ShortScale.org

I built a jazzmaster from parts for a friend who beat testicular cancer. what a fucking thread opening. don't mean to bum you out or put myself on like a martyr. He's not even 20 yet, this is his "congrats for beating cancer & making it to 20" birthday present come the end of the month, but since he leaves for new york this saturday we're passing it off to him friday.

I'm gonna miss it.


slight build log:







It's a jazzmaster minus the rhythm circuit. The pickups were rewired with the cloth wire, (I know I know, sacrilegious and whatnot, I couldn't help myself) the Ω rating on there right now is before I switched the wire, now they read something like 6.28kΩ and 6.49kΩ. As for the cloth wire thing, I did something that's not "vintage correct" on the guitar, there is no brass inside it.

I used a squier strat neck from like 1998, it was sanded off when I bought it, I really like it. When I first installed it, I just put it flush to the neck pocket and put the pickups in all the way. Then I realized my mistake a went ahead and shimmed the neck a bunch. It plays like a dream, the action is ridiculously low. I managed to break a couple strings when I was experimenting with the shims so no demos tonight, but it's first song was freak scene. It seemed fitting.

It's strung with 12s right now, but I've noticed that the tension between the strings & the trem has caused the trem to not do the wobble it's supposed to. I've got 4 strings on after the break and the trem seems to work correctly. For some reason I never seem to buy more than 3 packs of strings at a time, so I'll be buying some new ones tomorrow. Question: is it the gauge of the strings that is causing enough tension to mess with the trem (so I should buy 11s for this?) or is it easily remedied by goofin' with the trem for a bit until the tension reverts to what would be a "normal" jag/jazz tremolo set up? (I read a post on the wiki about the trem set up, that's another possibility, but it seemed that was for the plate rubbing up against the slot for leeway.)

You can see where I grounded things in the picture above, it worked out for the best cause I didn't have to cut that brass and everything seems to be grounded. I'll get some out door pictures and a demo up tomorrow when I fix this trem issue. If you wanna see a specific picture, let me know. We (the funders of the project) have considered putting a decal on the headstock, the usual "fender (last name)master" or does that sound too lame?

Nice work! It's pretty bit of wood too.

I'ma guessing the stock trem spring might not be tough enough to handle 12s and provide the right tension. 10s might be a better bet, then tighten or loosen the trem spring to taste.

that is a thing of sheer beauty my friend

Wow, I never thought I'd say this but I hope I get cancer now if it means I'll get a guitar like that as a present. You're a good mate.

i can't think of a better gift, you are a fantastic dude.

my parts jazzmaster looks pretty much identical except it has a bound neck.

that is fucking amazing. one of the most beautiful guitars i've ever seen. the grain on that body is spec, and with the gold.

WOAOW.

Thanks so much dudes, I bought a case for it today.

Sorry I don't have a demo for it up today, I'm working on the decal and I bought some D'addario .011 flat wounds to try with the tremolo.

I'm really considering building myself one now, since the totally came up to only about $400 dollars. I ended up spending a lot of the funding on stuff we didn't use, like paint. So maybe there will be another guitar like this in the world, I might have a go at binding a neck just to be like you 'cats. Also, I'm taking furniture design this semester at school and my teacher send me an email with required buys. One of them was some routing bits, diy bodies here I come.

As for the cancer comment, I hope you don't get cancer and I hope you get a dream guitar.

what a lovely gesture, and great work!

nice work! i would have never thought of gold pg with natural finish, but it works. in some sorta industrial way

gaybear wrote: in some sorta industrial way

funny, my dad's friend said the same thing, maybe not the same meaning though.

So I went to Fedex Office today to print out a transparency for the decal. I've always thought about buying waterslide decal paper and havin' a go at that, but in the end I went with a different option. FrequencyCentral posted this tutorial on diy stomboxes. So I printed it out at fedex office for 80¢ and painted in the fender decal with some acrylic paint (yo mustang white decal). In the end it turned out a little pixelated but, satisfied. It's drying now, hope it goes as planned.

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Looks good!

ROOOOOOOONNEEEEEEEEEEEEEHHHHH!!!!

fantastic.

great thing to do for your mate. glad he beat his cancer. good luck to him - that is if he needs more cos as someone who beat cancer he probably feels like a lucky person who has enough luck to beat anything including cancer.

From your pics it looks like you got a low cost jazzy/jag replacement trem rather than a fender version. from personal experience i can tell you that the cheap replacement types never work totally like the fender types, but if you mess around with them for a while you can get them to function in a passable way.

or if you set it to lock, then boom, two problems solved.

the replacement trems don't have a lock.

i have a feeling a guy who just beat cancer doesn't give a fuck about the trem unit on a free jazzmaster.

hotrodperlmutter wrote:i have a feeling a guy who just beat cancer doesn't give a fuck about the trem unit on a free jazzmaster.

And I'm pretty sure I can clearly see a lock in the picture.

yeah, i wasn't gonna argue anymore after that.

Nice job, man. THis is what guitars are for. Bringing teh rawk.