"Sonic Costello" Jazzmaster Build

[Kwyjibo]

This guitar is a confluence of factors. I've always been enamored with Elvis Costello's Jazzmaster but also love Sonic Youth and wanted a Jazzmaster with widerange pickups. This - coupled with the fact that I have too many spare parts lying around - led me to a fun little project:

Build the "Sonic Costello" Jazzmaster with as many spare parts that I already own. For aesthetics, I still want to get a black tip for the tremolo bar but not really a priority at the moment. The body is reclaimed cedar and the neck is apparently Canadian rock maple, but I got it from a wholesaler on Ebay so who really knows. I need to dress the frets and file the nut, but it actually feels great. Nice shape. Here is the total breakdown of parts I had to buy:

Curtis Novak Widerange Jazzmaster Pickups: $335
Stewmac Trem: $44
Black switch tip: $6.44
Electronic parts: $64.98

Total cost: $450.42

[Rgand]

I like it. The natural wood is nice and the holes add to the character. Good choices.

[Maggieo]

And now, in the least surprising comment ever made as OSG...

I LOVE THAT!!!!!

[N0_Camping4U]

I really like the body wood. I bet it sounds fantastic.
What's up with that CFM Jazzmaster back there? That looks neat too!

[Kwyjibo]

And now, in the least surprising comment ever made as OSG...

I LOVE THAT!!!!!

The wood is from Omaha!!

[Kwyjibo]

I really like the body wood. I bet it sounds fantastic.
What's up with that CFM Jazzmaster back there? That looks neat too!

Thanks - it does sound great. It's got a really spanky growl to it. The cedar is pretty snappy and bright (which I wanted) and the widerange humbuckers pull it all together tight, with some added lower end. The cedar is also really resonant/light.

The CFM JM is a 65 AVRI thin skin. Absolutely adore that guitar and it is my favorite for sure, so I wanted to get/make another jazzmaster that I can mod/abuse and not feel badly. That CFM jazzy is the only guitar I baby, i.e. it's the only one I own that gets polished routinely, and by that I mean once every few months lol.

[Maggieo]

And now, in the least surprising comment ever made as OSG...

I LOVE THAT!!!!!

The wood is from Omaha!!

Holy cow! I love it even more now.

Where in Omaha did it come from? Old warehouse, like the Bowery Pine guitars?

[DJAwsum]

How are you liking those Novak WR pickups? I have a brand-new, just-ordered pair sitting in front of me - due to be installed in my Jazzy any day. Feared it was heresy to use WR pickups in a Jazzy, so I'm glad to see someone else is as crazy as me. Ha!

[X-Ray Spex]

Sweet, also how has nobody picked up on that sick G&L in the background?

[Steadyriot.]

That's rad! Nice build.

[Kwyjibo]

And now, in the least surprising comment ever made as OSG...

I LOVE THAT!!!!!

The wood is from Omaha!!

Holy cow! I love it even more now.

Where in Omaha did it come from? Old warehouse, like the Bowery Pine guitars?

Came from someone's old deck. Not nearly as cool as those, but I'm just going to lie to myself and pretend it's old growth cedar

[Kwyjibo]

How are you liking those Novak WR pickups? I have a brand-new, just-ordered pair sitting in front of me - due to be installed in my Jazzy any day. Feared it was heresy to use WR pickups in a Jazzy, so I'm glad to see someone else is as crazy as me. Ha!

Nah, man, check out Lee Ranaldo's "Jazzblasters" that's who I got the idea from. I really, really like them and they are exactly what I was looking for. Curtis is mad.

As pretty much a single coil disciple, what I love most about them is they retain many of the single coil qualities I am obsessed with, while simultaneously diminishing some of the single coil characteristics that annoy me occasionally, e.g. still very snappy sounding but the low frequencies are tighter, significantly less noisy, I have more "control" over fuzz and high gain sounds

[Loobster]

Old thread, but whatever. Every guitar in your pictures is sick, not least the SC-2!

[s_mcsleazy]

kinda similar idea to my guitar "the jankmaster" because i did it as if elvis costello gave his jazzmaster to thurston moore. it's kinda more standard jazzmaster than it used to be.