dpm99

Ah, smart. I didn't think of that. I'll have to look into that one. The bridge cover looks really cool, but I'd like to eventually add a piezo bridge, so that means a TOM, strat, or floyd bridge, at least from what I've seen. I've never played with metal before. Thanks for point that out. 9" Ryobi band saw: $99 (Jigsaw: $29.99, unless my brother still has my old one) Router: $0 (Already have one) Bits: $40? (May have those too. I'll find out when I see my brother in July.) Ryobi palm sander: $40 (Used to have one. My brother may have that too.) Files: $10 So it looks like if I go the jigsaw route, I'm looking at an investment of no more than $120, and probably less. I could handle that. But won't I need a router table? What's a hardcoat finish? When I've finished things in the past, it's involved spray cans and brushes. I've seen videos of people rubbing in finish on guitars, and assumed that was the way to go. If I'm going for a vintage look (with a nitrocellulose finish?), what's going to be best? Again, the project will eventually be a relic. Admittedly, I haven't read Hiscock's chapter on painting and finishing yet. I should probably do that soon. Now let me throw the proverbial wrench in the works. I live in a one bedroom apartment, and my neighbors are....well....difficult. I can probably get away with using a power tool once or twice in this process if I need to, but the less noise I make, the better. So let me ask you this. Assuming I'm a patient man, what could not be done with a chisel, a bow saw, and a whole bunch of sandpaper? I even have one of those old manual drills that looks like an eggbeater that I inherited from my Grandad. This question is somewhat hypothetical, but not entirely. As for it being "easy as cake," well sure, for you! I'm nervous about doing even this much, and if it were not for these forums, I wouldn't even be trying it. Thanks, Dave

Thanks. You can actually buy a bridge cover directly from Fender. Availability of parts was another reason I chose this project.

Thanks for all the help so far. Let's see if I can do this. I may miss a few things along the way, and I'm not sure on the order of things. Here's the project. This is my first build. I want to wait until my second to do something original. This is a learning project as much as anything, and as I said before, my budget is limited. I figure if I just try to reproduce something, I'll have a much smaller chance of making big mistakes. So I want to build a Jazzmaster. I've waffled on this point a lot, but I think it's time to just make a decision and stick with it. I will be using the neck from an Ibanez GSA60 to save money. I just happen to have it lying around doing nothing. Since the Jazzmaster and the GSA60 both have a 25.5" scale and 22 frets, I think it should work. I took apart my Tele and compared the necks, and they're very similar too. I understand the Jazzmaster uses (more or less) the same neck, so I think I'll just have to modify the neck pocket and the contour around it a little, and it ought to work. The Neck I'm going to cut the headstock in a straight line to remove all the wood to the right of the fretboard. This should not affect anything structurally, as I won't be coming near the tuners. So first I'll sand the headstock, and then cut. Then I want to glue a piece of maple to the right of the headstock (An ear? Is that what you call it?) and cut it to shape. So I guess I'll need something to make the two pieces fit together properly. That's called jointing, right? After that, I'll sand the neck to remove the finish. At the end of the project, I'll paint the headstock, attach a decal, and finish the neck with something that makes it looks really old. The Body I want to use white limba for this. At least that's the plan. I'm aware Fender uses alder and ash, but I want more of a Gibson-ish sound. I want it to look like a Jazzmaster and sound more like an Explorer. From what I see, the limba's not much more than the mahogany, and I want to relic it. So when I chip the paint up, the white limba should look more like alder/ash than the mahogany wood. I think so anyway. I was planning to buy one of the three-piece body blanks from exoticwoods.com. I assume it will come glued. Does anyone know? I intend to buy plans from guitarplansunlimited.com, so I'll use those to map out the body shape. I have no idea how to do this. Eventually, I'll use some sort of saw-thing (jigsaw? bow saw? router?) to shape the body. It's more or less flat, and I figure I can do the arm contour with rasps and sandpaper, yeah? The belly contour seems to be a little more defined, but less visible. Not sure how to do that just yet. I'll have to cut the neck pocket, and it will have to be adapted to fit the Ibanez neck. That will probably involve contouring the body a little, but I'm not exactly sure how yet. I imagine it will involve rasps and sandpaper. I'll use a regular Fender pickguard, but I think I'll be doing some cutting around the pickup holes to install a 490R/500T set (I have that lying around too), or maybe some Duncan P-Rails, if I run into some extra money. The wiring and switching will be custom, but I'm not as worried about that right now. As long as I route the cavities correctly, I can figure out wiring later. Right? What else? Tune-O-Matic bridge. I guess I'm going to have to cut some deep holes to make it sit as close to the body as it's supposed to. I'd like to put a bridge cover on it. I'll have to do a little routing for the Jazzmaster tremolo. I might shape the tail end of the (rosewood) fretboard just a little to make it look more like a Fender. Then paint. Then nitro finish. Then beat the crap out of it until it looks forty years old. What did I forget here? I'm sleepy. -Dave

Rich, that's a great idea. I'm gonna do that. And it's good to know I don't absolutely have to have a plane just yet.

