Walnut Jazzmaster *Refinished*

Talk about modding or building your own guitar from scratch.
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NICQ
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Walnut Jazzmaster *Refinished*

Post by NICQ » Sat Oct 14, 2017 8:43 am

I had built a Walnut Jazzmaster - looked like this :
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didn't like it and went with black pickup covers & knobs + ebonized fretboard:
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I never really liked the pale brown of the body so I sanded the danish oil + wax finish off :
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Applied a stain (dark oak) - then finished with Tru Oil :
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I also have too many "traditional" Jazzmasters already I went with something completely different this time:

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Loving the finish! The grain has way more depth and 3D to it than with the danish oil + wax finish
Pickups are also great: Chopper (neck) - FastTrack1 (mid) - SuperDistortion (bridge) are extremly versatile and have a unique sound

Was a lot of work but I think I'm satisfied with the guitar now

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Embenny
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Re: Walnut Jazzmaster *Refinished*

Post by Embenny » Sat Oct 14, 2017 10:32 am

Wow, that looks great. To be honest, every single incarnation you posted looked good, but I agree that the finish has more depth now.

I didn't realize they had a strat-sized super distortion. I had the full-sized one that I put in my first ever electric guitar (a MIM Squier strat). Added a series/parallel switch and fell in love with the parallel tone even more so than series. Led to my whole career as a pickup tweaker!

Since you have strat knobs on there, you could put an S1 switch in the volume knob which could do series/parallel for all 3 pickups with a single switch. Would let you get a whole other range of tones from it. Just something to consider.
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

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NICQ
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Re: Walnut Jazzmaster *Refinished*

Post by NICQ » Sat Oct 14, 2017 12:13 pm

mbene085 wrote:Since you have strat knobs on there, you could put an S1 switch in the volume knob which could do series/parallel for all 3 pickups with a single switch. Would let you get a whole other range of tones from it. Just something to consider.
I've installed a "super switch" and wired all the humbuckers so that I have

full neck humbucker
one neck coil+one mid coil
full mid humbucker
one mid coil + one bridge coil
full bridge humbucker

-> I'm not that familiar with wiring altogether and I took the diagram from Billy Corgan's Strat wiring and kinda copied it

But I still have a free slot for a simple switch ... is it possible to use that as a series/parallel switch for all 3 hbs ?

If so someone has to show me how to wire it - was hard enough to get the current wiring working for me :D

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Embenny
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Re: Walnut Jazzmaster *Refinished*

Post by Embenny » Sat Oct 14, 2017 12:23 pm

The short answer is that I'm not aware of any way to do 3 pickups series/parallel with one DPDT Jag switch (the size of the hole in your pickguard). The S1 switch is great for multi-pickup switching because it is essentially 4 independent switches (4 poles).

I find parallel to sound better than split coils on humbuckers such as yours - it gets that extra treble and snap more like a single coil, but not as thin as a split HB, and still cancels hum. Superswitch wiring generally involves wiring individual coils to the switch and It would take a better electrician than myself to integrate that with a triple series/parallel switch.

If you wired the 5-way as a regular 5-way (no coil splits), I could help you out. But I just threw the idea out there since it would open up some extra tonal possibilities without sacrificing much of anything. I loved my SD in parallel mode.
The artist formerly known as mbene085.

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