JazzBlaster build COMPLETE!!’

stickyfiddle

Righto, arrangements are in place with @lamf68 for a nice bit of relicky olympic white, and a 1.5kg korina body is on order. Everything feels right with the world. 

The sunburst body will be for sale eventually if anyone is interested!

Creed_Clicks

How much are you selling the body for?

stickyfiddle

Honestly no idea yet tbh! I guess I’d aim for 250-ish, once I’ve tidied up the routing and I can add shielding if that’s useful - I’ll do the new one at the same time.

I should probably note it’ll be a while as it’s currently with me in AbDabs. Small possibility it’ll be available when I come home some time in Nov but not sure of timings yet. 

stickyfiddle

Ooooh, the neck is ready and looking good. Should be here next week at some point. 

stickyfiddle

Neck arrived ages ago and is lovely. The Oly White body has just been confirmed as ready so will be with me at some point in the next couple of weeks.

And then I get to rebuild it and get it properly fettled

theatreanchor

The OG build looked great. Good luck with the next steps.

stickyfiddle

Update o'clock! 

Full post incoming

stickyfiddle

Well... a body arrived a couple of days ago thanks to a very good price from MJT for a lightweight alder body they already had in stock. 

I got everything swapped over yesterday but needed to fettle a bit, which was this morning. Major thing was getting the right shim (stepped cardboard layers FTW), replacing the cheap switch I'd used before for a proper switchcraft jobbie, and heavily rolling the fretboard edges because I'm not the sort of monster who can deal with square edges and not complain. I'd say it's now about 95% there. It may still need a truss rod tweak and a bit of fine tuning of the action while it beds in.

Overall I'm a happy camper. JM vibes with zero noise and the WRHBs are lovely

(rhythm circuit is installed but not hooked up. I don't think I need it but they look wrong without)

Lebarque

Gorgeous. Enjoy

stickyfiddle

Lebarque said:

Gorgeous. Enjoy

Cheers. I’m very happy with it - always nice when a prophecy makes you jump through some hoops but comes out so well in the end. 

It should make a great gigging guitar

Sporky

Imagine, if you'd be so kind, that I've worded this better.

What's the deal with the weird bridge? 

(guitar looks ace) 

Kittyfrisk

Is that not a Mastery bridge?

Sporky

Google says yes. Probably in the thread too, sorry.

roberty

Some impressive work there @stickyfiddle well done. Looks the business

Kittyfrisk

Sporky said:

Google says yes. Probably in the thread too, sorry.

No criticism, I think they look weird too 

stickyfiddle

Yeah, it's a Mastery M1 bridge. They definitely look like bike parts, but it's a fantastic bridge for a JM.

I'm very much looking forward to my first band rehearsal with this thing - it'll play clean funk quite nicely but absolutely roars when you turn it up. 

ElectricXII

I love that guitar. How did you roll the fretboard edges? I tried this with a Player P-bass a few years ago and buggered it up big style.

stickyfiddle

ElectricXII said:

I love that guitar. How did you roll the fretboard edges? I tried this with a Player P-bass a few years ago and buggered it up big style.

@ElectricXII ;;I start with a razor blade (actually a brand new & sharp Stanley blade), working along the edge. It's a scraping movement, not cutting or slicing - that's really important. Once I'm basically happy with the overall shape I'll then smooth it with a few grades of micromesh. The key thing is to remember you're trying to round off the edge, and not make a flat bevel. I don't think I ever do more than 2 strokes in a row at exactly the same angle. And if you're doing it on an already-fretted neck, you usually want to make the middle of each space between frets more heavily rolled, so you end up with almost a lozenge sort of shape. 

While it's not strictly necessary I try and focus on the areas that would typically get the most playing as well, so frets 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 10 & 12 get a bit more heavily rolled than the others, though it's marginal and you don't want dramatic differences from one fret to the next. I may roll these a little bit more yet but I don't want to go too far so have stopped for now.

I've done it on quite a few guitars now - it's quite meditative. 

First fret heavily rolled for easy thumb-over Fs


3rd and 5th a little heavier than 4th:


My basic approach so you can see the angles involved. No force applied here so no sawdust, but you want to take just a fraction of material away with each pass.

ElectricXII

@stickyfiddle Nice one, thanks. I might tackle a tele later!

stickyfiddle

ElectricXII said:

@stickyfiddle Nice one, thanks. I might tackle a tele later!

Just as long as it’s rosewood and not finished maple - go for it!