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Holy purple 65 JM der wie Butter spielt

Posted: Fri May 05, 2017 8:00 am
by theworkoffire
CITES or no CITES, this just crossed the channel from Nuremberg. Thanks again to pad for the heads-up.

This was advertised as a player with the obligatory dairy comparison, and for sure it sort of looks amazing, but I want to try to slowly get it back to something like a factory refinish or custom colour order spec. Not too much missing - only a changed rhythm vol pot (& butchered bracket) and the original frets, at first glance. Haven't had time for a full inspection yet, so just going by the now-deleted classified ad.

Slight backbow, but hopefully mainly from the monster frets and/or the de-tuned shipping. Back of the neck has been lacquered over the original wear-through. Neck is a slightly wider D than the later 60s JM necks that have passed through my workshop, which is a bit of a shame, but may just feel a bit odd because I'm so used to skinny Yamahas. Sounds deeeelicious - all the electronics work as they should. The holy guard & body and railtrack frets are the main issue.

Colour suggestions very, very welcome, preferably with pics - custom colours with plain headstocks and tort are not my speciality! But what a tort! Does anyone have a destroyed swirly vintage guard they'd be willing to let go of that might be able to provide scraps to plug my holes, by any chance??

Anyway, photobomb - my first proper vintage Fender :

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Re: Holy purple 65 JM der wie Butter spielt

Posted: Fri May 05, 2017 3:10 pm
by crianlarich
Plesse! This guitar has Seen too much improper use (Jazz Fusion playing, judging from buckle war position) to be "properly" refinished. Lovely colour! You must hve used a '65 Tortomatic camera to geht these pictures. Unreal!

Re: Holy purple 65 JM der wie Butter spielt

Posted: Fri May 05, 2017 11:51 pm
by Pacafeliz
ooooh YESS!!! :w00t: :-*

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Re: Holy purple 65 JM der wie Butter spielt

Posted: Sat May 06, 2017 12:45 am
by zhivago
This is going to be epic. :-*

The colour choice will be tricky as I love a matching headstock with bound necks and you have an original decal.

Man, I love the colour it is now actually..very J Mascis!! 8)

Re: Holy purple 65 JM der wie Butter spielt

Posted: Sat May 06, 2017 3:04 am
by theworkoffire
zhivago wrote:This is going to be epic.

The colour choice will be tricky as I love a matching headstock with bound necks and you have an original decal.

Man, I love the colour it is now actually..very J Mascis!!
Exactly - bound necks cry out for matching headstocks, so whatever happens, it's always going to look slightly awkward.

It did cross my mind to repair the body and re-spray it in purple ;D

Something about the D&B neck, though - always seems to work well with the silver/blue/green metallics, I think. I'm having a hard time thinking past Gavanti's light CFM.

Re: Holy purple 65 JM der wie Butter spielt

Posted: Sat May 06, 2017 4:43 am
by shadowplay
Seems this guitar has found the perfect new custodian. Congrats.

D

Re: Holy purple 65 JM der wie Butter spielt

Posted: Sat May 06, 2017 7:18 am
by Embenny
Oh man that is gorgeous!! I understand the desire to restore/refinish, but I love that wacky colour too!

Re: Holy purple 65 JM der wie Butter spielt

Posted: Sun May 07, 2017 6:48 am
by tylerforyou
It's prefect just the way it is!

Re: Holy purple 65 JM der wie Butter spielt

Posted: Sun May 07, 2017 6:51 am
by PixMix
I love it like it is too. That tort looks amazing against the magenta-purple. :? :? :?

Re: Holy purple 65 JM der wie Butter spielt

Posted: Sun May 07, 2017 9:15 am
by pad
Judging from the pics in kleinanzeigen i didn't thought it will look THAT cool!
And that pick guard looks real awesome as is!

Well done!!

Re: Holy purple 65 JM der wie Butter spielt

Posted: Sun May 07, 2017 4:10 pm
by theworkoffire
Looks like I'm going to break a few hearts here when the purple goes...sorry! It looks a lot better in the pics than in the flesh, is all I can say. :whistle:

Anyway, on with the tear-down; the easy bit!

One battery cavity - once upon a time this appears to have had some kind of had some kind of 1-switch, 2-knob effect.

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Guard off:

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Something tells me that's not the original jack...

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Must have been quite a circuit board to need that much open-cast mining:

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The usual screw hole split to repair:

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Any information on the pickups gratefully received - I know nothing about markings etc.. Also, is that pickup foam original?

