I own my trusty Jazzmaster for more than seven years now, as I bought it from this forum's very own koyl in early 2010.
For history's sake, his original thread about this guitar, and variations thereof.
It's been my number one guitar ever since, a partsmaster of several Fender and non-fender origins, with :
- Mexican Strat neck (small headstock)
Japanese trans-white JM body, which IIRC is alder, giving a slight pinkish hue to the translucent white, [bonus question : does anyone know on what guitar this color was originally on ? I've never seen a picture of one exactly like mine]
AVRI trem,
Airline reissue single-coil pickups in humbucker casing
A picture of the guitar in it's current state :
What I plan to do :
The pickups have to go ; I've never liked the standard humbucker shape in a Jazzmaster, and I'm pretty tired of how they sound.
As I was looking for european pickup builders, I've narrowed my choice to Jess Loureiro's Jazzmaster pickups, which are affordable and have good reviews.
I'm currently hesitating between a standard JM set, or a JM neck with his "Tele-master" pickup in the bridge position, to get more bite (think Wilko Johnson/Gang Of Four/Lonelady/etc)
-as an aside, I've been obsessed for a long time by the Shellac guitar sound, and a bit of research told me that the TB500 pickups are built like a cross between a tele bridge pickup and a P90, so this tele-master pickup sounds relevant-
I'll also need to find a way to get the pickups to the correct height, as the body has been routed to make way for the humbucker-sized Airline pickups:
I think I'll get a black pickguard, to ape the black on blonde prototype JM look.
I was planning to buy a black anodized aluminium pickguard, but ths is getting way to expensive and hard to source, and I don't want the upgrades to match the price I bought the guitar for.
I found a single-ply matte black PG on amazon for around 16€, which is I think the simplest solution while I save up for an aluminium one. There's also the bakelite pickguard from WD Music, but the price is tripled.
Regarding the electronics, I'm having a few hesitations ; I'd like to keep it simple, with 3-way switch, master volume, master "tone-styling", and maybe using the rythm switch for series/parallel.
I'm not a fan of tone knobs, I'm thinking of replacing it with either some kind of Varitone or a Fender TBX tone control, anyone has any opinion ?
Thanks for reading ! I'll keep this thread updated.
Picture of the eventual goals, in black or If i get a change of mind, white versions :
Maybe when it's all over I'll try to source a Nocaster style (Nomaster ?) F decal, without a model name, and the OSG-approved essential Amber Switch Tip.