JB-4 First build by Cade

[cade711]

Okay, the gear is here! An unexpected weekend delivery brightened up a Saturday afternoon.

First time build attempt with no experience but plenty of enthusiasm. Hopefully that and a good amount of forum feedback can get me through with a good result!

I’ve gone with a JB-4 kit this time, I was initially tempted to go with an EX-4 or and FVB-4 as I already own a JazzBass however the handy descriptions for soldering the electrics on those models were basically detailed as “hard and harder” haha.
I thought it would be best (and I’m sure you’d agree) that starting with a kit that required only novice soldering and understanding would likely yield a better result, then follow up with a more adventurous model next time.

All looks good in the kit.
Reasonably plain basswood body, which is fine as I’m aiming for a fairly deep Dingotone finish (Bushfire Sunrise) as opposed to clear. No apparent cracks or faults found, just some lifting in wood around the drill hole where the bridge will be mounted. (if anyone can clarify the purpose of this hole would also be great. I’d assumed grounding wire perhaps from control panel)




The rosewood in the neck I think looks great though with a lot of character along the length.



The main reason of course as mentioned for selecting the JB-4 was the setup for the electrics.
The controls are essentially all pre-wired apart from a few to complete from the pickups (from what I can gather. And one of the pickup wires already appears pre-tinned here (red).



I put together a brief semi build last night and started working out my centre line and bridge position. Pretty sure I currently have it marked incorrectly as the bridge doesn’t appear central to the pickups looking back on my photos. It was getting late at that point so I put it away so I can remeasure another day. Then remeasure again before making any holes.....



I was intending to pre-drill mounting holes for the pickguard / neck / bridge / controls /pups before I sand to avoid any damage to my finish later on. Unless anyone recommends otherwise?

[wokkaboy]

Hi Cade, kit looks great. Yes the hole below where the bridge plate sits is an earth wire that must make contact with the bridge plate. Good idea to pre-drill all holes before you start sanding and finishing. Think the red wire if it's soldered to the back of the pot will be the earth wire that will be run to the bridge plate. A mate finished building a JBA-4 last weekend and the soldering is a piece of cake - neck and bridge pup hot wire to each volume pot lug and the pup earth wires to the back of the respective volume pots

good luck with the build !

[Andyxlh]

I need one of these at some point! Looks good.
I'd agree withWokka re predrilling the holes for a Dingotone finish, but if going for a high gloss finish in the future on another kit I'd leave them until later as it will require wet sanding as a part of the final polish, and you don't want water getting under the finish through predrilled holes and lifting it.

[cade711]

I need one of these at some point! Looks good.
I'd agree withWokka re predrilling the holes for a Dingotone finish, but if going for a high gloss finish in the future on another kit I'd leave them until later as it will require wet sanding as a part of the final polish, and you don't want water getting under the finish through predrilled holes and lifting it.

That's good advice thanks for the heads up!

Cheers also Wokka for the wiring tips

[Simon Barden]

Always best with a bolt-on neck to bolt it on during the mock-up (can't tell if you've done this from the pictures), then you can run some ordinary string through the E and G nut slots and along the neck to their respective saddles, whilst pulling it quite tight by hand. These should generally run parallel to the edge of the neck, staying the same distance away from the edge all the way along. This should tell you if your estimated centre line for the bridge is good or not. I'd move the bridge to a position where the strings both ran parallel to the sides, and mark that as your new centreline position for now.

If you now think that that the bits of string aren't running nicely between the pairs of poles in the pickups, but are very off to one side, then your neck could be sitting at less than the optimum angle in its pocket. You may be able to loosen the neck screws, push the neck to correct the angle, and screw them up again. As the parts are CNC machined, it's very unlikely that you'll have a problem though. If you can now run the strings parallel to the neck sides (not each other) and across the middle of the gaps between the two outer pairs of pickup pole-pieces, or can now do by moving the bridge slightly from its previous position, then clearly mark the bridge position again as being on the working centre line.

But any doubts, then take more pictures and show us as much as you can about the issues.

[cade711]

Thanks Simon,

I'd done a better mock build last night using builders line to replicate my string position on the neck and pickups down to the bridge.

I'd only sat the neck in place though, so after reading your advice I went back this morning and bolted it on to confirm my new placement. Happy that the strings run parallel to the neck and pickups, plus my markings seem to line up with my second attempt last night so I have marked my new centre line and positioned my bridge.
Rear of the bridge sits at 460mm from 12th fret and saddle sits at 34" now

[Simon Barden]

Yes, all looking good, Cade. Now on with the finish!

[cade711]

Into the sanding this morning and all is progressing well apart from this join in the belly cut.
I've think I've managed to sand away the glue staining since taking this pic though that join gap doesn't seem to be looking any better. I'm guessing it's going to be pretty visible if I leave it as is since I'm finishing with a dingotone stain, but at least it's on the side facing me..

[FrankenWashie]

You might be able to disguise this with some neutral timbermate or something similar Cade.

[cade711]

You might be able to disguise this with some neutral timbermate or something similar Cade.

You think I might be able to apply Timbermate into the isolated spot as a filler and sand that back? My concern is that the line isn't really recessed it appears to be glue which runs through