Lefty Jazzmaster Project

[Stam]

Hello there! Always wanted a Jazzmaster, but being a lefty the only option have pretty much been MIJs which go for ~$1300.
So I thought, heck for that much I can probably make a better one from parts! Thankfully there are quite a few great options out there, even for us southpaws.

Neck: Musikraft
- Rosewood fingerboard
- Quarter sawn maple shaft
- Chunky C profile (90 99)
- Compound radius 7.25 to 9.5
- 6105 Medium frets
- Aged clay dots

Body: MJT alder finished in nitro Oly White

Pickups: Novak JM-FAT Bridge, JM-V Neck

Bridge: Mastery M1

Pickguard: Tone-Guard Anodized Gold

Both the neck and the body are currently in the works, will post updates here as it all comes together!

[MrFingers]

So basically this?

[Shadoweclipse13]

Fuck yes!!

[Stam]

If it ends up looking THAT gorgeous I'll look at it more than I'll play it..The control knobs look like they're in Russian when flipped haha!

Got the first body pics from the MJT folks:



and some parts/hardware that has already arrived:




I was told that they do not intend to drill the mounting holes for the pickguard/tailpiece/pickups and am wondering how hard that is and if I should trust myself with that task..Any thoughts?

[Shadoweclipse13]

If you take your time and make sure you get things lined up right, you'll be fine. I haven't drilled a tailpiece yet myself, but I like the idea of using string through the first and sixth tuner (through the nut) and to the tailpiece, so you can see if the strings line up.

Also, where'd you get the lefty tailpiece? I bought an AVRI tremolo and a plate from Strider, and am planning to drill holes, but that looks great as is AND with the lock button...

[Stam]

Also, where'd you get the lefty tailpiece? I bought an AVRI tremolo and a plate from Strider, and am planning to drill holes, but that looks great as is AND with the lock button...

It was listed as a replacement for the "road worn" series and I did overpay for it, but thought it might be worth a shot since even sourcing a decent arm seemed difficult.
It is labeled as "Made In Mexico", but I remember reading a post by totallywired saying these are actually manufactured in Korea and even though they're much better than the Japanese ones they're not quite on par with the AVRIs. It was supposedly his last one but I do see the same guy still having one on the bay (or forgot to take the listing down) -

http://www.ebay.com/itm/009-2250-400-Le ... 1438.l2649

[Shadoweclipse13]

Interesting. That's more than I paid for my righty AVRI, BUT you also don't have to drill the plates

[JVG]

Good score on the lefty trem - those things are rare. I picked up one a while back from a broken down cobain jag, but I've used right handed trems (with lefty Staytrem collets and arms) on my other projects. In fact I just bought one last week for an upcoming bass vi build....if only I'd seen this first! Ha.

Anyway, great guitar. There's a few of us lefties here, and we share your pain when it comes to sourcing quality lefty parts. Luckily there are a few good (small) companies that look after us, coz fender certainly don't!

If the gold anodised guard doesn't work out, can I suggest mint green. It's looks bloody amazing on Olympic white!

Cheers
J.

[bacca51]

I was told that they do not intend to drill the mounting holes for the pickguard/tailpiece/pickups and am wondering how hard that is and if I should trust myself with that task..Any thoughts?

I emailed them once and they said if you send them the tremolo piece they can drill the holes for you. Even if they have the same one in their shop, they will only do it with yours. They said they wouldn't drill for the pickguard because thats best done with the neck connected.

[JVG]

Drilling the holes is not too difficult - I've successfully managed it on several guitars, and I'm not very talented in this department! Luckily with the Jazzmaster there's not much extra space for things to "slop" around, so you can't go too far wrong

For the tremolo, just measure and mark your centre lines (on the guitar and the tremolo unit) and away you go. Just watch that the tremolo is not going to rub against the body cavity when the bar is depressed.

Don't drill for the pickups or pickguard until the guitar is assembled and strung up, so you can line things up properly.

You'll be fine, just take it slowly!

J.

[Stam]

Thanks for all the words of encouragement and tips, I'll surely be taking it slow - only got one chance to get it right!

There's a few of us lefties here, and we share your pain when it comes to sourcing quality lefty parts. Luckily there are a few good (small) companies that look after us, coz fender certainly don't!

Shout out to both MJT and Musikraft for not charging extra, usually most companies will have a surcharge on anything lefty, given that it's a hustle for them production-wise and we have limited options..

If the gold anodised guard doesn't work out, can I suggest mint green. It's looks bloody amazing on Olympic white!
Cheers
J.

That was actually my initial intention when I ordered the neck & body, but as the process was underway, I fell in love with the white/blonde & anodized gold look.
Gave it some thought and felt that mint on white looks amazing when there's a fair share of wear and relicing going on; when everything's clean it just looks too plain and sterile. I'm not really a fan of getting an artificially reliced instrument and asked MJT to do their "Closet clean" finish. So maybe when it gets its battle scars and bruises in the future, I'll pull the trigger on that mint green guard!

[Stam]

Some more stuff came in:




6 weeks since the order, still no news from Musikraft - looks like that neck is going to be this project's bottleneck..

[JVG]

Yeah it can take a while, depending on their workload, but will be worth it. I think the longest I've waited with them is about 10 weeks, but other times it's been only about 5-6. Varies widely.

Did you log into the Musikraft website to see the status of you order?

[Stam]

Yeah it can take a while, depending on their workload, but will be worth it. I think the longest I've waited with them is about 10 weeks, but other times it's been only about 5-6. Varies widely.

Did you log into the Musikraft website to see the status of you order?

Well it'll be unfinished (will ship it to MJT), so I was hoping to get it faster.
No updates on the website either, I also contacted them but they didn't provide any info other than that their time frame is of 4-6 weeks.

[palesnow67]

Hey how is the rest of this project going? Get the neck yet?