The sun is out so the jazz bass kit has come out of hibernation. Actually I'm still waiting for the resin to arrive for the Hexacaster, and I can't progress on that until it does.

So it was shape the JB headstock day.

I didn't want it as large an a standard JB headstock, Always seemed too big, so I've gone for a slimmed down version, which is in keeping with the Hipshot Lites that I decided to use.

I didn't use a template, just a compass to draw the scroll and a ruler for the straight lines.



I had to take 5mm off the top edge of the paddle as the base of the cloverleaf part of the tuners were rather hidden behind it, so there's now a few mm of the shafts showing.

My first scroll outline was too big, so I drew it a bit smaller and cut out to the shaded line. I also decided on a more gentle angle for the lower edge of the headstock, so the scroll didn't look too much like a circle stuck on the end.

Jigsaw, files and sandpaper got me to this. I loosely fitted the tuners to get a better idea of how it worked with them fitted.




I was half-tempted to make the scroll end slightly smaller as sometimes it looked fine to me and sometimes too large. Which probably means it's fine and I was just over-thinking it. The JB body is quite large, so I don't want to end up with too small a headstock and it all looking unbalanced.

What I did do after the photos were taken was decrease the radius of the lower edge curve where it branches from the nut. Not a lot, just a couple of mm in the middle. But it now better complements the sharp upward sweep of the upper curve in my opinion. I would have taken another picture, but I put more filler in the old tuner pilot screw holes so it's on its back, drying at the moment.