I realize there are probably a number of different opinions on this topic, but I'm wondering what, at minimum I'm going to need for my first solid body build, assuming I do NOT have to build a neck. Years ago, when I worked from my parents' garage, I had a bunch of power tools, including a table saw, a router, a jigsaw, a few power sanders, circular saws, etc. That said, I tend to prefer hand tools much of the time. These days I live in a one bedroom apartment with a wife and two guinea pigs, and own a toolbox that has been repeatedly "borrowed" from over the years, a circular saw, and a power drill. I think the toolbox has a couple of screwdrivers, a few tape measures, one dull chisel, cheap drill bits, and an extension cord. Today I bought a cheap caliper and a metal/fiberglass yardstick. Oh yeah! I've got a leatherman. Nobody's allowed to borrow that. I also have a holocaust cloak. joshvegas recommended I buy a bow saw. I was just about to do so when it occurred to me I can get a jigsaw for less. http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?...;ci_sku=9714685 I could build a saw, but I'd need a saw for that. I'm trying to avoid buying a plane if possible, because they're so darned expensive. If I have to, I can, but it will eat away a huge portion of my already meager project budget. Maybe I can figure out a way to make a really long sanding board, and "plane" with really rough sandpaper. I have zero clamps. I think I'll probably have to invest in some. Or make some? I dunno. I was also considering getting a dremel and using it for pretty much everything. My one remaining asset of those tools from years past is a router my brother has hung on to for me. It's not a plunge router, and I don't have a router table, but it works. I also don't have any router bits. So if you were me, what would you do? I'd love to hear some recommendations. Thanks, Dave

Ok, planning has been more work than I anticipated. There are so many decisions to make, and I'm working on a very limited budget. All part of the fun. I was brainstorming the other day on how to save money on this project when I remembered that I have an old Ibanez GSA60 neck that's really not doing anything right now. Before I understood about scale, I bought it attached to a low-end SG body (or copy) for fifty bucks on Craigslist. The TOM bridge on it looks pretty good, so I'm gonna steal it for my project. And even though the 25.5" neck doesn't work with the 24.75" body, it seems to be straight. Plus it's got the Ibanez "Wizard" shape" and a pretty flat radius. (400mm I think? That's about 15.75". Anyway, flat enough.) When it was attached to the SG body, they drilled some extra holes in the neck. But they're not close to the Ibanez holes, so I think it'll be alright. What I don't like is the headstock shape, as whatever body shape I do end up with, I'm going for a 60's or 70's kind of look. I'm probably going to design something myself. Anyway, here's the big question. I bought a 1' piece of maple at Home Depot today for $2.40 (USD). My plan is to cut off the section of the headstock that extends beyond the right edge of the neck/fretboard. This won't interfere with the tuners, and shouldn't structurally compromise the headstock much, if at all. I want to take some wood from the Home Depot board and glue it to the right of the headstock, so I can shape it to look vintage. Given that it's Home Depot wood, do you think it'll be alright? I don't know if it's been properly dried, but I don't know if that will even matter here. At the worst, I'm about $2.40. I figured it would probably be alright since it's not structural, but thought I probably ought to check before moving forward. The headstock will be painted, by the way. Thanks, Dave

Awesome.

Oh yeah? Bring your tools in the house. Then we'll see how supportive she is. =P Doing all that would definitely bring the price down, but I think I'm over the old plans anyway. Part of the beauty of doing the Jaguar is that most of the planning has been done for me, and I can buy some parts ready-made. Also, I can go to a bolted neck, and that will save some money. As for fun, well, there are all those switches to play with, and combining vintage and modern elements will force me to be creative. And oh yeah. I'm going to relic it. So if by chance a screwdriver should slip at some point, all the better! I've already got an old 496R and 500T lying around, and I'm going to put those in to start with. The general idea is that it should look like an old Fender Jaguar and sound like a Korina Explorer. Some day I may decide to upgrade those pups, but I can always do it later. So for a neck, I'm looking at Warmoth, since they can make one to a 24" scale. It would cost an extra fifty bucks to buy quarter-sawn wood. Worth it or not? Also, does anyone have good or bad things to say about Warmoth, or care to point me in another direction? (Gotta look just right, of course. Carvin won't do.)

