My Thinline Jazzmaster Build

[DireWolf08]

I would like to share my progress on the thinline Jazzmaster I currently have as WIP. Read on if you’d like!

This is the second guitar I have built/assembled. The first one was a Warmoth VIP. I got the parts over 20 years ago, and after packing it away in storage for most of that time, I finally finished it earlier this year. I figured I moved so quickly with that one, why not build another that I will surely finish before I die?! In all seriousness, I did enjoy the building process. Combine that with a craving for a Jazzmaster, but with none of the ones out there having exactly what I wanted, so I decided to go the DIY route.

My inspiration for this build is George Harrison’s Rosewood Telecaster. I love the satin dark brown look with black pickguard. It’s so classy. I have seen Rosewood Jazzmasters with similar styling and they just look great. That said, I wanted to avoid the expense and weight of a real rosewood body, and since I could not find any bodies or necks that fit what I was looking for, I decided I would start with a more typical body wood and stain it to get the appearance I wanted. That proved more problematic than I expected …

I purchased an alder thinline body from Saylor Custom Shop Guitars on eBay, and a bound Wenge neck from Havok Guitars on Etsy/Reverb. Received both quickly, and both appear to be very high quality. The neck is finished and ready to go, just need to drill the bolt holes and install tuners.

[DireWolf08]

Before starting to work on the finish, I wanted to contour the neck heel. I own a Fender American Ultra strat, and I love the feel of the neck at the upper frets. I will keep the body full thickness here (unlike the AU).

I got the contoured neck plate, traced the design to the body, and got to work on a spindle sander.


It went really quick and I am really pleased with how it turned out. I drilled the holes for the neck and did a test fit, then I rounded off the edges and corners by hand with 120 paper.


Now on to finishing the body …

[DireWolf08]

For the stain, I got a test block of alder to try out various combinations of stains, dyes and finishes. Boy, Am I glad I did that before jumping straight to the body!

I read that alder is notoriously hard to stain as it gets very splotchy. Different sections of the grain will either soak up the stain, or won’t take it up at all. I found this to be very true. There are not many examples of stained alder bodies out there that I thought looked good! I had no idea how challenging it would be to get the look I wanted.

First, I tried oil-based stain. I had read that starting with an ebony stain, sanding it back and going over again with rosewood or walnut stain produces a rosewood-like appearance. This was not my experience at all. Also, the splotchiness was terrible on my test piece.

It looked pretty bad. I sanded the stain off several times, trying different combinations of pre-stain conditioner, color combinations, and soak times.

Nothing worked. Okay, oil-based stains aren’t going to give me what I am looking for, let’s try dyes …

Well, the result was equally bad, if not worse. Flipping the block over and trying numerous combinations of black and dark brown Transtint mixed with denatured alcohol produced a similarly splotchy, unattractive non-uniform appearance.


At this point, I was about ready to give up and go as natural. Started looking at Tru-oil, and almost fully committed to that before my Dad suggested Gel Stain. I bought a can of Varathane Kona Gel Stain and did two test coats. This I can work with!


Okay, Kona Gel Stain is what we are going with. If there is anyone out there who wants to make alder look like rosewood, pre-stain conditioner followed by Varathane Kona Gel Stain is your answer.

Two coats of stain on the body, and I am ready for top coat …

[ragamuffin]

Nice parts! What are you thinking for pickguard/hardware/pickups etc?

[DireWolf08]

Nice parts! What are you thinking for pickguard/hardware/pickups etc?

Nickel Hardware
Bridge: Bensonite Jazzmaster
Vibrato: Fender AVRI
Pickups: Fralin hum-canceling Jazzmaster
Tuners: Grover Roto-grip locking
Electronics: Rothstein STB wiring

I went with the Fralin’s because in general I love his pickups, and hate hum. I couldn’t hear the difference between his standard and hum-canceling versions.

I looked at a lot of bridges, but I like the look, hefty construction, limited adjustability and height-locking feature of the Bensonite the best. It seems like a nice hybrid of a Jazzmaster and TOM bridge. Also, they have a 12” radius bridge as a standard order. I could not justify the expense of Mastery bridge/tremolo and Staytrem is not accepting orders currently.

The Rothstein wiring really piqued my interest. After reading such mixed impressions of a standard JM rhythm circuit, I was looking for something different. I prefer being able to control individual pickup volumes independent of the others, I like the idea of bass and treble cut adjustments, and the series/parallel switching was intriguing to me. I’ve never owned a Jazzmaster, so I don’t know what I am missing/giving up by going this route, but this felt intuitively like the right choice compared to standard wiring.

[ragamuffin]

Sounds solid!

