JAZZMASTER BASS IV!

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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boss302bass
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JAZZMASTER BASS IV!

Post by boss302bass » Thu Aug 17, 2017 11:39 pm

Well seven years ago I decided to try my hand at putting together what I always wanted Leo to put together for me, but since he was not in the habit of answering my prayers, I had to get off my fat, lazy white ass and build them myself.
I love Jazzmasters, and their sound, and playability, and clearly they're one of the sexiest guitar designs ever. Probably not going to get many arguments here, otherwise this forum wouldn't exist.
I'm a bass player, large hands, 6'2", terrible guitarist. So I figures why not a baritone JM? I'd done a Baritone Jag a few months previously and that was easy...
Scrounging lots of original JM parts and pickups from several unscrupulous Jazzmaster wrecking yards was no mean feat, but eventually with the help of Matt Landry for the body, and USACG for the neck, the baritone JM was born.
With 1959 pickups, a 1960 guard and 250 year old barn pine wood for the body, coupled with 250k pots and a 0.05 PIO cap, it sang like a bird from the get-go.
Not satisfied, and with Matt still with another slab of the barn wood left over, so the next step was the JM Bass VI. Again, visits in dark alleys with the social pariahs of the Jazzmaster wrecking scene, I scraped together a set of NOS 1978 pickups, 62 tort guard and a lovely 30" scale neck from USACG and with a few deep breaths and my first attempt at a sunburst, it came together rather well. It helped me get over thirty years of not having the guts to front my own band with my own songs whilst playing bass. Lots of fun. My girlfriend loved that band. Thank Dog someone did.
Seven years later and I've finally found a place to teach me how to build from scratch. And I thought I'd had some bad drug habits in the 90's...
Once you learn how to carve a neck, fret it and bolt it to a body you've cut and shaped yourself, you just want to keep on staying on that high.
The trilogy had to be completed. Here's the JM IV build thread...

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The body has been air drying indoors for seven years. A slab of Huon Pine from Tasmania - it is one piece. I hacked out the outline with a jigsaw 7 years ago and then shelved it.

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Using a set of Paul Rhoney's fine templates, I got to work on the routing after doing the math to make this work as a four string, 34" scale bass - with Jazz Bass pickups. ( A spare set of 74 pickups is coming my way in the case with a 66 Jazz Bass I just bought)

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Cavities done, just have to run a little trench from the top circuit cavity to the neck pickup cavity. Otherwise, things would have got difficult...

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A rather attractive piece of maple for the neck - I went for a "late 60's/70's JM" headstock profile.

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Modern dual action StewMac trussrod - these work great.

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Here's the neck in the carving jig. Spoke shavers and a rasp - old school...

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Fret slots done, dots in, frets next. At the workshop I decided that I needed to learn how to do veneer fretboards a la Fender style - a bit of extra work, but worth every bit of it. This rosewood from a tea plantation in Indonesia...smells like tea when you cu/shape/sand it. Amazing.

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With the frets in and the neck almost carved...

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Holy shirt this red POPS!

And then, my good buddy Mark came to the JM Bass party...Mr. Spitfire, Tort King, That Tort Guy...
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I got Mark to cut me the guard sans any pickup routs as I was unsure where they were going to end up. In the end I uused 1960's Jazz Bass pickup placement and spacing.
Which I prefer to the 70's placing as the bridge pickup being half an inch closer to the bridge makes it sound a little too nasal for my liking.
And of course this being a 1965 prototype, needs an aluminum shield...

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So I happened to have a spare Jazz Bass bridge ashtray...

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jimboyogi
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Re: JAZZMASTER BASS IV!

Post by jimboyogi » Fri Aug 18, 2017 12:57 am

Subscribed!

And welcome back :)

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boss302bass
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Re: JAZZMASTER BASS IV!

Post by boss302bass » Fri Aug 18, 2017 1:03 am

jimboyogi wrote:Subscribed!

And welcome back
Thanks Jimbo!
It's been a while. I got married, got two beagles, did an electrical apprenticeship, joined a vegan punk band and failed in trying to get better on the bass...

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blimpage
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Re: JAZZMASTER BASS IV!

Post by blimpage » Fri Aug 18, 2017 1:45 am

Wow!

Where the hell did you find some pre-First Fleet wood? :P

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Wayno
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Re: JAZZMASTER BASS IV!

Post by Wayno » Fri Aug 18, 2017 2:42 am

Amazing work! Bet that Huon Pine smelled good when you were working it. Almost seems like a shame to paint it, but looks great.

