Joining the Mory brigade

Bringing your older offset back to life.
Post Reply
User avatar
antisymmetric
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 3601
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 11:32 pm
Location: New Zealand

Joining the Mory brigade

Post by antisymmetric » Fri Jul 26, 2019 3:26 am

Image
This thing is just so cool, I'm quite excited about getting it together. I've just been GIVEN it by a friend- he's become quite the Mory aficionado, and has had several of them pass through his hands. This one needs some work- the neck is bowed- and also a few parts. Only one pickup, which he's now keeping as a spare, as I have a pair of Lollar pickups for my JM-alike build that's somehow never got past the conceptual phase. ::)
I'll fix the neck in due course, but I have this birdseye maple Strat neck (with absolute fencepost profile- I don't know who made it) left over from a parts Strat that I sold the rest of, so that can go on. It might just stay on, Maybe the headstock will be painted black to tie in with the body. Or not- it looks kind of ok as is.
A bridge will be needed too, I'm hoping the post spacing is the same as JM/ Jag, and I can use something like that.
The pickguard- forget 3D, this thing is 4D! In a way I'd rather have a single-colour finish on the body to work with the pickguard, but I think the sunburst is in too nice a condition to refinish, and it's growing on me anyway. It's funny, I tell myself I don't like sunbursts except on some "jazz"guitars and such with bound bodies, but I seem to be ending up with a few Fender-y burst ones anyway. :wacko:
Image
Watching the corners turn corners

User avatar
mgeek
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1436
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:03 pm

Re: Joining the Mory brigade

Post by mgeek » Fri Jul 26, 2019 9:00 am

very cool! Love the copies of things that are still a bit creative and different looking- like this and the sixties Jansen gear

Would a clamp and heat sort the original neck out?

User avatar
antisymmetric
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 3601
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 11:32 pm
Location: New Zealand

Re: Joining the Mory brigade

Post by antisymmetric » Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:42 pm

That would be the first approach. I've tried it once before, on a Jazz Bass neck in much worse shape than this one, and it came out very well. So yeah, heat and clamp. Trouble is organising some heat- it was summer when I did the Jazz neck, and I just left it sitting in a car in the sun all day. Too cold here for that right now, and I don't have a heat lamp. (Might have to move this to the first world problems thread..)
Watching the corners turn corners

User avatar
mgeek
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1436
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:03 pm

Re: Joining the Mory brigade

Post by mgeek » Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:57 pm

antisymmetric wrote:
Fri Jul 26, 2019 12:42 pm
That would be the first approach. I've tried it once before, on a Jazz Bass neck in much worse shape than this one, and it came out very well. So yeah, heat and clamp. Trouble is organising some heat- it was summer when I did the Jazz neck, and I just left it sitting in a car in the sun all day. Too cold here for that right now, and I don't have a heat lamp. (Might have to move this to the first world problems thread..)
ha! I use an electric blanket. Sometimes it takes a couple of passes to nail it, but it's never failed me, even on twists.

Not that I'd need it here now. I recorded a temp. hotter than the highest officially recorded temperature ever recorded in the UK, yesterday :fp: 39.4!

Tuned all my guitars down...

User avatar
will
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1113
Joined: Sat Oct 20, 2012 3:36 pm
Contact:

Re: Joining the Mory brigade

Post by will » Sat Jul 27, 2019 6:32 am

I've straightened out warped necks with a hair dryer and did a write-up a while back -

viewtopic.php?t=107290

Maybe this will be helpful?

