Coral J-Style Build Complete

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
Post Reply
User avatar
Peckhammer
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 91
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2016 12:27 pm
Location: Seattle, WA

Coral J-Style Build Complete

Post by Peckhammer » Sat Feb 18, 2017 4:26 am

I did a one-on-one build class with a student who recently graduated from a music program. He wanted to make a relicked Jazzmaster, so I sourced a MJT body, and JZRO AllParts neck. The relic approach is a good one if you are limited on finishing space, or if it's a first build. Mistakes such as dropping a screw driver on the body of the guitar don't ruin the day, and the end result looks cool.

I did the neck finishing and some of the color treatments related to the relic finishes. The neck color is a build of tinted shellac, and then 10 coats of clear nitrocellulose lacquer. Then it's polished to a high gloss. Well, most of it is. I like to preserve the wet sanded area where your hand holds the neck. It gives it a well-played feel and looks cool where the gloss ends and the mat finish begins. And the transition cannot be felt; it's all the same level so there is only a difference in smoothness.

Electronics:
Two volume controls (witch hats), master tone and bass rolloff (rollers)
Three way pickup selector switch
Upper bout switch is for parallel/series/ and kill switch
1 Meg audio pots for volumes, 1 meg audio mini tone pot, 1 meg mini reverse taper audio pot for bass roll off
Lollar P90 bridge and standard JM style neck pickups

Hardware:
Gotoh vintage locking tuners, nickle
Staytrem bridge
AVRI Tremolo

Pictures:

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

User avatar
kosta
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 206
Joined: Mon Oct 26, 2015 5:36 pm
Location: New York

Re: Coral J-Style Build Complete

Post by kosta » Sat Feb 18, 2017 10:24 pm

Beauty! I have that same wiring set-up in one of mine and love it to death.

User avatar
CROSS_guitars
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 3112
Joined: Tue Sep 09, 2008 5:52 am
Location: Thornbury Melbourne

Re: Coral J-Style Build Complete

Post by CROSS_guitars » Sat Feb 18, 2017 11:09 pm

Very nice colour.

User avatar
Peckhammer
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 91
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2016 12:27 pm
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: Coral J-Style Build Complete

Post by Peckhammer » Sun Feb 19, 2017 8:53 am

kosta wrote:Beauty! I have that same wiring set-up in one of mine and love it to death.
Yeah, that wiring scheme is awesome. It gives the guitar an infinite range of tones. The bass roll off is especially useful in this guitar to dial back the boominess of the P90. Having a volume control for each pickup also helps finding a good balance for the pickups.

I personally would have put the P90 in the bridge position because I love the sound of a Lollar JM neck pickup. I am not fond most JM bridge pickups. A P90 At the bridge gives a fuller sound and is great for playing ripping solos, IMO. Still, that Coral J-Style sounds great, especially with the switch in the middle position.

User avatar
sirspens
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 786
Joined: Sun Nov 08, 2015 8:26 pm
Location: Austin, Texas
Contact:

Re: Coral J-Style Build Complete

Post by sirspens » Sun Feb 19, 2017 10:16 am

Very nice!

User avatar
sporeleki
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 50
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2012 6:20 am
Location: Roxbury NY
Contact:

Re: Coral J-Style Build Complete

Post by sporeleki » Sun Feb 19, 2017 12:40 pm

very very nice

User avatar
preservation
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 3583
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 4:49 pm
Location: RVA

Re: Coral J-Style Build Complete

Post by preservation » Tue Feb 21, 2017 6:48 pm

AMAZING.
i tend to almost always prefer matching headstocks on offsets but that just looks perfect.
so Mark Jenny didn't do the finish ? that's an amazing coral variant...

User avatar
Peckhammer
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 91
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2016 12:27 pm
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: Coral J-Style Build Complete

Post by Peckhammer » Wed Feb 22, 2017 6:19 am

preservation wrote:AMAZING.
i tend to almost always prefer matching headstocks on offsets but that just looks perfect.
so Mark Jenny didn't do the finish ? that's an amazing coral variant...
Mark did the finish on the body. MJT auctions bodies on eBay, and if you are patient you can snag one at a reasonable price ($207 for this one).

I did the finish on the neck, and the aging/coloring on the pickguard, knobs, and some hardware.

User avatar
preservation
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 3583
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 4:49 pm
Location: RVA

Re: Coral J-Style Build Complete

Post by preservation » Wed Feb 22, 2017 12:57 pm

please tell me what kind of tinted lacquer you used for the neck.
i absolutely have to copy that for a Strat i'm doing. looks SO MUCH better than Fender's
super-pale maple.

User avatar
tvrf
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 333
Joined: Fri Jul 10, 2009 10:41 am
Location: London, England
Contact:

Re: Coral J-Style Build Complete

Post by tvrf » Thu Feb 23, 2017 4:23 am

Lovely build, nice work. I've been thinking about building a coral with tort guard for a while.

User avatar
Peckhammer
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 91
Joined: Mon Sep 26, 2016 12:27 pm
Location: Seattle, WA

Re: Coral J-Style Build Complete

Post by Peckhammer » Thu Feb 23, 2017 8:04 am

preservation wrote:please tell me what kind of tinted lacquer you used for the neck.
i absolutely have to copy that for a Strat i'm doing. looks SO MUCH better than Fender's
super-pale maple.
I did not use tinted lacquer. I applied blond shellac as a seal coat, and then subsequent coats of tinted shellac. The tints used were a combination of Color Tone liquid stains from Stew Mac. Vintage amber and medium brown, and a tiny bit of red. You slowly build layers of the tinted shellac and when you are satisfied with the color, you then spray with clear Behlen Stringed Instrument Lacquer.

I have also used shellac without the lacquer. Shellac is an amazing, non-toxic finish that is easy to apply. It is time consuming, but the results are great. I buy the flakes, and mix batches as I need them. The only caveat is that alcohol will take a shellac-only finish off in an instant. If you drink whisky while you play, you'd be better with a lacquer top coat.

User avatar
drmw93
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed May 01, 2013 12:37 am

Re: Coral J-Style Build Complete

Post by drmw93 » Sat Feb 25, 2017 10:14 pm

great work and very nice resolution/angles on the photos!

User avatar
sporeleki
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 50
Joined: Thu Oct 11, 2012 6:20 am
Location: Roxbury NY
Contact:

Re: Coral J-Style Build Complete

Post by sporeleki » Sun Feb 26, 2017 6:34 am

I have also used shellac without the lacquer. Shellac is an amazing, non-toxic finish that is easy to apply. It is time consuming, but the results are great. I buy the flakes, and mix batches as I need them. The only caveat is that alcohol will take a shellac-only finish off in an instant. If you drink whisky while you play, you'd be better with a lacquer top coat.

I have been mixing up my own shellac for the last 8 year, great non-toxic easy to apply undercoat. I still like to top coat with laquer still.

BTW - Very very Nice work

Post Reply