Lefty Jazzmaster Project

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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Stam
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Re: Lefty Jazzmaster Project

Post by Stam » Sun Aug 13, 2017 6:54 am

palesnow67 wrote:Hey how is the rest of this project going? Get the neck yet?
I was notified it shipped to MJT to do the finish last week!

In contradiction to the general feedback on Musikraft's service, it was unfortunately a rather negative customer experience for me.
It took a solid 2 months to complete the neck, even though there was no finishing involved, when their estimate was 4-6 weeks.
But I guess that can always happen, if it's a really weird order I think it's reasonable to take a few more weeks. The problem was communication (or lack thereof), as they were totally unresponsive to a couple of emails I sent requesting a progress update after the 5th week, while they never picked up the phone or called me back after a voice mail I left. Not sure if I'd do business with them again in the future but I'd have to see the neck first.


Final step of the process, should take another 4 to 6 weeks to get through production in MJT and then ship it together along with the body. Will keep posting updates here, hopefully final assembly should be next!

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Re: Lefty Jazzmaster Project

Post by palesnow67 » Tue Aug 15, 2017 12:58 am

Dang that always sucks when stuff like that happens, maybe the quality will be worth the wait tho!

It'll be great to see this thing together! I'm sure it's hella exciting waiting for this all to come in ;D
I cant wait to get a warmoth binded neck for my vm jag
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Re: Lefty Jazzmaster Project

Post by JVG » Tue Aug 15, 2017 3:27 am

I was one of those singing the praises of Musikraft, but my latest neck from them was also really slow coming. Nothing weird, just a maple strat neck with gloss nitro. Took almost 12 weeks! I was a little surprised, but when it finally turned up the quality was very good.

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Re: Lefty Jazzmaster Project

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Tue Aug 15, 2017 5:14 am

I always think that every time we praise a company like Warmoth or Musikraft, their work load gets a little bigger. Yur neck probably only took a few hours here and there, but they probably cut a bunch at once, then stain or clear coat a bunch at once. Like an assembly line.
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Re: Lefty Jazzmaster Project

Post by JVG » Tue Aug 15, 2017 10:19 pm

Yep, I think that's what is happening.

I've bought quite a bit of stuff from Warmoth, USACG and Musikraft over the years, and one thing they all have in common is erratic communication. Sometimes an email query will get answered within an hour, other times it takes days, weeks, or not at all. I'm sure they get a shit-ton of emails coming through and don't intentionally ignore people, but I really wish they'd structure themselves to better respond to customers. For example, an email at the 6-week mark to let the customer know the state of their order would be very well received.

It sucks that they have this flaw, because they all produce great quality stuff, and on the occasions they do respond it's usually quite helpful.

J.

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Re: Lefty Jazzmaster Project

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Tue Aug 15, 2017 10:47 pm

I agree. For awhile, I was writing Warmoth with questions quite a bit, and hadn't built one yet. Once I'd bought a few necks and a body or two, they definitely answer emails quicker now. Haha.
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Re: Lefty Jazzmaster Project

Post by Stam » Sun Aug 20, 2017 12:30 pm

As I'm waiting for the parts, I could use some help from the OSG community's trained and studious eyes!

With a specific look in mind, I'm second guessing if I got the correct plastic parts in terms of the different shades of white there are available.

These are the pickup covers I got, labeled "USA Fender Aged White":
Image

However, I believe they look too yellow & cream-like for what I'm going for -
Image

as I'm afraid it's gonna look like this, which I definitely want to avoid
Image


There's a pure white option here , but I don't think that the brand new blinding-bright white is appropriate, as it could be too much of an antithesis.

Then there's only one offering from the Fender shop and it looks just right in the photo but as they're also labeled aged white I'm afraid I'm gonna get another set of the same covers.

Is there a parchment option perhaps and how is it different to aged white or cream?

Thank you!

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Re: Lefty Jazzmaster Project

Post by JVG » Sun Aug 20, 2017 2:49 pm

As far as I know, there are no parchment covers out there. If there was, they'd sell like the proverbial hot cakes, because this is a long standing issue.

The Fender ones you mentioned are the same cream colour as what you have (even though fender calls it aged white!), so don't waste your money on another set. They sometimes look lighter in photos on the web, that's all.

The only other options are bright white, and black. Some people have tried starting with the pure white ones and discolouring them, but apparently the plastic is fairly resistant to this.

Sorry for the bad news. I'll happily stand corrected if someone else knows a source of parchment covers!

Cheers!
J.

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Re: Lefty Jazzmaster Project

Post by Stam » Mon Oct 02, 2017 6:57 pm

Updates - the body and neck arrived! Shout out to MJT, I couldn't be happier with the oly white as it's very warm, not at all bright and sterile!
The Musikraft neck looks and feels great, nice and beefy.

Image
Image
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(Please don't judge)
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Now to the ugly stuff. I'd like to think I'm pretty handy with a soldering iron but when it comes to craftsmanship...well let's say I'm no Hephaestus.
Thought a good place to start would be the pickguard, since any mistakes there are more likely to be merely cosmetic. Advice to others, do not buy the horrible taiwanese Fender screws. Not only did I use the wrong screws, but I messed one so bad the head got completely flat and I needed 1 hour of working with a rubber band and pliers to get it out.
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Also sanded down the nut trying to follow the radius, looks fine but can't really tell until the strings are there.



