Thinline Jazzmaster with Both Contours!

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Ceylon
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Re: Thinline Jazzmaster with Both Contours!

Post by Ceylon » Mon Oct 15, 2018 8:00 am

MayTheFuzzBeWithYou wrote: ↑
Sat Oct 13, 2018 12:55 am
gishuk wrote: ↑
Fri Oct 12, 2018 7:23 pm
This is all looking great but the StarBacker is PERFECT it needs to exist!
I've also dreamed of a mixture between a Rickenbacker 480/481 (whatever...a guitar in THAT Ric-bass-shape) and a Jazzmaster. Doesn't need to be a thinline but if so, with the Ric-Cat-Eye of course!
Duesenberg has done something a bit similar with the double cat - but it's not quite what I mean...
I don't mean to hijack the thread or even digress too much, but since I once dreamt up (and had drawn up) this thing I have to ask if this is something like what you imagine?

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Because those were my two sources of inspiration and I always figured having it made as a thinline with a Cateye F-hole would be so damn cool. It seems we are of similar tastes.
Science Friction burns my fingers
Electricity still lingers

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Re: Thinline Jazzmaster with Both Contours!

Post by Deed_Poll » Mon Oct 15, 2018 12:41 pm

No worries, Ceylon! I already derailed it with the Starbacker :D looking good, by the way! I like how the curve around the back of the tailpiece follows the control plate, like those old solid body Ricks (460?)

So this is the fix. I'm quite happy with this now, it shows up a little grey but that's exaggerated in the photos. The shape is the important bit and that's come out very nicely.

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I just used the old sawdust and superglue trick, and brought it back to shape with a file and some 180 grit and a tiny block to keep the edges true :)
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Re: Thinline Jazzmaster with Both Contours!

Post by MayTheFuzzBeWithYou » Mon Oct 15, 2018 1:47 pm

Ceylon wrote: ↑
Mon Oct 15, 2018 8:00 am
...but since I once dreamt up (and had drawn up) this thing I have to ask if this is something like what you imagine?

Image

Because those were my two sources of inspiration and I always figured having it made as a thinline with a Cateye F-hole would be so damn cool. It seems we are of similar tastes.
Hell yeah! Indeed it seems that way! And you got more than close! I imagined it more like a single piece pickguard - but yeah your Jag/Hornet/dead on 67 variation of it is kicking it! Only thing I'd make differently is the headstock... but mainly because I already have that cbs b&b already at home! ;)
Thanks for bringing this up! It's strenghtening my opinion on that project! Sorry for the slightly offtopic content! 😜

Side note: does anyone of you know Baum guitars? https://www.baumguitars.com/conquer-59/ they made a variant of it with the lower horn being the Ric variation.

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Re: Thinline Jazzmaster with Both Contours!

Post by Debaser » Mon Oct 15, 2018 3:36 pm

Drooling all over this thread, sub’d. :?
50,000 watts out of Mexico, this is the BorderRadio...

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Re: Thinline Jazzmaster with Both Contours!

Post by Deed_Poll » Mon Oct 15, 2018 4:13 pm

Cheers Debaser! :)

To continue the derailing :P who remembers the old Rickenjagger 4000?

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Re: Thinline Jazzmaster with Both Contours!

Post by Con-Tiki! » Mon Oct 15, 2018 4:59 pm

Man, this is pretty amazing.
I can only imagine how complex the toolpath is to produce that shape.
Love it.
(Christopher, also)
I've been to one World's Fair, a picnic, and a rodeo, and that's the stupidest thing i ever heard come out a pair of headphones.

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Re: Thinline Jazzmaster with Both Contours!

Post by Deed_Poll » Mon Oct 15, 2018 6:04 pm

NICQ wrote: ↑
Sun Oct 14, 2018 10:40 pm
Deed_Poll wrote: ↑
Fri Oct 12, 2018 2:11 pm

Here it is from the other side, clearly visible and horrible! Sorry, Nico! It will be put right I promise! ;)

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No problem - "Where wood is chopped, splinters must fall" :D
I was going for a solid Sonic Blue finish so you don't have to think about repairing it meticulously or mathcing the grain or wood too much

Build looks great so far - very excited!
That's a relief! With the repair I'm confident it will look great with or without finish on the edges of the f-hole.

I'm really glad you're enjoying the build! I'm very excited to cut the inside of the back and do the join tomorrow.

After that, it's just a case of basically treating it like any solid blank and cutting a Jazzmaster out of it!

Once the top and back are together, it will basically be a big square lump with an f-hole and the routes for the controls and pickups in it. I have reference peg holes cut in the top so it should align perfectly onto the cavity we already have. If we can match within 0.1mm like last time, that's more than good enough alignment.

