ShortScale.org

I'm not one for project threads, so here's a post-op version condensed into one post. As is typical for an avj post, this is annoyingly fucking wordy; just look at the pretty pictures if you'd like. I didn't have the foresight to start a thread many months ago, nor did I want to post a photo of a paint can, a tree and and a Great Idea, so this is it. Send complaints to serfx -- he asked for it.

I've long been a vocal fan of the Classic Player Jaguar (SC) and Jazzmaster, as I really believe them to be the best value new or used when it comes to getting one's hands on a fairly close version of the traditional versions of each instrument -- minus the pickups, of course. Yes, the break angle is increased with the tailpiece placement and the neck radius is flatter with larger frets, but these were things I was very accustomed to with prior guitars anyway.

I intended to first buy the JM, but found a discounted floor model CP Jag at Elderly Music and it played great, so I bought it. This still left a hole and desire for a JM, so based on my great experience with the Jag, I snagged a CP JM and immediately replaced the pickups with AVRIs as well and loved it.


(limpy trem arms fixed later; worry not)

I loved the piss out of the JM -- but short of swapping parts, I'd never really followed through on a complete visual overhaul of a guitar that I played regularly. I decided to go for broke and refinish it, as almost every other instrument I owned had been sunburst by complete accident and I was tired of it. Here's what I planned for:



Previously, the only guitar I had stripped was my first guitar: a '94 Squier Strat. Stripping the JM was a similar nightmare, as both times I had failed to follow every piece of advice given on every forum that warned against stripping modern Fender poly finishes. Most folks had the best results by sanding down the existing finish a bit to create a nice base on which to shoot a new color, but I thought my original nightmare with the Squier was related to the plywood body and not the finish; how wrong I was.

In addition to the commercially-available strippers I tried, I have access to some ridiculous chemical solvents at work, and nothing I tried on the JM would do much of anything. I even resorted to using a sandblasting chamber with our largest beads, which worked okay but resulted in some pretty deep gouges thanks to my impatience. Most of the work was done with a heat gun and a razor blade -- admittedly not a great method, but I managed to get it all off. The biggest surprise was discovering the CP JM body was only two pieces, but at that point I had fucked that body in ways that would make John Waters cringe and had no interest in spending the time to make it perfect.

[insert six months of absolutely no progress]

I patched the mess I left behind as best I could, but I also had no desire to return the body to a flawless state and accepted the experience as a lesson learned and decided to move on with paint. Again, I'm not proud of the stripping job and had plenty of filling to do. Judge for yourself:



I finally got around to painting it this week, which made for an interesting week thanks to to using the basement as a paint booth. Common sense and giant warnings on things I'm holding in my hand were no match for a burning need to finish a project, so Mrs. AVJ and I totally got made more stupider by huffing mad fumez. My plan was to spray on a few coats of a great color I had found at Home Depot, play it for a while, then add some clear lacquer for some shine and protection. I had no desire to play the replacement-pickguard-and-hardware game, so I bought some glossy white Rust-Oleum outdoor plastic furniture paint that promised to cover plastic well and just went for it. I sprayed the pickguard, the trem arm tip, the pickup covers, and the switch tip (amber was unavailable). I've always loved the single-ply white look.



I stayed up late last night finishing everything and put some pics on Facebook, but I put it all together today. I know, I know -- no one cares.

Before:


After:

(a favorably-timed photo-op of which I took great advantage)

I'm extremely happy. I'd like to replace the hastily-painted VOL/TONE knobs with proper white witch-hats, but I'm in no hurry. I hate the term "workhorse", so I'll just say I will enjoy using and abusing this stupid bastard in the future.

I would love to see a Jazzmaster finished like that chair!

good work!

Did you pop in clockwork orange just to take that photo? It somehow fits the tone of that image quite well.

Oh and that Jazzmaster looks beautiful! Great work

plopswagon wrote:I would love to see a Jazzmaster finished like that chair!

good work!

Thanks! The chair was a recent purchase by the ol' lady, which I wasn't terribly into at first but now love. She was surprisingly fascinated by this whole process and called dibs on the next refin, which might be the CP Jag now that I have this guy functional again. I told her to just go for it Fool-style, but I will beg for a color and pattern match on the chair and give you all the credit.

Nick wrote:Did you pop in clockwork orange just to take that photo? It somehow fits the tone of that image quite well.

Oh and that Jazzmaster looks beautiful! Great work

The missus had just finished watching something on Netflix when I wanted to take a picture in decent light, so I told her to put on something cool for the photo while I went for a piss. That movie has been an incredible stylistic influence on us both (and the Carlos score remains my favorite of any film to date, which I'm sure you're quite familiar with), and I'm proud to say she's completely supportive of the lighted "HOME" sign that I'll erect when we move.

I also just noticed the trem arm in the "Before" photo that was taken while the arm was still a mega-limp is in an eerily similar position in the "After" photo despite being separated by many, many months and a complete disassembly.