On my previous JM build I did basically a DIY version of that Rothstein wiring scheme. The series plus bass cut is a good combo

Those Bensonite bridges look really nice, I'd probably put one on my korina build if I wasn't for the compound radius neck that I ordered. I just got a standard MIJ adjustable bridge but I may upgrade to a Tuffset down the line.

[DireWolf08]

Sounds solid!

On my previous JM build I did basically a DIY version of that Rothstein wiring scheme. The series plus bass cut is a good combo

Those Bensonite bridges look really nice, I'd probably put one on my korina build if I wasn't for the compound radius neck that I ordered. I just got a standard MIJ adjustable bridge but I may upgrade to a Tuffset down the line.

Ah, I love compound radius necks. The Warmoth VIP I linked in my first post has a compound radius neck, and I love the 10-14” neck on my American Ultra Strat. Super comfy. The Tuffset bridge looks really nice too, and pretty similar to the Bensonite, though with a couple more adjustments. Glad to hear another positive review on the Rothstein wiring, I have heard only good things about it so far!

[DireWolf08]

Okay, onto the finish. Had narrowed it down to Tru-Oil and satin polyurethane. Test coats of each of them looked similar, but I read that polyurethane will take fewer coats, cure faster and offer a bit more protection. So, satin polyurethane it is. I started applying, using a brand new, high-quality brush and Minwax satin polyurethane …

Ugh, this is not looking good. Lots of brush strokes, drips, and it is going on super gloopy. Not sure if the issue is the cold, or that I am working with an older can of finish, but this looks terrible. I could not hit the right balance of thick enough to avoid brush strokes, but thin enough to avoid drips.


Okay, sand it back to flat, and let’s try again with Wipe-on Poly …


That’s much better! This stuff goes on super-thin and even. It dries quickly, and it is much easier to do one side at a time. Burnishing with 0000 steel wool between coats. Just a coat or two more to smooth out some remaining sandpaper/steel wool scratches and I will be done with the finish.

By the way, does anyone have any suggestions for final steps to get a scratch-less satin finish? I feel like I am still seeing some fairly prominent scratches even with 0000 steel wool (though I am seeing those when looking at a glancing angle only). Paste wax, polish or something similar? Interested to hear recommendations on how to “finish” the finish!

[DireWolf08]

Okay, wipe-on poly did the trick. This is ready to cure for a few days and then I’ll do paste wax + steel wool and a final buff.

[ragamuffin]

Looking nice!

[JJStrummr]

Sounds solid!

On my previous JM build I did basically a DIY version of that Rothstein wiring scheme. The series plus bass cut is a good combo

Those Bensonite bridges look really nice, I'd probably put one on my korina build if I wasn't for the compound radius neck that I ordered. I just got a standard MIJ adjustable bridge but I may upgrade to a Tuffset down the line.

You will love the Bensonite bridge. I have one on two different Jazzmasters. I'm building a new JM and bought a Tuffset to try. They look fantastic as well. Quite a few adjustments to set the radius, but they have really good instructions and a great setup video.

[DireWolf08]

That is great to hear about the Bensonite bridge @JJStrummr!

[DireWolf08]

Update time, lots of opportunity to work on this over the holiday break.

First, I just wanted to share the pretty pic of the body wiped down with denatured alcohol, from before my staining and finishing. Really nice grain and figuring for an alder top. There is a small part of me that wished I had gone the "Tru-oil only" route for this one ...


Second, my Rothstein STB mod pickguard loaded with Fralin hum-canceling Jazzmaster pickups arrived. Thank you @guitar-mod!


A couple of things I observed:
1) Was surprised to find that the pickups were a humbucker form factor hiding under Jazzmaster-sized covers. Not a big deal, it just wasn't what I was expecting, even though it is not surprising that they are different from standard single coil JMs. Andy was super responsive and went above and beyond to reassure me they were the right pickups. Only mentioning this to highlight my noob-ness and as an FYI for anyone who gets these pickups and has super shallow body routs, they are a bit fatter. Will share tone impressions in an upcoming post ...


2) This pickguard is superbly put together, and way nicer than I could have ever accomplished. The wire routing is very well thought out, and the construction is very solid. Only adjustments required were a small shift of the wires running across the strings to the rhythm (STB) circuit controls so that they fit inside the neck pickup rout. And, I swapped the knobs for witch hats.


I also got a custom headstock emblem laser cut out of stainless steel and added to the neck. I made the design in Inkscape and uploaded it to SendCutSend. 25pcs showed up just a few days later. Really impressed with how low-friction the process was for getting this done.


I epoxied it to the headstock and we're ready to assemble the whole thing. Just a bunch of drilling and screwing left at this point

[UpstairsDuck]

The headstock logo looks so good!

[DireWolf08]

Why, thank you! I am quite happy with how it turned out.