Dub's Wacky Project Guitars Thread--we're baaaaaack

[dubkitty]

for experimental purposes i fitted the old neck from the Jazzmaster to the Telemaster body. i ordered a $30 10kΩ Tele bridge pickup that should balance the 7.2kΩ neck mini-hum and overcome some of the shrillness inherent im an ash body. the big problem is that the neck bolt holes are wildly out of whack, both position-wise and running diagonally. i may take this out to Charlie’s tech and have him do it because i have little confidence in my ability to do a lot better. i like the TM much better with the JM headstock. i still don’t know if i want a Telemaster, but since the total cost so far is $40 i can’t really resist finishing it. it has a vibe…i just don’t know if it’s my vibe. it seems more like a Keef guitar than a me guitar.

[Blackened Soul]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/236374146911 (Etsy has more color variations)

[dubkitty]

that would be funny.

i spent more time than i wanted to working on the Lead II today, but i got it pretty well sorted other than that it need the truss rod adjusted and the pickup heights redone…when i lowered the action the high E string was sitting on the bridge pickup polepiece. i also filed a notch into the lowest of the 3 compensated saddles on the Duo Sonic because the low E was still too high with that side of the saddle sitting on the bridge plate. sometimes it’s maddening how much maintenance these things require to work optimally.

i still need to file the nut slots on the new Jazzmaster so it doesn’t play sharp at the first fret, but after doing the Lead II which took forever i’m happy to let it go for the moment. finally got the Moon Blue DeArmond sorted and put away. i’m trying to straighten up the apartment, which is in a sorry state, and part of that is putting guitars away. i really want the Byrdland out of the way, but FedEx currently has no idea where the case that was supposed to be delivered Tuesday actually is. i need to clean off a Fender gig bag for the green Strat that’s been on the floor gathering dirt for some time, and the Jazzmaster, Lead II, and Duo Sonic all have dedicated cases. so everything but the Byrdland that’s currently on the sofa will be put away soon.

the Mr.Hobby off-white paint arrived, so i reckon i’ll get stuck in to the Jetstar shortly. i’m really hoping this will be the last attempted solution.

and once the pickups for the Telecaster arrive i’ll no longer be able to put off getting the soldering station together. i already have two guitars, the Esquire and the M-77T, that are just waiting to be wired. i’ll be glad when some of this stuff is out of the way because it’s really hard to focus when you have like eight or nine balls in the air. i find it hilarious that i paid off the Mojo Bigsby pickups and the Supro Black Holiday before i ever put a screwdriver to it.

[dubkitty]

i decided to wait to start working on the Byrdland until i have all of the parts assembled. it’d just look weird with half chrome hardware and half gold.

[Blackened Soul]

Plus if you get too many going all at once they tent to lump together into quagmire…

[dubkitty]

that’s exactly my current situation. if i can get going with the soldering station i could have several guitars finished in fairly short order.

i was faced with a weird problem when trying to finish setting up the Lead II. i couldn’t get a decent truss rod adjustment without the high E string fretting out on the 1st fret, and the bridge saddles were also at the higher end of their height adjustment range. i puzzled over this as i got ready for bed last night and then realized what i needed was a shim towards the front of the neck pocket, just behind the front pair of neck bolts. this took care of it, and i now have it in my guitars’ normal range of playability. i need to do something with it to make up for how it’s sat since 2020 because its unsolved issues made it no fun to play.

the tailpiece pickup for the baritone should arrive today. once that’s here i need to order the pots and caps for the main and rear channels. i can recycle a couple of them, but i need to pull the pickguard and figure out what’s there and what’s reusable. this will lap over into January because i need to sit tight on spending for now. but once i have that stuff all it’ll need is wiring and setup. i really didn’t think it’d be done before midsummer, so i’m happy about that.

now that the off-white Mr.Color paint has arrived i want to work on the Jetstar so i can get it into a similarly acceptable state to the Kondor and be the heck done with it.