My First Offset: Jazzmaster Body Scratch Build!

olli · Post by **olli** » Thu Apr 20, 2017 12:59 am

Hey folks!

I'm currently doing my first scratch build and I decided to share some impressions with you.
As far as my experience with wood working is concerned, I mostly got the know-how from the web, and an old but very detailed book. Maybe you guys got some tips and tricks for me
I'm a student, so I've got just a bit of money to afford my parts, but I will do my best to make this a playable guitar.

Stay tuned for the first set of images!

olli · Post by **olli** » Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:57 am

Hi,
heres the first set of images. I started by making a template out of some scrap material from my basement, to get my plan and drawings on the wood later on. This is not for Routing purposes. I printed the main plan at home, so I had to assemble some sheets of paper:

I decided to move the vibrato a bit to gain string tension on the bridge:

Stuck it on the sheet I found with double sided tape.

This is, what the guitar could look like at the end (couldn't wait to see how it will be, so also printed aut the neck ):

roughly cut out the body shape:

and finally filed and sanded down the edges:

So that's it for the moment! I'm looking forward to drill some holes in the template and cutting the actual wood for the body until next time. Have a wonderful weekend!

vale · Post by **vale** » Fri Apr 21, 2017 5:26 pm

welcome to osg olli & thanks for sharing the story of your first build. will follow with interest.
i'm going to attempt (if i can get my confidence up enough) my first body (will use found neck) build this summer, maybe (so tentative). so very interested to see how people who know what they are doing make the magic happen.

did you use online outline templates from somewhere or make your own, based on measurements from a jm you already have?

& what thickness mdf did you use for the template?

Rgand · Post by **Rgand** » Mon Apr 24, 2017 8:01 am

Looking good, there. It'll be a fun thread to follow.

olli · Post by **olli** » Sat Apr 29, 2017 1:22 am

vale wrote:welcome to osg olli & thanks for sharing the story of your first build. will follow with interest.
i'm going to attempt (if i can get my confidence up enough) my first body (will use found neck) build this summer, maybe (so tentative). so very interested to see how people who know what they are doing make the magic happen.

did you use online outline templates from somewhere or make your own, based on measurements from a jm you already have?

& what thickness mdf did you use for the template?

Thanks vale for this warm welcome and your interest

My plans are from this website:
https://sites.google.com/site/guitarpla ... fender-ish
check it out, it got really nice accurate plans! The Template is about 6mm.

Rgand wrote:Looking good, there. It'll be a fun thread to follow.

Thank you! I'm trying to do my best, although I never built a guitar before

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So here is the status quo.
First, here's how far the template is. I decided to just use the outline of it for this one, because of the shapes not being that accurate when I apply them to the wood. I'm going to use another method, I'll explain it in a future post.

This is the wood I'm using for the main body. It's really not the best for building a guitar, but I use it for sentimental reasons, because it's from my great-grandfather and it was deposited in our basement since the 1950's I guess, so it's bone dry . And hey, it's for free

I cut it in three pieces with a circular saw, planed the edges with a slicer and glued them together. Then I planed the big surface again with the slicer (thank you grandpa for borrowing

). It was the first time I worked with one but it came out pretty well. Finally, I roughly sanded the surfaces with grain size 40.

Yesterday, I drew the outer shape on the body and did some cuts with the tenon saw. Almost looking like a JM now, ain't it?

This week, I'm going to file and sand the shape of the body and I'm preparing the top. My body will then be made of 6 parts. is this a problem concerning sound?

Stay tuned for the next update, and have a nice weekend

olli · Post by **olli** » Wed May 10, 2017 12:55 am

Hello!
I worked a lot on the body the last days, so I had no time to post my results. Here is, what I did to the top.

First, I glued the top together from three pieces and planed the board:

Then I drew the cavities onto it by using 1:1 paper templates.

I drilled out the cavities for they are deeper then the thickness of the board.

As a last step, I decided to just file the inner walls of the cavity, so I can use the body as a template when they're glued on each other.

I also glued the top on the body this weekend, filed down the edges of the top, did the cavities and some contouring. I will post pictures of these steps soon! Have a nice day

KeithJ · Post by **KeithJ** » Wed May 10, 2017 8:56 pm

Olli this is looking AWESOME! I think your choice of wood is really cool, and it will make a very nice guitar. I'm really excited to see progress on this

olli · Post by **olli** » Fri May 12, 2017 7:02 am

KeithJ wrote:Olli this is looking AWESOME! I think your choice of wood is really cool, and it will make a very nice guitar. I'm really excited to see progress on this

Thanks a lot! I'm excited too

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Here's some progress. First pictures is glueing body and top together. I was quite unsure whether I had enough glue and if the center lines would aline with each other. Turn out to be not perfect, but good enough for moving on.

I rounded up the sides to the shape of the body by a LOT of filing, but the body is in decent shape now.

I decided to continue with the cavities. Since I have no router yet, I did it the old 1950's handicraft style. I drilled as much holes as I could with a self built drilling stand. Then I removed the remaining pieces with a chisel and a bit later planed the ground of all cavities with a dremel tool.

Finally I started contouring the body. Nothing exciting here, just a normal tummy cut and an arm rest, and I eventually did the edges.

That's it for now. It is to mention, that the hardware finally arrived, I got the vibrato, the bridge, the pickguard and the electronics now. I'm now waiting for the neck, shipping takes way too long with this one...

But without it, I can't finish the woodwork and therefore can't start the paintjob.

Any ideas concerning the finish? It should be easy to make and available in Germany, at a minimum cost. I'm thinking of sherwood green or some other dark green shades?

Thanks for all the views showing your interest, and have a nice weekend!

olli · Post by **olli** » Fri Jun 16, 2017 5:49 am

Hey Guys,

here's an update to my project.
Firstly, here's the hardware package I got:

I did the Neck Pocket using a Dremel Tool and a 1:1 paper template. After fitting the neck in the first time,
I saw that I did a bad job with the neck pocket, the neck was sitting tight against the back of the pocket, but was not on the center line. I made a shim to face that problem and it sits super tight, centered and on the right neck angle now.

I had to drill the hole for the grounding wire by hand, and so my hands hurt so much after it...

Here's the first overall test fit before the final sanding and painting:

I sanded it all down to 800 grit with an excenter sander. Unfortunately, the wood from the top's grain (don't know what it is exactly), didn't liked the scotch cloth, so you can see it through all the paint even at the end. But I kind of like it by now!

I used two layers of grain filler, two of moss green and one fine layer of an green-purple color changing effect laquer. Then a couple of clear coats. It's pretty hard to take a picture from the color flip, but you can see it a bit in the last two pictures. as this is my first paint job with rattle cans, I'm quite satisfied.
And yes, that's a unicorn

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