User avatar
antisymmetric
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 3601
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 11:32 pm
Location: New Zealand

Re: Joining the Mory brigade

Post by antisymmetric » Sat Jul 27, 2019 2:48 pm

^That is indeed helpful. Don't know how I missed that thread! I love both of those basses too. Cheers!
Watching the corners turn corners

User avatar
MattK
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 3571
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2008 9:51 pm
Location: Hobart, Australia

Re: Joining the Mory brigade

Post by MattK » Sat Jul 27, 2019 3:47 pm

I straightened a twisted Jazz Bass neck by loosening the trussrod and clamping the headstock and neck heel against a flat 2x4 (obviously using cauls to protect the face and the frets). A week of shining a 150W flood lamp on the fretboard warmed it up, then a week of cooling down, and it came out dead flat. Kind of an advantage of rosewood boards, if they are glued in the right position they help hold the maple straight.
Absolutely keep the sunburst, it looks fantastic and the finish is only original once. Your guard looks beautiful.
Make sure you drop Craig (FM sleepkid a.k.a. Electric Deer Guitarworks) a line - not sure what he's up to these days but he can help with any queries and maybe even parts.
My Mory has a Tokai neck from the 80s but it is one of my absolute best guitars, beats my 80s Fender Jazzmaster for playability and sound. Worth trying to coax the pickups out of your friend, they are great. And hit me up for a decal when you need it - anyone else reading that I have promised a decal to, please drop me a PM, I've moved house a couple of times in the last year and it all got a little chaotic.

User avatar
mgeek
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1436
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:03 pm

Re: Joining the Mory brigade

Post by mgeek » Sat Jul 27, 2019 11:27 pm

MatthewK wrote:
Sat Jul 27, 2019 3:47 pm
I straightened a twisted Jazz Bass neck by loosening the trussrod and clamping the headstock and neck heel against a flat 2x4 (obviously using cauls to protect the face and the frets). A week of shining a 150W flood lamp on the fretboard warmed it up, then a week of cooling down, and it came out dead flat.
That's interesting...I've never tried doing it for that long, perhaps doing that eliminates the spring back factor?

User avatar
MattK
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 3571
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2008 9:51 pm
Location: Hobart, Australia

Re: Joining the Mory brigade

Post by MattK » Sun Jul 28, 2019 3:22 am

I can't say, that's the only time I have tried it. I realised in the same process that the Jazz Bass neck is super vulnerable to twisting, since it has that A width nut (not much wood when you run a truss channel through), a truss rod which needs to be tightened against bass string tension, and a long scale which means the nut can run out of thread. If you tighten the nut after it runs out of travel, you are essentially putting a twist in the rod (a bit like the torsion bar suspension in my old Alfa) and over time it will apply a twist to the anchor point near the nut.
The slow heating and cooling was supposed to release the twist which had been "set in" over time. It worked so maybe the idea was correct. I've also decided that for major truss tod tightening in future, I will apply a forward bow manually by e.g. sitting on the neck with a bit of space below it, and tightening the now-loose nut by the half or full turn I need to, then releasing the neck and letting it "snug up". Using the nut itself to apply the force seems risky.

User avatar
mgeek
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 1436
Joined: Mon Mar 17, 2014 1:03 pm

Re: Joining the Mory brigade

Post by mgeek » Sun Jul 28, 2019 9:39 am

MatthewK wrote:
Sun Jul 28, 2019 3:22 am
I can't say, that's the only time I have tried it. I realised in the same process that the Jazz Bass neck is super vulnerable to twisting, since it has that A width nut (not much wood when you run a truss channel through), a truss rod which needs to be tightened against bass string tension, and a long scale which means the nut can run out of thread. If you tighten the nut after it runs out of travel, you are essentially putting a twist in the rod (a bit like the torsion bar suspension in my old Alfa) and over time it will apply a twist to the anchor point near the nut.
The slow heating and cooling was supposed to release the twist which had been "set in" over time. It worked so maybe the idea was correct. I've also decided that for major truss tod tightening in future, I will apply a forward bow manually by e.g. sitting on the neck with a bit of space below it, and tightening the now-loose nut by the half or full turn I need to, then releasing the neck and letting it "snug up". Using the nut itself to apply the force seems risky.
wow you've gone deep there...and it makes perfect sense.

