JM 1 Custom Kit

[Simon Barden]

R&F Nitro? It really is best not to mix paint types. I'm not sure if nitro will react with 2k or not, but you should be able to look it up. There's a lot of things that nitro isn't happy with.

[Freakystyley]

Looking forward to getting this primed and coloured. Big thanks to Adam and dingobass for filling in the hole. Bad weather all week so hopefully I can get it sanded and primed next weekend. Anyone any tips on cutting 3 ply scratchplates? I have 2 blank sheets. Going to design and cut my own.

[Freakystyley]

Anyone ever have any problems with the saddle routings not being wide enough and inline. Best to file them a little? I'm not sure how this will affect tuning. The left side needs to be slightly moved up the body. Any help appreciated

[wokkaboy]

Hey Freaky, looks like you will need to plug the bridge post holes and re-drill. They usually fit ok. Looks like the outline of a Bigsby tremelo - nice one

EDIT I just saw Chucks post and he is correct, the holes should be a longer scale for the low E string. If your aftermarket bridge has wider post spacing there is no choice - plug and re-drill

[Chuck]

Anyone ever have any problems with the saddle routings not being wide enough and inline. Best to file them a little? I'm not sure how this will affect tuning. The left side needs to be slightly moved up the body. Any help appreciated

Those bridge post holes are correct - it's set up for a slightly offset bridge to help intonation. At least that's how they are on my JZA kits and how it was explained to me, and my bridge does fit. If you are using a different bridge then plugging and redrilling would probably be the best bet. Filing them might not be the best idea for keeping a tight fit.

[Freakystyley]

I reckon. I would like to use the bridge I bought for it but it looks like I will have to re drill if I want to . As you can see also the pickup cavity doesn't fit the bridge either so I may have to file down the bottom bit, is that the best thing to do.
I made another noob mistake and bought 2 single coil dimarzios, but the bridge is for a tele bridge pick up!!! Is there anyway to use the both of them together?? Everything is pointing towards using the stock bridge 😢😢😢😢

[Freakystyley]

Photos to show what I mean...see cool bridge plate! I want to use it with the single coil dimarzios!!

[Simon Barden]

It's only really a cool bridge plate if you use it with a Tele pickup. DiMarzio do a wide range of Tele pickups, they've probably got one equivalent to your Strat style one.

So you could either put the Strat one away for another build, get a Tele bridge pickup, enlarge the pickup cavity and fill in the gap at the side, or else you could use that Strat pickup and forget about the bridge plate (just use it as a guide when plugging and re-drilling the post holes). That bridge plate is only there to allow you to fit a Tele bridge pickup. You don't have to use it. Although personally I do prefer the sound of a Tele bridge pickup to a Strat one.

[Fretworn]

The picture clears things up you are moving from a tunematic style bridge to a Jazzmaster/Mustang style bridge. So you can't avoid plugging and redrilling. Going for a Jazzcaster style guitar?

[Freakystyley]

Wise words! The bridge has to go! I will use the dimarzios I got and shape the scratch guard accordingly...just means I have to buy a tele kit at some point.