I still always cut the neck pocket and bridge posts as part of the same toolpath - just to make absolutely sure they line up perfectly.

Anyway, after top and back are together it gets put back on the machine face-down and I cut the tummy contour, edge radius transition around the heel and drill holes for the neck bolts and reference pegs.

Then I flip it over on the pegs, cut the arm contour and the trem route, bridge thimble holes and neck pocket. Finally we cut the outline and see what we end up with!

I leave the outline cut still attached to the blank with 6mm thick tabs, which I chisel through. They will leave nubs, but these will be machined off with the remaining edge roundover.
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Re: Thinline Jazzmaster with Both Contours!

Post by Ceylon » Mon Oct 15, 2018 10:38 pm

Deed_Poll wrote: ↑
Mon Oct 15, 2018 4:13 pm
Cheers Debaser! :)

To continue the derailing :P who remembers the old Rickenjagger 4000?

Image
A real beauty, that one!
Science Friction burns my fingers
Electricity still lingers

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Re: Thinline Jazzmaster with Both Contours!

Post by Deed_Poll » Tue Oct 16, 2018 7:45 am

Part 3!

So today I cut the inside of the back, and was able to line up the top and back with my reference peg holes for gluing :)

Let's kick it off with an artistic photo of the interior space with both contours!

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I like how the f-hole projects onto the bottom, this pic has avatar potential I think haha!

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So here it is as it came off the machine. You can see I used a much finer cut for this one, it's only about a 1mm step over on the finish pass.

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The grain it revealed is also rather nice! This will be what you see when you look through the f-hole, so it's just as well!
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Re: Thinline Jazzmaster with Both Contours!

Post by Deed_Poll » Tue Oct 16, 2018 7:58 am

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Here are some pictures with the back and front mated up using the 2 reference peg holes I cut in each interior. These will keep the faces lined up perfectly while they're clamped and glued.

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I was pleased to discover that you can actually see quite a lot of the hollow interior through the rhythm circuit cavity

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And here's testing whether I got the centre lines to join exactly. Up top (neck pocket end) they're out by about 0.3mm

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But at the butt of the guitar they line up exactly. This isn't a reflection on how accurate the machine is in any way, just on how accurate I was in lining up the centrelines of the blanks with the centreline of my machine.

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Finally, here they are "book matched" together. You can see the pegs and reference holes that will keep it straight.

Incidentally, I was thinking how cool it would be on a future project to basically spray both these faces in CAR or gold, but leave the exterior natural or a sunburst finish! So the inside of the f-hole, control cavities and maybe pickup cavities are a bright colour - and maybe use an acrylic pickguard so you can see through to the coloured cavities. Does that sound insane??

Cheers!
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Re: Thinline Jazzmaster with Both Contours!

Post by solfege » Tue Oct 16, 2018 9:12 am

I love some of the finish ideas here. More generally, I'm incredibly interested in how this turns out. One of the next things I want to make is something in the thinline / semi-hollow family and the very idea of the guitar that results from this is making me drool.

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Re: Thinline Jazzmaster with Both Contours!

Post by Deed_Poll » Thu Oct 18, 2018 4:00 am

Just a little video to show the f-hole after forearm cut! Constant thickness achieved. Feeling very smug haha

https://i.imgur.com/jOGNSCa.gifv

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Re: Thinline Jazzmaster with Both Contours!

Post by dinosaurkale-> » Thu Oct 18, 2018 4:44 am

wow everything is looking awesome
keep us up with the updates

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Re: Thinline Jazzmaster with Both Contours!

Post by Deed_Poll » Thu Oct 18, 2018 6:25 am

So, plenty of rough edges still on this so bear that in mind! There will be hairy edges around the routes, marks from the planer and so on that will still need to be sorted out.

This is how my bodies look when they come off the machine. You can see there's still an awful lot of work to do, lots of sanding and of course the roundovers as well.

I always incorporate the edge roundover into my CNC cuts for the contours, that way you get a consistent radius all the way around the body and a nice transition on the back where it meets the neck pocket.

I got sick of trying to get the colours accurate to real life with my phone camera, so these are just arty black and white so sorry about that. I'll do some better colour pictures once the roundovers and sanding are done.

I'm very pleased with how this has all turned out at this stage since I'm trying a lot of new things with this build and although it's been a lot of work, I'm learning a great deal that I can take forward. Thanks again to Nico for being my patron!!

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P.S. I rather like that the release cut intersected one of the pegs I used to align the top and back ;)

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Re: Thinline Jazzmaster with Both Contours!

Post by ThePearDream » Thu Oct 18, 2018 6:36 am

Oh man, this is turning out fantastic.
Doug
@dpcannafax

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