Funniest thing I've seen when I pulled a fretboard was a truss channel that wasn't even down the centre of the (super skinny) neck. It will have needed tension to counter the strings, but when added there was no way it would work evenly, so it twisted. A sixties Burns. :fp:

User avatar
antisymmetric
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 3601
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 11:32 pm
Location: New Zealand

Re: Joining the Mory brigade

Post by antisymmetric » Wed Jul 31, 2019 2:23 am

Lots of interesting stuff on straightening Jazz Bass necks! The one I did actually came to me for repair from the same friend who's now given me the Mory. Total lost cause, with banana bend neck and snapped truss rod (at the thread). He'd bought it that way, I think someone must have left it a very hot place, done the damage, and then snapped the truss rod trying to straighten it. Headstock adjust rod, so I was able to rout some wood out of the heel to allow for removal of the rod, cut a new thread, and rout a bit more out of the heel to allow the anchor to move forward the amount of what was lost in the break, then add some wood to fill the gap. Then I did the heat/clamp, then into my ghetto home-made version of the Stewmac neck jig. Levelled it under simulated string tension, refretted, and I'm told it has a new owner now and is still being played. I had to do more levelling than I'd have liked to, with hindsight I should have done the heat/clamp again and got it closer, but I didn't really have a clue at the time and didn't know what was possible.
MatthewK wrote:
Sat Jul 27, 2019 3:47 pm
I straightened a twisted Jazz Bass neck by loosening the trussrod and clamping the headstock and neck heel against a flat 2x4 (obviously using cauls to protect the face and the frets). A week of shining a 150W flood lamp on the fretboard warmed it up, then a week of cooling down, and it came out dead flat. Kind of an advantage of rosewood boards, if they are glued in the right position they help hold the maple straight.
Absolutely keep the sunburst, it looks fantastic and the finish is only original once. Your guard looks beautiful.
Make sure you drop Craig (FM sleepkid a.k.a. Electric Deer Guitarworks) a line - not sure what he's up to these days but he can help with any queries and maybe even parts.
My Mory has a Tokai neck from the 80s but it is one of my absolute best guitars, beats my 80s Fender Jazzmaster for playability and sound. Worth trying to coax the pickups out of your friend, they are great. And hit me up for a decal when you need it - anyone else reading that I have promised a decal to, please drop me a PM, I've moved house a couple of times in the last year and it all got a little chaotic.
I watched your project, and love how it came out. I will be keeping the sunburst on mine, it's in too nice a condition to refinish. Thanks for the decal offer, I will certainly be in touch. 8)
Watching the corners turn corners

User avatar
antisymmetric
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 3601
Joined: Mon Apr 26, 2010 11:32 pm
Location: New Zealand

Re: Joining the Mory brigade

Post by antisymmetric » Fri Jun 12, 2020 4:48 pm

It's alive! Been spending some "escape" time at the bench- got busy and tidied/ completed the shielding, installed the Lollars and shielded them as well, removed the messy wiring which I can't believe would have been original, rewired with the existing switches and pots. Normally I'd just biff everything and fit new stuff, but the cupboard was bare, so what was there was used and it seems fine. For now I've left the rhythm circuit out, and I'm using the switch to try half out of phase (running the signal through a capacitor). 90 degrees out of phase instead of the full 180 degrees you'd get with a phase reverse switch.
Image
The original neck has straightened out ok, but rather than getting more involved and having to level and refret, for now the maple partscaster neck is installed . Beyond baseball bat, and quite comfy. Bridge is a budget eBay find for the moment.
Image
Image
It sounds great, and it's nice to finally have a JM. Kind of ironic that they're one of the first guitars that ever I ever fell for, yet this is my first one. :wacko: Instead of JM now being ticked off the bucket list, it's actually increased my motivation to build my own (that the Lollars were bought for).
Watching the corners turn corners

User avatar
MattK
PAT. # 2.972.923
PAT. # 2.972.923
Posts: 3571
Joined: Sun Aug 10, 2008 9:51 pm
Location: Hobart, Australia

Re: Joining the Mory brigade

Post by MattK » Sat Jun 13, 2020 2:35 am

That neck looks amazing, I want to reach through the screen and try it! Glad to hear you ran the pickup signal through the capacitor, I maybe mentioned somewhere that my Mory is wired that way. If I can I would be glad to measure the pickup resistance if you want to clone them sometime.

Post Reply