I also just tightened the one pickguard screw near the rhythm circuit that was not at all tight and sitting a mile above.

Great work man, just amazing.

it has rekindled my lust for a cp jazzmaster (though i do dig my bt one...)
and that blue is one of my favourite colours..

though i know you're planning on swapping the vol & tone knobs
if your are thinking of getting white witch hats, just keep the painted ones and put a black dot where you want the volume marker to be..

but i might suggest getting some white jag/mustang knobs

i don't quite know who online sells them, but i suspect that Mike does, since a few of his pedals use them.

also, thanks for making the thread
i love reading about projects.

from here on out though i believe i'll follow this example and make a thread once the project is complete.

serfx wrote:Great work man, just amazing.

it has rekindled my lust for a cp jazzmaster (though i do dig my bt one...)
and that blue is one of my favourite colours..

I forgot to note it in the original post, but did a quick Google image search for the color and this is it:



That's the same primer I used too, which I also failed to mention in the original post; it must be a popular combination. I really love the color though, and I purchased about six cans of it about two years ago to one day use for refinishing a guitar. I want to use it on everything now.

Bonus sweet guitars I came across during that search, painted with the same color:

serfx wrote: though i know you're planning on swapping the vol & tone knobs
if your are thinking of getting white witch hats, just keep the painted ones and put a black dot where you want the volume marker to be..

but i might suggest getting some white jag/mustang knobs

i don't quite know who online sells them, but i suspect that Mike does, since a few of his pedals use them.

I should've taken a close-up of the knobs, but they're actually not that bad. The letters and numbers appear to be completely filled in, but despite being painted everything is still very readable. It also occurred to me that any replacement knobs will be "white", but not exactly the same white I used here and I'll have to paint them anyway. If I do get the witch hats, I was thinking black might be nice and balance well with the black rhythm circuit controls.

serfx wrote:also, thanks for making the thread
i love reading about projects.

from here on out though i believe i'll follow this example and make a thread once the project is complete.

I hadn't even thought about making a project thread and just wanted to show the results, but your comment on FB had me wanting to discuss the process a bit. In retrospect, a traditional thread would have been extremely frustrating for people to read given the huge time gaps it took to finally finish the thing. I was mostly just being a bit of a dick with the comments in the original post, but I think most people would rather read about a project all at once -- especially a terribly uninteresting and unprofessional one like this. Others would also likely benefit from advice given during a project thread, but I imagine the long periods of radio silence would've created anger.

avj wrote:

Now THAT'S a fuckin' CHAIR.










Nice work too

did the refin change how it sounds at all?

My first poly scrape was real horrorshow too. We aren't born knowing how to do this shit. I think it turned out quite well. I suppose it is the easy way out to work on one that's already been stripped or botched, because I can only make it better--usually. I am the worst about being impatient, which is amazing since I have projects in limbo for years. Energy is mercurial. One never knows what whim may strike.

I am using that same brand of paint on my jalopy rims. They sure have a lot of colors. Always wear a respirator. I paint under the clear blue sky. Dust is rarely that big an issue. I would sooner paint in a vacant lot than in my house. When I get around to painting my car roof this spring I may just drive it somewhere and have a go so the neighbors don't freak.

Mattsican wrote:did the refin change how it sounds at all?

I could lie and say removing the thick plastic shell really opened up the strong upper midrange or some similar mojo nonsense, but I had the fucking thing apart for so long I really have no idea. It sounds amazing both unplugged and plugged in (as it did before), and it feels incredible because I gave it a thorough proper setup. If I had to do it all again, I'd follow the advice given elsewhere on shortscale and on every other forum I came across while doing the research: do not attempt to strip ridiculous modern poly finishes, especially if you're a man with more ambition than follow-throughedness. I'm not convinced removing the finish on a solidbody guitar makes a difference that outweighs the effort unless you're a retiree/pensioner who enjoys slapping his or her dick on the strings for an hour before a second afternoon nap rather than actually playing.

DGNR8 wrote:My first poly scrape was real horrorshow too. We aren't born knowing how to do this shit. I think it turned out quite well. I suppose it is the easy way out to work on one that's already been stripped or botched, because I can only make it better--usually. I am the worst about being impatient, which is amazing since I have projects in limbo for years. Energy is mercurial. One never knows what whim may strike.

I am using that same brand of paint on my jalopy rims. They sure have a lot of colors. Always wear a respirator. I paint under the clear blue sky. Dust is rarely that big an issue. I would sooner paint in a vacant lot than in my house. When I get around to painting my car roof this spring I may just drive it somewhere and have a go so the neighbors don't freak.

This is incredibly poetic; I read it to myself several times.

I actually grabbed a few more colors this weekend at Home Depot that I hope to soon paint something with. Great colors indeed, and the coverage is incredible.