Yep, I need a nice long hand plane. I used to have a jigsaw, but I'm not sure where it is anymore. Maybe my brother has it. Anyway, I stayed up late last night working on plans, and realized I was looking at an investment of over $1,000, just for parts. Real quick I realized what a bad idea that was for a first project. I also remembered something Melvyn Hiscock said about making something simple your first time out. He said a lot of new guitar builders try to reinvent the guitar on their first try, and it's better to start with tested models. So I think I'm going to try and make a Jaguar HH, with some vintage and some modern elements. And korina. By the way, I am married. I have the best wife in the world. I also work full time and go to school full time. So this project will take a while. I'm setting aside time on Sunday afternoons. Maybe I can get her to sit with me and read while I work. She is the best wife ever, after all.

Working on them...

Yeah, and they're local for me. I've thought about it, but I don't think I want the sound of maple in the body. That seems to be all they do.

What a nice bunch of folks here. Thanks for those links, Josh. I think I've figured out the work space problem. I live in San Diego, so even though I live in an apartment, I can pretty much roll out a sheet on a piece of grass at any time and work outside. I might even get a card table or something to use as a workbench. That's hard to say. What thoughts haven't you typed out? This is an interesting question. The problem is that the ideas keep evolving in my head. At some point, I realize I'm just going to have to make some decisions and move forward, but for now, I'm planning. The big question in my mind at this point is what sort of bridge to use. I really like the Tremking bridges, but as I was reading through posts here yesterday, I got interested in piezo saddles. Now I'm sort of wanting to go that route, since I'm currently playing a Taylor T5 and love going back and forth between acoustic and electric, mixing the sounds, all of that. Since I do a lot of palm muting, I have to be careful about picking the right bridge. I've never had a tremolo before, but was hoping to have one on this guitar. So I'm not really sure what to do. I'd welcome any advice. Also, the appearance of the guitar is at this point nothing but an afterthought. I need to figure it out. My head is so locked into function that I'm having trouble conceiving form. Most of the other stuff I listed above. I want locking tuners, unless my bridge choices forces me into a locking nut. I was hoping to go with black paint and all gold hardware, but again, I'm having trouble figuring out how I want it to look. I want lots of wood in it, but a contoured shape. I want a Brian May style inlay pattern on the fretboard. Not sure if I want binding or not. I want a big control panel on the front with lots of switches and knobs mounted on a pickguard I can easily replace. I'm leaning toward a mostly flat top (excepting contours). All these things have led me to think I might do well to consider a jazzmaster shape, scrap the black and gold thing, and make a cool-looking relic. But I don't know if I love that idea. Also, I'm really in love with the idea of a through-neck. It seems like it will help me avoid a lot of headaches, and while I know it won't idiot-proof it, it should help. I'd like to have something figured out in the next few weeks. And if you've read through all this rambling, thanks. Also, anyone know of a good neck-builder? Right now, I'm leaning toward the guy from soulmateguitars.com, just because I can't seem to find many options. He looks like he does good work, but I'm sure open to suggestions/plugs. Thanks, DPM

Thanks for the encouragement, Josh. Do you know the name of that saw? I think I need one.

Hello everyone, I've been researching for a few months now, and it's time I make a decision on what sort of guitar I want next. I was hoping some of you might be willing to offer some advice. What I really want to do is buy a pre-made through neck and make a guitar from that. Here's how far I've gotten in planning: - Mahogany, laminate neck with rosewood fingerboard (possibly with laminates from bubinga or something, depending on where I order from) - Mahogany or limba body wings - Tremking bridge - Humbucker pickups (for starters, a 496r and a 500t I have sitting around, to be upgraded later) There are a few more specifics I've thought of, but that's the major stuff. Here's the problem. I live in an apartment with no patio. I have a friend that's willing to let me use his patio for drying paint and glue, but since I don't have a garage, there's no band saw or anything like that. I do have a router, but it's not a plunge router, and I don't have a router table. My thought is that I can use a coping saw to get the body and headstock roughly shaped, and then sand them down to where I want them. I have some experience with woodworking, and have wired a few guitars on my own, but this would definitely stretch me. I've also read most of Melvyn Hiscock's book. Option two is to buy a body and pair it with an old Ibanez neck I have lying around. That seems boring to me, but maybe it's more realistic. I could at least do what I want with the electronics. Here are a few questions, if anyone might be willing to help me think through this: 1. Am I nuts? Am I trying to bite off more than I can chew? 2. If I do what I want here, what would be the minimum tools I would need? 3. Are there any major factors I haven't thought of? Thanks!