Just looking ahead to this week I’ve got a fairly major project lined up, a Jazzmaster to be built from scratch…

I think I’ve got most of the parts.  I’m still missing the trem’/tail but that’s on back order.  Haven’t got any pickups either yet, the customer is fairly sure what he wants but there are a couple of other options to consider.  I’ve got quite a long way to go before I’ll be ready to fit them anyway.

My first intention was to have a look at how the neck fitted, but it’s going to need quite a bit of work.

Not fitting very well, or at all actually.  I don’t want to force it or I’ll damage the body and neck.

To make things a little more complicated the heel of the neck isn’t square….

The neck pocket seems to be about the same shape so actually It shouldn’t be too difficult.  I’ve measured closely and it’s about 1mm to wide at the thick end and 0.5 at the thinner end.

Rather than trying to cut the neck down I think I’m going to take it out of the body.  Before I can do that I need to be able to use some thick thread to make sure I get the angle right but I can’t do that without a bridge or nut, and there isn’t much point in fitting a nut until the fret-board is done.

It’s a brand new neck, but they are never perfect out of the box, unless you spend a small fortune and get one that’s been hand finished that is.

It’s not bad, I’ve seen a lot worse but to make this guitar play really nicely I’m going to dress the frets which will allow a really good setup.

Next the nut.  I’ve got some pre-shaped ones which is a good place to start.  This one is just a little too thick.

So it needs grinding down a little.  It’s not far off so I can do that by hand.

The curve of the bottom doesn’t quite match either.  This fret-board has a 10″ radius and the nut is probably 7 1/2″…

With adhesive backed sand-paper and a bit of work it’ll do nicely.  It’s very important that the nut is fitted properly or it’ll badly effect the sustain.

The string slots are already started so I need to make sure the nut is in the right place and not offset.  The ends are a little long so I need to grind the excess off, a little each end.

Last job for the day, the machine heads.  There isn’t really anywhere this can go wrong, they are quite a snug fit but I want to make sure the line straight, hence the steel rule taped to the neck.

That’s a fair days work on the neck, tomorrow I’ll have a go a fitting it to the body.

I had a bit of a think overnight and decided to attack the problem from the other end.  Since it’s a much better quality body than neck I think it more appropriate to adjust the neck to fit the body rather than the other way.  It would be more likely that someone would want to change the neck but you wouldn’t change that body.

It was actually easier than I had thought, It didn’t need much taking off in the end..

Fits nicely and lines up well.

To make sure nothing moves while I drill the holes I’ll clamp it firmly in place.

There we go, neck fitted.

with that done I’ll have a bash at the electrics.  All the bits…

Unfortunately I’ve had one of those days, where the world just hasn’t left me alone to get on with things.  I did hope to get the wiring finished today but I just ran out of time.

Probably about 75% done.  I’ll have another go tomorrow, all I need then are the pickups.

I didn’t manage as much as I wanted today, it’s been another of those days.  However I did finish the wiring, apart from the pickups which are on order….

It fits in place anyway.

While I’m waiting for the last of the parts (tremolo tail and pickups) there isn’t a great deal more I can do, the strap buttons etc, but that’s about it.

Carefully marking the centreline so I get the hole in exactly the right place.

I thought that was all I could do today until the postman arrived.  Again I marked out the centreline and screw holes, making sure everything is square.

Drill the holes…….

and screw it in place…

At last the pickups have arrived so I’m on the final lap.  The only problem is, they don’t fit!

The standard covers the pickups came with are designed to mount differently.

The pole pieces are slightly closer together…

The covers have 4 holes for mountings but the pickups have 2, one at each end..

All I can do is elongate the holes a little ….

and remove the lugs from the pickups.

At least they finally fit.  I’ll put 2 short springs under each pickup rather than around the mounting screws.

With the pick-guard complete it’s time to fit the strings and complete the setup.

There is always a problem with these bridges, the springs can ping out of the slots if you try big bends, so once I’ve worked out which slot to use I’ll cut it just a little deeper….

Then I can carry out a standard setup.  Thankfully I got the tension in the truss-rod right, otherwise I would have to take the neck off again, the adjustment is at the bottom of the neck.

Since it’s a new nut the action at the first fret is extremely high…

so I’ll cut each slot down to the right depth.

While I’m at the top end I’ll fit a string tree

With the action height at the bottom end on the 2 “E” strings set I’ll adjust the individual saddle heights to match the radius of the fretboard.

Lastly I’ll set the intonation and it’s all done…