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Holy moly...shouldn't be too difficult to repair with the right donor material.

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Channeling J Mascis! Weirdly, the only other vintage JM part I have in the workshop is this '59 gold guard with the same drill problem

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I desoldered where it had been resoldered before, and pulled out the glazing triangles and pins:

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Again, any info on the shield markings? Presume that's just a brand name ("...LOLAD 2024", and something like a crayoned "g"?

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Guard screwed down and upside down covers inserted to keep it's shape. It's shrunk about 1/4" over the length - I've seen much worse.

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Here's where I started to panic. The base of the heel had some weird scratching, which made me start to worry a bit about the extent of its problems...I started to worry it had been shaved off a little, perhaps to make a slight angle instead of shimming.

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Then I started to think the heel looked a bit shallow, and started to imagine that lower tide mark was once the guard line, 5mm below where it now sat...had someone taken that much off the bottom of the heel?

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Then I got the calipers out and really started to panic that I'd been sold a proper goose - that's a full 1/4" thinner than it should be :wtf:

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I checked a few places further down the neck, and they were all around 16-17mm - way thinner than it should be. All kinds of terrible repair scenarios went through my mind - how the hell could I convincingly build that back up with new maple?? In full panic mode I pulled out the only other vintage neck I have knocking around - from a late 60s Mustang, soon to grace the stripy Jag I'm on with. It seemed loads thicker...

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Then...I took a grip of my senses and measured again, taking a deep breath and zeroing the calipers properly...lo and behold, a hair's breadth off the proper 1". :fp: Idiot.

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Panic over, I removed the thimbles using rawlplugs:

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The second one kept slipping, so I heated it up with my gas soldering iron, and it slipped out just fine:

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No secret messages in the neck pocket, unfortunately:

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Cavity looks yellowy where there had been some tape during the refin, but no trace of burst, which is the original finish I was expecting. Under the thimbles, though (which haven't been out since the factory, as far as I can tell), there's a creamy white, so I think this must have been Oly white originally. That would make sense, yes?

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All done for now. Didn't have the guts to unscrew the tuners today (no joy in snapping any of those screws), but will probably need to clean them at some point.

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And this is where things are heading, I think - I spent a long time in the dressing room and my flat out favourite seems to be a straight CFM:

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Any extra info on any of the markings etc. greatly appreciated.

Re: Holy purple 65 JM der wie Butter spielt

Posted: Sun May 07, 2017 5:49 pm
by Ursa Minor
Amazing pics. Thanks so much for sharing!

The pickups' marking are just builder initials. Usually you'll find dates too. Are they on top? Curious to know what they measure on a meter.

Aluminum guard is typical, no idea what the markings mean though.

I'd say if they decal is original and then it couldn't be Oly White, it would had to have been blonde / tort if the white paint is in fact original.
Killer Tort guard. My god!

Re: neck thickness, it's very possible for a D+B to be a little thinner and flatter profiled than earlier, non-bound necks. My old FEB 66 JM was something like .82" / .92" (1st / 12th). Still a really comfy shape and size overall. Much closer to a D than a C. I always did love the way mine played.

Original frets? Can't really tell from pics but they still appear to be intact. Frets from this era were wide and flat and didn't interrupt the binding at all. Most refrets I've seen usually have the new frets laying on top of the binding. I get why its done and that its often easier or required but its a detail that always bugs me. I like seeing the one continuous binding. Make me feel good. :blush:

Re: Holy purple 65 JM der wie Butter spielt

Posted: Sun May 07, 2017 5:52 pm
by Ursa Minor
Also re: color. Love the idea of CFM, although black would be classy as usual. But black and tort and is soooooo OSG.... :shifty: :D

Its a pretty wild guard so the color choice will have to work well with it. If it were me I'd be taking some good pics of the guard and nerdily compositing it over other guitars in photoshop. :blush:

Re: Holy purple 65 JM der wie Butter spielt

Posted: Sun May 07, 2017 8:22 pm
by will
The aluminum shield is stamped with the name of the company that made the aluminum sheet - "Alcoa."

Re: Holy purple 65 JM der wie Butter spielt

Posted: Sun May 07, 2017 10:42 pm
by PorkyPrimeCut
I for one will be happy to see the back of that purple paint job. Gaaaah!! (Sorry Mascisheads).

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