Jazzmaster-Style Build

[rapfohl]

Hey everyone, my first post here. I am doing this build as a way to practice my neck building for a commission I have coming up. I have done a set neck before, but this will be my first bolt-on, and I am just making sure that I have things down before I move on to the commission. In all honesty, I messed up the first time I went to work on it, so I am really backtracking to get it down before I try again. The mistake was simple (the fretboard moved out of alignment when I glued it), but it still bugged the hell out of me.

I have done only a few guitars, so I am by no means an expert, but I love to build, and I strive for absolute perfection. However, I think that learning how to fix mistakes is also a good skill, not just giving up the first time things go wrong, which is kind of how things have went for me so far... So hopefully posting here will give me a little kick to keep pushing with what I have set out to do, and not just give up.

So here we go!

Some pictures first...

So here is the wood for this one, I had a big plank of Padauk and got it all sized up and true for both the shaft and got a piece cut off for the fretboard, so hopefully they age similarly. The body will be 1-piece of nice Sapele mahogany.

Here are the shapes I have made up. I'm sure people's first responses will be "...that looks like xxxx" but honestly I just sat down with a pencil and some paper and drew out things that I liked. Of course the entire time I am sure I was thinking about guitars that I liked, so it probably looks like those. Who knows...

A little more guitar shaped with the templates...

The other reason I am gonna do this build is because my extra parts box is nice and full of some spare parts. I have about 2 guitars worth in here.

I am currently pretty busy, but I can normally get into the shop for a good bit a week. Hopefully people will enjoy following this, and please chime in with everything you can!

Oh and sorry about these first sets of pictures, the I had to turn the saturation down on the pictures kind of a lot because that Padauk was seriously bright.

[sunday_luthier]

Hello,

Cool project. The jazzmaster has always been my favorite Fender design.

I find that taking lots of pics and posting them to forums is a great way to improve your work methods. If you ask yourself "do I really want people to see this?" before making a cut or whatever, chances are you were about to do it wrong...

And you're right about dealing with mistakes. It's at least as important as not making them...

What hardware are you using? The one thing I really like about the Jazzmaster is the tremolo and bridge, even though they can be prone to rattling...

Cheers,

[rapfohl]

Hey thanks for chiming in! I really like the Jazzmaster's offset body and smooth "horns". As for hardware, this guitar will be pretty straight forward if I work just out of my parts bin. In a little bit I will sort through it and get a picture.

I got a little bit of work done on the fretboard in preparation for a long work day this Saturday. Here are some pictures...

I love you StewMac, but your miter box is just way too expensive. I made this one up for about 4 dollars, and it works great.

In the end I have something like this, it's a standard 25.5 inch scale.

I actually like bare fretboards, but since this is practice for the commission I am putting dots on the board. You probably can't see all of the lines drawn out because the padauk is so bright. When do people like to drill and glue on their dots? I was thinking I would do it before gluing to the shaft, but if I do that I will have to sand them flush to get a nice surface for clamping the board, then I will lose my centerline and side dot lines and such.

I am new to this making my own fretboards thing. I used to just but the pre-slotted/radiused boards.

I'll be in the shop doing quite a bit of work this weekend, so look for a bigger update later on!

[rapfohl]

Well as I promised, here is a large weekend update!

I got a good amount of work done on the neck, and as far as I can tell, I got the fretboard on straight this time. I'll just get right to the good stuff.

I trimmed up the fretboard, and then double-stick taped it in it's position on the neck. I use two little pins for easy glue-ups. Something went wrong with my glue up last time, but all the other times I have done it gave me good results.

The aforementioned little pins.

The I rough cut the neck profile on the bandsaw, I should have used something brighter than pencil. It was hard to see on the Padauk.

I attach the template and sand it absolutely as close as I can. I have had tear-out problems before and nothing makes me more upset than ruining a really nice piece of wood.

Here is how close I get, its about a pencil line thickness.

[rapfohl]

Then I rout the neck on a router table. I use a big Whiteside spiral cut bit, and it is seriously impressive (as well as terrifying, but respect is key). It leaves a seriously nice cut.

No burn, no chatter, just perfect results.

I transfer the centerline down the sides of the neck at the heel and headstock. If they don't line up perfectly with centerline on the fretboard face I didn't get the template exactly where it needed to be, which means the fretboard will be off. That's a no-go in my book.

The last thing I do is drill my tuner holes, then pop the template off.

Here is my wonderful truss rod "jig". I use the jointer fence because I know it is nice and straight, and just have a piece of MDF that I attach the blank to with a line marked on it that is the distance from the router base edge to the ceterline of the bit. I hope that makes sense.

[rapfohl]

A nice slot, I use Martin-Style Truss rods.

Another shot of the slot.

Then I thin the headstock out, I just use the router table and a straight bit. I am probably going to stop doing it that way...I'm not really that comfortable with it.

Then spindle sand in a transition.

Then I apparently lost some pictures, I just hand sanded the headstock and transition to make it look good before...

Gluing on the fretboard. I use lots of clamps and a caul on both sides for even pressure.

[rapfohl]

The first time I have gotten a nice even squeeze out, pretty happy with it. Normally I put way too much glue on and its a total mess.

So that is my Saturday. I'll pull it out of the clamps in a day or so, depending on when I can get back in there.

Let me know what you think, I am pretty happy with the progress so far.

[rapfohl]

I got a little bit of work in today, and things are starting to shape up.

Here we are right out of the clamps.

It was a nice solid glue-up, and the fretboard is centered right on the centerline. That's a load off my mind. Must have just been a fluke last time.

I pull the pins out and just have these little holes left, the width of the fret will cover them up easily.

Then I just trim the excess fretboard stock off, I don't get too crazy with the bandsaw, the last thing I want is to is neck the neck shaft.

I get pretty close with the spindle sander, then its ready to rout. This padauk is really hard to get a nice picture, but this looks about the closest to it's real color I've gotten.

Edited October 29, 2012 by rapfohl

[rapfohl]

Then I rout it on the router table. I used a brand new bit, so it was nice and sharp. I have heard padauk has a tendency to chip out. It all went well.

Well about 99% well. Speaking of chips, I got this little one. I'm not really upset about it at all, it could be worse, and this is practice. A good bit of it will go away with the level sanding and radiusing of the fretboard, no biggie.

Just a couple more...

The glue line is nice and tight, with no gaps other than where there was a grain pocket here and there. It looks kind of discolored, but I didn't have any time to do any sanding.

Still pretty happy so far, its coming along nicely.

[rapfohl]

So we had a "Hurricane day" here at school, so to work of the boredom I got some work done.

First I leveled the fretboard, it was actually in preparation to put dots in, but when I saw this, my preference for a nice clean fingerboard couldn't be ignored.

So I went on to radius the fretboard. I do this by hand, and make sure I change up my hands and directions often to get a nice centered radius. I started with 100 grit, and put a bunch of pencil lines on the fretboard to watch my progress.

Here is a pretty good sign that your almost done, my arms were excited to see this.

The radius is finally roughed in. This took about an hour, but I take a lot of break and get distracted easily, especially on something so monotonous. I also refiled the slot depths at this point, since I almost lost a fret or two with the initial radiusing.

After 100, I went to 150, then 220. I stopped here for the day because I was making a mess. It doesn't really look at that different from 100 grit at this point, but it feels much better. I will go up to at least 600 grit before I fret it.

[Shelvock]

I love this, I always feel like I learn more from the less experienced builders because they seem to point out the things that more experienced builders, through no fault of their own, tend to gloss over. Great stuff so far!