. 

Cheapie neck fitted and has tunings after a fair bit of sanding the thick finish on the heel. Then I had to fix the nut slot which had a fair layer of finish in it so was miles off being able to take a regular-sized nut. I’ve also rolled the edges a bit. 

Next up was more chiselling of pickup routes to allow some movement in the neck-bridge direction. The cheap black pickguard I sourced needes them in a different place to where I think the final guard will, but either way it’s now fully flexible. 

Bridge thimbles also needed some more drilling. Basically my whole afternoon has been adjusting stuff to make other stuff fit with said stuff, mores than actually making a guitar, but that's par for the course I guess.  

I'm hoping to take a half day tomorrow at work and the the bridge and wiring done then I can string it up and see what I think. In the meantime, here are some pictures! 









Sawdust everywhere. And yes, there are rocket ships on my socks.


Neck fitted to body for the first time



And a quick mockup of the overall look. I think I still want a tort guard but the black is actually much better than I expected 

Teyeplayer

That looks super cool already.

impmann

Black looks way better. Seriously!!

RocknRollDave

impmann said:

Black looks way better. Seriously!!

Agreed. Tortoise-shell doesn’t even look that great on a tortoise, never mind a scratchplate.

stickyfiddle

I think black is too 70s, whereas I really want a "50s restomod" vibe on this one, but we'll see. 

I have the whole thing wired and bolted tighter but something isn't right as it's not outputting any sound. Pickups were definitely ok before I screwed down the guard so I'm assuming probably just a short somewhere underneath. I'm knackered from my last few days' work so putting it down for now and will come back at the weekend. 

I also needed a little more chiselling on the trem route as it was a clear 2mm too short to allow the trem lock button to move. Very odd as MJT are usually great with this sort of thing. Another annoyance is a stripped thread in one of the witchhat knobs I have so it won't tighten. I'm thinking that's gotta be worth a try with some glue to try and close give the grubscrew something to bite into - if it's buggered anyway I may as well try. 

And finally it also needs at least 1mm taking off the nut height, so I'm far from done either way. But for now it certainly looks cool

(Also worth another big recommendation for my TS100 iron - heats up and cools down in well under 30 seconds, fully temperer controlled as well as bit slim and light to hold. It's genuinely brilliant.)

stickyfiddle

I worked out why there’s no sound… 

https://i.imgur.com/pfjjs6C.mp4 

Never had that happen before!! 

Sporky

That looks ace with the black guard. 

stickyfiddle

After the volume pot issue, today's good news is I managed to get the nut lowered to about the right place while on a conference call.. 

stickyfiddle

Boom. Pot sorted and strings on and while it has a long way to go in setup, early indications are that it sounds GOOD.

While heavily caveating that the pickup heights are definitely way wrong and the strings are about 5mm off the fretboard, it's a little darker sounding than I'd like. I reckon that can be helped a little with a new tone pot - at the mo it's got 1M volume and 500k tone because my other 1M pot is the dead one, so I'll definitely fix that. It also has a ridiculous taper on the volume pot, so I may need to get a different type of 1M pot anyway. BUT with everything full up it does sound like the pickup I was expecting from the CuNiFes. 

Second witchhat has been glued up all day but still won't grip the thread, so that's gone in the bin and I'll need to get more, or maybe try Strat knobs once it has a tort guard. 

Next few days will see a big shim as a minimum, and maybe a hint of truss rod tension and some proper setting up. THEN I can think about ordering a really perfect neck. 

But right now I'm a happy camper indeed.