NGD: Road Worn Jazzmaster (+ aluminum guard page 3)

[Steadyriot.]

Brainstorm: I could get one of the thin aluminum or copper shields meant to go underneath a plastic guard but mount it on top of the stark white one on there now! Or a black guard would be better... I wonder if the shield would overhang the slightly smaller dimensions of the guard's top? I think they are slightly smaller than the bottom side of the plastic guard, right? I usually can't stand perloid guards, but maybe it would be cool to see just a little bit around the edges and/or cavities of a shield-on-top configuration? That seems very Harvester to me, which makes me excited.

Just as a tip: I've stuck acoustic pickguard material (the thin sticky backed kind) on top of pickguards to give them a new look. It wears like any other pickguard, there's a lot of choices in styling and you can trim it with an exacto / razor blade.
Makes it look like a typical multi-layer pickguard. It won't fall off either, but a hairdryer and some effort can make it peel off in no time if needed.

[Steadyriot.]

I mean, there's some cool choices out there:


I'd love this:


C'mon look at this stuff!


And yes; there's even boring black, white and mint etc. out there. But I mean; why bother when you can get fake abalone!


or dragon skin!


Okay maybe the dragon skin is a bit over the top; all I'm saying is you can do something really cool to a pickguard with this sticky backed stock.

[invisible man]

I mean, there's some cool choices out there:


I'd love this:


C'mon look at this stuff!


And yes; there's even boring black, white and mint etc. out there. But I mean; why bother when you can get fake abalone!


or dragon skin!


Okay maybe the dragon skin is a bit over the top; all I'm saying is you can do something really cool to a pickguard with this sticky backed stock.

I would go for some of those acoustic tort or tiger stripe sheets, but I think they are smaller than a Jazzmaster pickguard, so you would have to piece at least two together and there would be a weird seam in the pattern. I've seen a few examples of custom poured resin guards, which are cool too. I might try that one day. I finally sold my Squier Jagmaster and a few other things, so I now have a Mastery M1 kit on the way. I am debating between an anodized gold guard from one of several sources or a celluloid tort guard from WD Music, cost is very close to being equal.

I did have an idea about doing a black-over-anodized-gold guard, where gold would gradually be exposed by wearing through the black layer. A nod to Neil Young's Old Black Les Paul. I think that would be unique and look good with the smokey dark burst on the Road Worn JM. Not sure of the best way to achieve it though. Old Black has amateur black spray paint over an original Gibson nitro gold finish, so there's that idea. Or I could try to spray black nitro from a can onto the guard, but would it bond to the surface? Or I could try to have a layer of black anodized over the layer of gold. Would that work or is there a coating over the gold that would interfere with the electrochemical process? Who can offer advice in these areas?

[invisible man]

C'mon look at this stuff!


Further brainstorm: acoustic tort or tiger stripe cut to a Jaguar-like guard shape and adhered over the top of an anodized JM guard for a Framus Strato Deluxe-like look

[burpgun]

I don't mean to thread jack, but that matte finish on the Roadworn is great. I've got a classic player and would love to find a way to get my super glossy finish to look like that.

[Singlebladepickup]

love Neil Young and his guitar sound, but Ol' Black looks like Ol' Shit. I'd go with that last acoustic tort in the stacked picture. That would look amazing on any color Jm/Jg

[invisible man]

[invisible man]

Just got my Mastery M1 kit in, couldn't remove the original bridge post thimbles though. I read around, seems a soldering iron would help melt the glue holding the thimbles in, though mine is misplaced. Thinking about going to Truetone this week and getting them to install, but I'd rather not pay for it. grrrrrrrrr

[Tree's]

Why even remove the original thimbles ? M1 bridge should just drop in and work with no modification.

[invisible man]

Why even remove the original thimbles ? M1 bridge should just drop in and work with no modification.

Apparently not so with some of the recent MIM models, which is why I bought Mastery thimbles. Sure enough, my original thimbles are too narrow for the Mastery.

[JforJag]

"... couldn't remove the original bridge post thimbles though."

These thimbles are narrower. I just used a screw eye, sized to grip the inner wall of the thimbles and they lifted out with very little urging.

[Eighthwall]

[/img]Excellent guitar! I just got one last week, and I love it! Plays great right out of the box. I'm really thinking of a tort guard myself.

[mstoner_1]

I just bought a Road Worn Jazzmaster and swapped the bridge and thimbles to Mastery this weekend. I tried the other methods of thimble removal and ended up getting locking needle nose pliers from Home Depot and carefully clamping the lip and twisting until they came loose. The Mastery thimbles were a little too big as well, so I had to follow the steps on their site and reverse drill it with a 3/8 bit. From that point, everything fit like a glove and it sounds great!

[invisible man]

Had some time tonight to install the non-anodized aluminum pickguard I got on eBay a little while ago, I really like it. There is a bit of buckling between the screws on the lower side near the knobs. Not sure what to do about that. Any ideas? It's just plain anuminum but it almost looks gold from some angles in my kitchen light. I still need to install the Mastery, need to get to the hardware store to get parts for a DIY thimble puller. Much improved I think.

[invisible man]

I went to the hardware store next to my work on my lunch break with my guitar and spent some time trying to find a bolt that would grab and hold the thimble, without any luck. I did talk to Sam the drummer who was filling in for a coworker, and plays in a classic rock cover band. Has anybody had any luck finding a bolt to fit into this ever-so-slightly narrower thimble diameter to make a DIY post puller?