Xaviere Jazzmaster project

[Dillon]

Thought this may be relevant to your interests I mentioned a while back I bought one of those Xaviere JT-100 jazzmaster copies. Well, it finally came this week. I bought it not expecting much, but with the intention of modifying it. This is my build thread. Here's a link for reference:

http://www.guitarfetish.com/XV-JT-Serie ... c_208.html

First impressions: This guitar is very well made for the money ($230 + shipping). The body contours are nice, finish is without flaws, the bridge is a near-exact copy, the stock pickups sound surprisingly great, and the neck isn't terrible. Oh, and it was set up pretty well from the factory...decent action, perfect intonation. BUT I bought it as a project, so here we go.

Unboxed and tools gathered, I'm ready to start. Note, it was better packaged, I removed some of the padding.



Body shot.



Nut looks like it was cut by a 10-year-old in a Chinese sweat shop. OH WAIT it probably was!



The headstock is pretty ugly. Logo is like a sticker, it's not even under the finish.



The neck is probably the most disappointing part of this guitar, but then, I expected that. Continued in next post...

[Dillon]

I'm surprised by the quality of the wiring. Not surprising though is that the cavities aren't shielded at all. I had already read about that on the offset guitars forum and prepared for it.



I start tearing stuff apart. Amazingly, the factory pickups actually are shaped like a JM coil. But they aren't wound as wide as a real JM pickup. Here's a comparison shot of the Lollar vs. the factory one...Lollar is on the left. You can tell that the coil itself has a much larger diameter.



Failed experiment to try and dye the bright white hardware to more of a cream color. This is coffee made about as black as it gets, mixed with soy sauce and various other dark-colored substances. Too bad it did absolutely nothing.



Afterward I get to work on the wiring. I reused the stock wiring, since it's actually good quality. Not pretty but it works. The holes for the bridge made convenient spots to keep the pots in place. Here it is wired up:



I used CTS 250k pots and a Switchcraft 3-way. Continued in next post...

[Freddy V-C]

Every time I see one of these guitars I think about how cheap it would be to buy one, just replace the neck (unless I like the neck, of course) and have a ROCKIN' AXE. Then I remember I live in England and shipping would cost £1,000,000...

[Dillon]

After the wiring is done, I start work on shielding the cavity. I'm too cheap to buy the copper tape for a cheap guitar like this, so I'm using aluminum foil and 3M spray adhesive. Here's a shot of it partway done, which also shows the tailpiece. It's a pretty close copy, but clearly not as well made as an AVRI trem, which I'm going to replace it with later.



Speaking of the bridge, here's a shot of the Xaviere bridge vs. an MIJ Mustang bridge. It's a near exact copy.



Cavity shielding done. Again, ugly, but it works.



Pickguard shielded and wired up. I'll replace that blue wire eventually since it's so stretched, but I just wanted to get it working at the time.

[Dillon]

I forgot to take pics of it, but I spraypainted the pickguard with appliance paint. It's a nice color, it's durable enough to keep from flaking off, and it looks a hell of a lot better than the factory fake tortoise.

New neck (from a mid-80s Ibanez Roadstar II) placed for fitment. Or rather, lack of fitment. There's a huge gap between the side of the neck and the body. That's really the only flaw with this guitar. It's a bit annoying, especially since the GFS site specifically says it's the same size as a strat neck pocket. Clearly, it's not.



Whatever. I bolt it up anyway. The gap is now on the treble side, and I have to move the strings over to compensate. Check out the high E, it's just about over the height adjustment screw:



Despite that it plays pretty well. It definitely has that "springy" jazzmaster sound to it acoustically. Still hoping to get a mastery bridge and AVRI tailpiece for it. Here's a pic of the finished assembly:




Afterward I decide to try out the Lollars. I bought a set of cream strat knobs to match the pickup covers.



I don't really like it. In fact, the more I look at it the less I like it. It's like it's trying to hard to look "aged" and just reminds me of a Squier or an SX or something. I think I'm going back to white hardware.

Either way I'm slightly disappointed at the sound of these Lollars. I kind of like the stock ones better! These just aren't as hot / ballsy as I had hoped for. They may be for sale soon if anyone is interested.

Well, that's it for now. I'll post more when I get the AVRI trem. And I plan on buying a proper Fender neck for it as well. Probably I'll have one made by Warmoth or USACG with a matching headstock...love that look.

[Mages]

cool stuff!

yeah, those GFS pickups look closer to the real deal than the MIJ jazzy pickups. anymore impressions you can share on the differences between the GFS and the lollars?

[cur]

I like it so far, I don't mind the cream covers and knobs.

[Dillon]

I don't mind the cream either, but they don't fit with the matching headstock. I discovered the covers from the GFS pickups fit on the Lollars. Not wanting to ruin the Lollar covers, I sprayed the GFS ones black and put black strat knobs on.



Muuuuch better. Now I need some cool knobs, maybe fender 70s-style witch hats / amp knobs, or Gibson bell knobs with the metal top.

As for GFS vs. Lollar, well, let me talk about the GFS pickups first. They are wound to 13k, which is about 5k higher than the Lollars. And you can definitely tell. The GFS pickups are noticeably louder, and are easier to pull off pinch harmonics on. For once, I have to agree with what the GFS website says: "I think you'll find, when comparing these to a real vintage axe- that the GFS JM90 are a fatter, louder, bolder and harder- it's like the Jazzmaster sound and added some PAF humbucker to the mix." I think they sound pretty damn good for how much you pay...I'd say if you're looking for a hotter replacement for a CIJ / MIJ, definitely give these a shot.

The Lollars sound much more like a vintage Jazzmaster. In fact, they're hardly distinguishable from vintage Jazzmasters I've played. (Not that I own any, but I did test a couple out before building this thing.) They sound closer than AVRI pickups IMO, though I really like the AVRI sound as well, and had planned on going that route. Lollar claims they are built to exact specs as vintage pickups, and I believe it. So if you want an authentic vintage JM sound, these are great.

[cur]

black bits ftw!

[hotrodperlmutter]

looking at those top two pictures made me realize that the top bout on these things are huge! and the offset is way exaggerated.

[Dillon]

Probably just perspective, honestly---the body is close to the same shape, save for the fact that a real JM body is slightly wider around the edges and WAY taller, with the upper horns extending half an inch further or so. I'll take some comparison shots soon. Safe to say this body feels more like a strat in terms of contours and size, which I actually quite like.

[Ankhanu]

The black on white looks awesome, especially with the matching headstock. Nice work!

[avj]

Awesome work on this! What was the brand of paint you used for the pickguard? I've tried special outdoor plastic furniture paint without much luck, but that stuff looks pretty great.

Robroe took some photos of his Xaviere JM overlayed with an AVRI Jag. It was pretty close if I remember correctly.

[Mages]

yeah it was the old GFS offset models that had the odd shape (but they were still cool IMO). these new ones with the JM pickups are much closer to the real shape, just a little smaller.

[Steve!]

Nice work man how does she play?