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Nothing very exciting really, but I thought I'd start a thread about a Musicmaster project I'm working on. This is my first project guitar. I've never done anything like this before, so I thought I'd try to keep things simple and just assemble a guitar using finished parts. I also have zero experience with soldering or working with electronics of any kind, but I've been wanting to at least try it. I thought it might be easiest if I started out with a guitar with some of the simplest electronics, and a Musicmaster seemed like the perfect choice. I also wanted a vintage guitar that was already aged and relic'd naturally, so I started buying parts on ebay one at a time and I've finally got everything I need to put it together. I'm sure I'll need some help and advice along the way. Now the assembly begins. First, some photos of the parts...

65/66 Musicmaster II body in original red finish





66 Mustang neck







60's MM pickguard



and the rest of the parts

Lookin sweet. That's gonna be lots of fun

Kick the ass! Good going with parts. I have been on that same treasure hunt before. I painted and assembled one a few weeks ago and it only took me two days, start to finish. Assembly doesn't take long, once you do a few. But you may have to monkey with the setup. Fenders are the easiest, IMO.

Here's the best diagram for that model. SS has more info on the wiki. I learned how to solder clean with cloth wires by looking there. Don't be afraid to waste wire or cut the cloth or vinyl shielding. You want to have enough wire to be able to move parts around for assembly, but long lengths increase resistance. A good shirt allows full reach, but isn't baggy.

Have you bought the tools yet? Get an iron with several tips. Some prefer high heat, but a standard Weller is fine. I also use an Exacto knife for trimming the cloth, nippers, needle nose pliers, and copper desoldering braids to wick of the old solder, or if you overload it. I have had to redo entire harnesses before. Keep a range of screwdrivers handy, and keep extra screws around. I keep several of those cheap plastic string winders within reach. I always need them after I am already caught in a tightly wound string trap. I like the heat shrink tubing for grafts. Electrical tape is a gummy black mess.

I have never seen it written anywhere, but I don't mind having wood glue on my fingers in case I burn myself. Soldering is a ritual for me. I am always aware of the dangers.

Looks like you are well on your way. I had fun putting together my musicmaster. I miss it sometimes though my Bronco fills the void nicely. I can't wait to see and hear it when it's finished.

DGNR8 wrote:Kick the ass! Good going with parts. I have been on that same treasure hunt before. I painted and assembled one a few weeks ago and it only took me two days, start to finish. Assembly doesn't take long, once you do a few. But you may have to monkey with the setup. Fenders are the easiest, IMO.

Here's the best diagram for that model. SS has more info on the wiki. I learned how to solder clean with cloth wires by looking there. Don't be afraid to waste wire or cut the cloth or vinyl shielding. You want to have enough wire to be able to move parts around for assembly, but long lengths increase resistance. A good shirt allows full reach, but isn't baggy.

Have you bought the tools yet? Get an iron with several tips. Some prefer high heat, but a standard Weller is fine. I also use an Exacto knife for trimming the cloth, nippers, needle nose pliers, and copper desoldering braids to wick of the old solder, or if you overload it. I have had to redo entire harnesses before. Keep a range of screwdrivers handy, and keep extra screws around. I keep several of those cheap plastic string winders within reach. I always need them after I am already caught in a tightly wound string trap. I like the heat shrink tubing for grafts. Electrical tape is a gummy black mess.

I have never seen it written anywhere, but I don't mind having wood glue on my fingers in case I burn myself. Soldering is a ritual for me. I am always aware of the dangers.

Thanks for all the info! I have all of the tools I need, I think. The soldering iron I have is a good one, but I only have one tip for it. Hopefully, it will be okay. I'm actually only going to wire one pickup for now. I thought it would be easier for me to start out that way. I didn't want to be overwhelmed, so I'm taking it kind of slow. I may eventually turn it into a Duo-Sonic, though, depending on how things go with this.

Okay, so before I start wiring this thing up, I wanted to make sure there weren't any issues with the neck or anything else, so I thought I'd go ahead and string it up just to make sure it was playable first. I also bought some compensated saddles for the bridge after learning that it might help with the intonation. So, I removed the original saddles, and... the screws on the compensated saddles were too big.







So, I've already hit my first snag. Oh well, it's nothing major. I thought about trying to enlarge the holes, but I'm not sure if I want to do that since it's an original bridge. I'm not too worried about it. I'll figure that out later.

After putting the original saddles back on, I went ahead and strung it up with some .10s I had laying around (I'm currently out of .11s). I also went ahead and put the pickguard and control plate on it, just to have a preview of what it will look like when it's done. Surprisingly, it plays pretty well without any tweaking. I didn't really mess with the saddles and/or intonation at this point, and I think the truss rod probably needs some adjusting, too, but overall I'm very pleased with the way it feels and plays already. The neck is a little chunky, but I love the way it feels - nice and broken in. The frets could probably use a little work, too, but they'll be fine for now. The neck pocket isn't exactly a snug fit. There's a noticeable gap there, and the pickguard has the typical shrinkage, but neither of those things really bother me.

I also love how light this guitar is. Granted, I haven't wired it up yet, so I know that will add a little bit of weight to it, but it's so comfortable to play - especially compared to my Jaguar. Here are a few photos:

Looks gorgeous!

Looks really nice man. Lovely mojo.

really nice. you should make it a duo sonic though.

Looks great. Can you let me know if you're not gonna use those saddles?

Thomas wrote:Looks great. Can you let me know if you're not gonna use those saddles?

Thanks! I'm sending the compensated saddles back, so I'll be using the original saddles for now.

nice frankstang

Any chance for a demo video once you get it all wired up? Looks pretty sweet.

wetbelly wrote:Any chance for a demo video once you get it all wired up? Looks pretty sweet.

Possibly, but I haven't had a chance to get anything else done on it yet. Hopefully one day soon, I'll have some time to finish it up. I only have wiring the pickup/electronics left to do, but it will be my first attempt at it, so it might take a while to figure everything out. We'll see...

From a fellow soldering rookie, a few thoughts:

Starting with a one-pickup guitar is the way to go. Don't get frustrated if it takes you a few tries before you get it to make sound, though.

Plan each solder joint very carefully before you pick up the iron. Most of them require a minimum of four hands. Have some alligator clips handy to clip the wires onto each other or whatever else is at hand, so you don't have to figure out how to hold them, the iron, and the spool of solder at the same time.

When I wired up my Broncomaster bass, I started by tracing the holes for the volume and tone pots onto a piece of cardboard, punched them out, and stuck the pots through there while I was working on them. That way you know your wires are the right length, you don't melt holes in your pickguard if you're clumsy with the iron, and you have something else to alligator clip the wires to to hold them in place.

Cool, thanks for the tips! I've got one of those 'helping hands' things with the alligator clips, so that will definitely help. That's a good idea soldering the pots on a piece of cardboard, too. I might try that.

I think you've got a great strategy of starting with the raw materials of something that will be beautiful; as default!

One of my problems has been trying to be too clever; over complicate things with 'originality' and desire, and then get depressed and give up when its not what I thought it could be.

You are already there with something great on your hands, all you've got to do is ease it into life.