The toughest part so far though have been the thimble holes. Not being studious enough, I only saw this post and figured I'd be fine, which couldn't be farther from the truth.
The MJT routed bodies are not cut out to american specs, neither the pickguard nor the thimble holes, which are too small to fit the Mastery (M1) parts. Based on what I read here and there, it is very important that the thimbles are as tight as they can be. These are the instructions I got from MJT:
Do you have a sharp little hobby or craft knife?
You need to gently go around the inside edge of the hole and break the paint seal between the paint on top of the guitar and the paint inside the hole. Then you want to slightly angle your knife and bevel that hole a tiny bit.
Now you can drill it to fit the size of your thimble.
You can use heat to insert the thimble so it slides in easier.
We set the thimble in the hole and put our soldering iron in the thimble for a few seconds to heat it up.
Then it will slide into the hole with some gentle tapping.
After many hours of tedious efforts, what worked for me was starting out with a drill until the thimble almost can get in the top of the hole. I then tried to press it as deep as I could with my full body weight and the rubber part of my hammer - this results in the friction points to be edgier and more pronounced. Followed by using a bastard file on the edges until smooth. Rinse and repeat, until I worked my way down the hole.
Image

Getting the neck in was definitely the most satisfying part so far, as it now starts to look and feel like a guitar!
Image




Next up is the tremolo unit, any other experiences with issues there with the MJT routing?

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Re: Lefty Jazzmaster Project

Post by MrFingers » Tue Oct 03, 2017 12:29 am

Woooowwowowowow, that screw for the pickguard is WAY too big. It looks like a screw that is used for the height-adjustment of the pickups. Pickguard screws are way smaller and shorter. The holes in the body aren't drilled deep enough to accommodate such big screws.

Image

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Re: Lefty Jazzmaster Project

Post by JVG » Tue Oct 03, 2017 2:27 am

Agree - that screw looks way big.

Don't drill the screw holes too small either. Pickguard screws don't need to be super tight in the holes, as there's heaps of them and they're not really bearing a big load. Might also be wise to use a hand screwdriver, as a screw driver bit in a drill is a recipe for stripped screw heads. Apologies if all this seems obvious.

Go the lefty!

Cheers!
J.

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Re: Lefty Jazzmaster Project

Post by Stam » Tue Oct 03, 2017 6:42 am

Yeah I realized I used the wrong ones a little too late.. These were included in the Allparts wiring kit and the diameter fit the guard perfectly, so I just assumed they were the meant to be used there like an idiot.

I'm waiting on proper guard screws to arrive end of this week, along with some fancy pants mojo capacitors to finish the wiring.

Thanks everybody for your input!

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Re: Lefty Jazzmaster Project

Post by Stam » Sun Oct 08, 2017 10:41 pm

Wired up the pickguard and validated that everything works fine by placing a different guitar next to the pickups!
Image

Unfortunately, this was only to realize that there is another pain point with MJT's body routing. One of the rhythm circuit rollers does not fit in... I'm starting to wonder what type of specs is it actually cut to and it sure is not American (perhaps the mods should delete that post from another thread here claiming that is the case).
Unless there are any smart suggestions to work around this issue, it seems like I will need to use the drill and file to accommodate the spacing.

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Re: Lefty Jazzmaster Project

Post by JVG » Tue Oct 10, 2017 2:21 pm

What a nuisance! It's usually a squeeze to get it all in there, and the tolerances aren't that big.

Before you take chunks out of the body, check that it's not actually a bit of the wiring that's catching on the edge of the body route. Try wiggling it into place a bit.

Failing that, I'd get stuck into it with the Dremel (or similar). If you do this, be very careful you don't cut beyond the point covered by the pickguard!

Good luck
J.

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Re: Lefty Jazzmaster Project

Post by Stam » Sat Oct 14, 2017 12:34 pm

And here she is!!!
Image

Had to take a seizable chunk of the body out eventually to fit that roller in there. Still needs quite a bit of work to be set up properly, action at the nut is too high but I wanted to play it safe. Also added some weather foam under the bridge pickup as it was too quiet compared to the neck (it's usually the other way around?). Was surprised by how little work I had to do to the bridge as the radius seemed right from the get-go and intonation is not too bad at the 12th.

First impressions so far - I LOVE Curtis' pickups, particularly the neck (JM-V). It's fat, has an amazing snap ("quacky" if that makes any sense), but yet it's warm and articulate. The bridge (JM-FAT) has a fair amount twang and jangle, not as much as my tele but also less bite. The middle position is great for those Stax rhythm type of tones. I've also grown fond of the rhythm circuit (with the tone all the way up though), it has some great and very usable additional tones even though I believed I'd never want to dial it in.
Finally, the fretwork done by Musikraft is outstanding. Neck is very beefy, maybe a bit too much so at the nut but the action is not helping right now either. Ended up weighting 7.5lbs (most of which is the neck I'm sure, the body is very lightweight).

I'm very grateful to all the people on here that patiently answered most of my silly questions (JVG, Shadoweclipse13, MrFingers I'm looking at you!), as well as the offsetguitars forum as a whole, as it proved the most comprehensive source of knowledge that inspired me to start and helped me complete this project.

Thank you!

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