1965 Jazzmaster Clone...

fullerplast · Post by **fullerplast** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 12:20 am

New parts soaking up noxious fumes:

And drying after a light mist of saltwater:

Fake body date:

And rusty trem installed with vintage hardware:

I cleaned the excess rust from the large screws on the trem (leaving just the collet and lock button rusty), cleaned up the pickup covers, polished the body to a semi-gloss, and added just a bit of wear to the neck:

Tomorrow I'll polish the neck with steel wool, mount the tuners, and maybe yellow the heel just a bit more...

robert(original) · Post by **robert(original)** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 1:37 am

that looks fantastic!
i want to see more pics and some close ups!

astro · Post by **astro** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 1:30 am

fullerplast wrote: Not overdoing it is the key

+1

I generally don't care for relics, because too often the relicing process is overdone and ends up looking fake. But what you've done is minimalist enough to look quite realistic.

Have you posted a group pic of all your guitars? I'd love to see your collection!

fullerplast · Post by **fullerplast** » Wed Sep 24, 2008 11:16 am

This is about as close as I have to a recent shot(s) of my guitars:

PARTY!

Although when I was dealing about five years ago, I had over 50 guitars at the most. Almost all of them were Fenders, either short scale or offset. I also had a nice collection of 70s MIJ Lawsuit guitars and some oddball Kays, Harmonys, etc.

fullerplast · Post by **fullerplast** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 3:28 pm

OK, there's still no electronics, but I did build the bridge, mount the tuners and string 'er up. I'm really happy with the setup and it sounds great acoustically... nice resonance.

\

I achieved this look by tinting the ends of the neck and sanding and staining the middle:

Additional tinting on the heel:

I used the original holes in the shim:

The bridge. All the parts are vintage except the intonation screws which are correct round head SAE thread:

The bridge is only sitting on a few threads of the "feet". Happily there are no dead frets or excessive buzz:

Post by **Hurb** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 4:44 pm

Lovely!

James · Post by **James** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 4:46 pm

How did you age the pickup covers?

fullerplast · Post by **fullerplast** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 4:51 pm

James wrote:How did you age the pickup covers?

Those are actually vintage. I had one that was painted black and then sanded off, and I lucked out and found one on the bay that looked like the same thing had been done to it. They don't match exactly but they're pretty close.

James · Post by **James** » Mon Sep 29, 2008 5:00 pm

I was thinking they look pretty convinving. Next time I restring my mustang I might have a go at aging the covers a little.

fullerplast · Post by **fullerplast** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 3:27 pm

PROGRESS!

Today I made the pickup shields, fabbed some glaziers, installed them, and connected all the grounds. I have all the electronics on hand now, but am waiting for the pickguard shield and pickup screws.

P.S. I drilled that hole for the trem ground prior to the finish, but forgot to take pictures of it.

cooter · Post by **cooter** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 7:26 pm

I didn't know what they were called but I found a dusty pack of glaziers in a local hardware store the other day for 99 cents. They looked just like the ones from my Mustang build so I bought 'em and threw them in the toolbox.

Coming along nicely by the way.

markocaster · Post by **markocaster** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 8:11 pm

looks very cool

r40f · Post by **r40f** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 8:20 pm

looks great - love the color

BobArsecake · Post by **BobArsecake** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 8:26 pm

I've rather warmed to these projects, that looks ace! :D I don't think I've seen the transition Jazzmaster logo on anything but the Costello signature one. Think that's got to be my favourite of Fender's logos. Nice job :D

Will · Post by **Will** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 9:54 pm

Really spectacular work - it's fun to see all the steps to make it period correct (even if that gets a bad rap here). And ditto on the transition logo; it's by far my favorite.

DGNR8 · Post by **DGNR8** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 10:25 pm

Oh shit I like that. The brass looks much better with big solder globs on it. They still need a little more convincing, a la brutality.

fullerplast · Post by **fullerplast** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 11:50 pm

Thanks Guys!

That brass looks alot better in person, the flash made it look much nastier than it is. I'll probably blob more solder on those glazier points when I wire it up. After everything tarnishes, I think it will look pretty cool.

BTW - Glazier points actually hold window panes in the sash while the window is being glazed (hence the name). I didn't know you could just go buy them at the hardware store until after I wrote my Oly White Jag article and someone emailed and told me. Old Leo was pretty clever. I made my own this time coz I still had a shitload of .032 aluminum from last time.

Ran into a snag today:

I enocuntered the same old problem with the Allparts body. I assumed that when they finally fixed the bridge pickup route, they would also have fixed the width and depth of the rhythm cavity.... NOT!

The tone wheel pot shaft was rubbing on the sides of the cavity, and both wheels were rubbing on the brass. Being an aftermarket body, I could have just taken a few chunks out of it. But I decided to play with it instead. First, I shimmed the tone pot with a washer and that solved the rubbing on the side of the cavity. Then I elongated the holes in the bracket and moved the pots up. To do this, I had to grind off a little tab on the mini-pot cases and clip the phenolic that holds the pot solder joints. Then I had to install the bracket and pots with the wheels loose, and center the wheels in the cutouts prior to securing them. It worked PERFECT on the tone pot. But ironically the volume pot still rubs just a slight bit. It's not much and I think the brass and/or knurled portion of the roller will wear down and stop rubbing fairly soon. Anyway, its not at the point of annoyance.

The problem:

The fix:

Notice how the shaft no longer protrudes on the tone wheel:

Assembled and works fine:

I actually like the wheels sticking up just a bit more than normal.

I saw this on a pic of an original mid-60s custom color JM on the offset forum recently, so I gave it a try:

I'll wire it up this weekend and can pretty much call this one a wrap!

Richard · Post by **Richard** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 11:54 pm

Amazing work. The aging is very convincing.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 12:52 pm

is this guitar something you're going to keep and play yourself? or is it something you'd sell on?

i'm just curious, because you've obviously put a lot of time and effort into it, but how would you quantify what it's worth if you were selling it?

fullerplast · Post by **fullerplast** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 4:27 pm

I plan to keep it. But sooner or later I'll be wanting something else and it may have to leave to make room....

As far as "value" its all relative to what someone would pay for it. I see guys paying $1600 for Nash partsmasters that look totally wrong, fake and inaccurate to me. Capsule music recently sold an awful looking "belt-sander relic" JM aftermarket partsmaster for about that same price. I'd be ashamed to ask that much...

Not counting labor, I have much less than a new CIJ into this.

I'm just having fun!