unnoticeable changes

i didn't think to take pictures while i had it apart today.  i removed the pickguard to the recently assembled jazzmaster and added another ground wire from the shielding to the volume pot that i previously forgot.  i also added some wood glue to the pickguard screw holes because i think i drilled a few of them too large.  lastly, i removed part of the copper shielding on the body because when the cable was inserted into the jack, the cable tip was sometimes touching the shielding on the body and shorting out.

sound sample

here's a sound sample.  nothing special.  i was using the whammy bar at the end of this and it didn't do much.  i think that's because i don't have the bridge post holders in there tight and so it just moves with it.
http://www.twotrackmusic.com/forums/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=2193.0;attach=3120

mission accomplished

it sounds so much better than my sg build from a few years ago.

more solder

the electronics are all soldered. time to put this thing together.  there's something funky going on with the jack and the 3-way switch doesn't work like i expected.  down position=bridge pickup, middle=bridge pickup (instead of both), and up=neck pickup.  not a big deal to me.  i'm leaving it as is.

grounded

ground wire in the bridge post and soldered to the shielding.

ready for some heat

the wiring is ready to solder. three way switch and one volume pot only. i really don't use anything else.

finished pickguard

got jiggy with it one more time. the only thing left should be assembly and setup. yay!

pickguard prep

drilled holes so i can get the handheld jigsaw in there.

installed trem

well it looks like the headstock shape was a stupid idea. i will show a picture later but i might have to string it on the wrong side for the gbe strings. i have read that angling the strings between the nut and the tuners is a bad thing but the angle will not be any worse than a gibson.

battery

i used a battery to keep the tremolo lined up and in place so i could mark the screw holes.

the hulk

what a horrible day. i either have super-human strength or i have a bunch of cheap parts. i broke a screw to a tuner as well as the one in the heel. i had to tear out the end of the screws with pliers and tore up the wood pretty well, so i used some epoxy to repair the damage. i think i am done for the day.

shields up

just about ready for assembly. the body is lacquered and has been shielded with copper along with the pickguard. the neck has been tung oil finished, too.

actually got something done.

will this be the trademark headstock of future rk constructs guitars? i really like it. in addition, the heel got the corners sanded to fit the curves in the body's pocket. also, the body was repainted today with what appears to be smoother results.

short poem

rain, rain, go away
come again another day
rain, rain, go away
i want to paint my guitar today

make sense?

this is the plan.

orange ya glad to see me?

hopefully a few more coats of orange will go on more smoothely next time on sections like this. i keep using the palm sander when i probably should have done this by hand. i am always looking to do it the quick way though.

stupid ebay

just realized that the tuners i bought from a chinese seller on ebay are 3x3 and not 6 in line as advertised.  i'm going to have to modify the headstock now.  ugh.

gettin' my hopes up

it's starting to look like a guitar. lots of work left and the paint job has a lot of imperfections to work on.

thick second coat with the sun out now

fourth coat pf primer

i can still see the imperfections under the primer but i think i am going to go ahead and move onto the orange.

primer coat two

primer coat one

time to paint?

everything is sanded and filled. i think it is paint time.

final parts shipment

is on the way.  guitarfetish neck and vintage whammy and a few other miscellaneous items, such as chrome knobs, 3-way switch, pickguard screws, and jack plate finish out the parts needed.  i'll total up the total parts and costs at some point, but off the top of my head i think i'm doing this project all for less than $200.  i'd appreciate my sg build a little more if it only cost $200 to build.  the next project is to see if i can go back and improve its playability.

bites

the jigsaw took more than i expected here. hopefully i did not ruin it. thankfully i cut well outside of my trace line or it could have been a lot worse.

glue and wood filler

 sand off the excess wood filler and then hopefully i'll be finished sanding.

tracing the template

my advice here is to not tape the corners, so you easily trace the spots that are going to be tricky to cut.

sanding complete?

gettin' jiggy with it

cavity blocks and horns are cut with portable jigsaw. it is close enough to jazzmaster shape now.

pickguard template

i need to re-make the template a little larger in a few spots, but this is pretty close to what it is going to be.

wax on always on

i am not patient enought to sand this all the way to bare wood. i am just going to sand enough to smoothe it out before i paint. i am going to fill the cavity, fill the neck pocket screw holes with epoxy, and re-shape the horns before i sand anymore though.

i will cut these tomorrow, if time allows of course.

fill 'er up

i did the little pencil shading trick to get an outline of the tremolo cavity. i am going to cut it out and trace it onto the poplar board i am going to use to fill it.

a lot more work than expected

poly

i did a little research and i think that the sunburst underneath has a polyester finish because the paint stripper won't work on it.  apparently, i need a heat gun.  i have no desire to buy a heat gun and i wasn't planning on a $1000 build, so, i think i'll sand it and paint over it like the last guy did.  i have a soldering iron, but i think that gets a little too hot

originally some boring sunburst finish

twenty minutes after the stripper

parts!

i ordered most of the parts this past weekend from a couple of ebay stores.  the strap locks look as good as guitar center for $6!  i also have tuners, bridge, jack, jack plate, pickups, knobs, neck plate, switch, and string trees on the way for less than $60.  the tremolo/whammy isn't going to be in stock for 4-6 weeks.  there's no hurry with all the cold weather right now.  i doubt i will get the body ready for a couple months, so it could be awhile between updates.

known parts left to acqure:  whammy/tremolo, pickguard screws, finished neck, maybe a nut, strap, gig bag, paint, and poplar scrap for trem cavity.

stuff i already have:  shielding, wire, pick guard material, volume pot, lacquer, body

hope to end up with:  a decent playing orange jazzmaster style guitar with black pick guard and chrome hardware.

tremolo terror

does anyone know what kind of tremolo fits this routing?

cavity search

this is kind of what i was afraid of when i first took it out of the box. i am either limited to the standard jazzmaster/jaguar tremolo or i need to fill it properly with a piece of wood that is cut to fit.

about what i expected

here's the guitar body i won in an ebay auction. do you think i can turn it into an orange jazzmaster?  we'll see, but first i got to dig the epoxy or whatever that garbage in the tremolo route is.

body acquired

i won a ratty old guitar body on ebay.  in the picture it looks like i should be able to make it look like a jazzmaster with some minor modifications.  i can't wait to receive it.