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boss302bass
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Re: JAZZMASTER BASS IV!

Post by boss302bass » Fri Aug 18, 2017 12:21 pm

blimpage wrote:Wow!

Where the hell did you find some pre-First Fleet wood?
There's a nice lady in Tasmania who puts up Huon on fleabay quite regularly. If I wasn't moving to England in 3 months I'd buy the piece of church pew she's got on there ATM.

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boss302bass
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Re: JAZZMASTER BASS IV!

Post by boss302bass » Fri Aug 18, 2017 12:28 pm

Wayno wrote:Amazing work! Bet that Huon Pine smelled good when you were working it. Almost seems like a shame to paint it, but looks great.
Wayne I did debate with myself a la Smeagol/Gollum whether or not to paint it
"But it is such lovely yellow grainsy wood, precious, shame to smear it with nasty paint!"
"But we wants RED, precious! Nice, tricksy red bass..."
Turns out the nitro raises the grain ever so slightly and you can still see it and feel it. - even after sealer, 5 colour coats and two gloss coats. And to be honest, the body looked pretty bland when the sealer went on, so Ferrari Red won.

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boss302bass
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Re: JAZZMASTER BASS IV!

Post by boss302bass » Sat Aug 19, 2017 3:29 am

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More hand-forging with aluminum...

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I think I succeeded in making it look like a prototype part from 1965...

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Here with Mark's Spitfire guard over the aluminum shield...left the shield ever so slightly over-sized to replicate guard shrinkage...
How good does the guard look?!

Will be back in the shop Tuesday night to cut and polish the body, lay final coats over headstock decals, and begin the wiring up process.
Thursday night for the fret dress/tuner mounting and hopefully a nut cutting. Saturday morning should see final wiring, set-up and first test-flight.

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Re: JAZZMASTER BASS IV!

Post by aaronstrumpel » Mon Aug 21, 2017 5:02 am

Wow! Fantastic, I'd love to hear this when you're finished!

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boss302bass
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Re: JAZZMASTER BASS IV!

Post by boss302bass » Mon Aug 21, 2017 1:14 pm

aaronstrumpel wrote:Wow! Fantastic, I'd love to hear this when you're finished!
Thanks Aaron! I'll try to get my friend Mary to shoot a soundclip with her pro gear. She did it for me a few months ago for the two T Basses I built...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1O2vL0LIdM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

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Re: JAZZMASTER BASS IV!

Post by bacongrease » Mon Aug 21, 2017 1:42 pm

Beautiful work beautiful guitar

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boss302bass
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Re: JAZZMASTER BASS IV!

Post by boss302bass » Mon Aug 21, 2017 10:37 pm

bacongrease wrote:Beautiful work beautiful guitar
Thanks dude, I appreciate it.

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boss302bass
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Re: JAZZMASTER BASS IV!

Post by boss302bass » Tue Aug 22, 2017 5:32 am

Fit-out time...
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Body buffed, aluminum shield ready...

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Brass shielding in - with brass triangle spikes to hold it all in place.

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Check out the NOS 1950's Mallory firecracker! It fits...

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Wire-up Thursday night. Neck finishing Thursday night. FInal set-up/shakedown Saturday. Album launch Saturday night...

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Shadoweclipse13
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Re: JAZZMASTER BASS IV!

Post by Shadoweclipse13 » Tue Aug 22, 2017 11:54 am

:? :? :? :? VERY nice, man!!
Pickup Switching Mad Scientist
http://www.offsetguitars.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=104282&p=1438384#p1438384

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boss302bass
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Re: JAZZMASTER BASS IV!

Post by boss302bass » Thu Aug 24, 2017 2:04 pm

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These arrived yesterday/ Having never used 1950's Japanese porcelain cased paper in oil TV tone caps before I thought I'd try a 0.05 one first.

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Here's the guard wired using empyrean's excellent series/parallel mod. Top wheels are bypassed for this setup.

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WWII RAAF Mustang squadron ID...we are in Australia after all...it's an RAAF Bass (Rock As All F**K!)
Neck is now fully lacquered - tomorrow is the fret dress, tuners on, bolt to body and cut/fit a nice GraphTec nut. Then test-flight.

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The business end of this imaginary 1965 JM Bass IV prototype is getting closer. As always, a Spitfire tort guard is the icing on the cake. I'm pretty happy with the shape after removing an inch or so from the bridge side of the guard. It looks natural
in relation to the bridge pickup. Bassman knobs look right too somehow...

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