JM-1 Attempt 2

[mike]

Cheers for that Wokka. I'll take a look at them, but at first glance, it looks like they're not quite the same shape, so not sure if I want to risk it. I placed the pickguard on the body to check the colour and I'm liking it, so I'm leaning towards keeping it red pearloid.

The wait to spray the clear is killing me! I'm dying to see it looking all beautiful and glossy, but I know I have to tame these urges and wait til Sunday for my own benefit haha.

[gavinturner]

Peronally I love the black and red pearloid "shoegazer" combo. Great choice Mike!

cheers,
Gav.

[mike]

So I've made some progress with the respray/rebuild.

Clear coats were applied a few days ago and it has been curing since under the heating duct. Hopefully not too much longer til I can start sanding and buffing it up!

I have also purchased some new pickups. Ended up getting myself a Fender Blue Lace Sensor for the neck, a Cimar lawsuit-era single coil from a 70s strat for the middle, and a Tonerider Vintage P90 for the bridge.

I need a little advice on the P90 though. Obviously, the dimensions of the P90 are different from the humbucker, meaning it won't fit in the pickguard as it is. I need to cut the pickguard to size but I don't have the money to go and buy a router or some sort of power tool for just this one cut. How else could I do this without spending loads of money on some new equipment?

[D.K]

If it is only the pickguard that you are going to modify you should be able to file it back, I just finished doing a custom timber pickguard for my strat project(new project sta-1m) I roughly cut out the pickup holes with a jigsaw and then took them out to size with 80 grit paper wrapped around a steel ruler, slow but very controllable. the Jm is looking fantastic so far, I feel your pain waiting for the paint to do it's thing I am in the same boat at the moment

[keloooe]

Be very careful with some files and it will be easy, no problem! I'd prefer to use a Dremel with even a flex shaft to allow better cutting to be done, followed by the files and sandpaper. Remember to keep the guard hanging off a table edge and securely clamped down with AT LEAST two clamps that are as tight as possible, and hold the guard as well to get even safer!

[wokkaboy]

Hi Mike how much pickguard material do you need to remove ? There are holes for the pup mount screws so hopefully if it has to be made wider these won't be an issue. As Pest and DK have said use a file to rough out the shape and then sandpaper to get the edge nice and smooth. Good way to mark out the new shape use tape to mark the boundaries of the P90.
As Pest says clamp it down securely so the pickguard doesn't snap in half ! Minimise overhang from the bench so it can't move much. Or place it in a vice with cardboard to protect the surface

[stan]

redo coming along well Mike, the suggestions below are all good ones, take it slow and it will come up great

[mike]

Cheers for the advice guys. Gonna see if I can find some time today to start filing it into shape.

The clears finally cured/hardened about 2 days ago, so I sanded it down with some 600, 1200 and 2000 grit sandpaper soaked in soapy water. It levelled out nicely, but I couldn't seem to buff it up to that nice glass-like finish I was hoping for. It was almost a satin-matte finish, which was pretty cool by itself, but not what I wanted this time. So I hopped in the car, drove down to Supercheap and bought a bottle of Meguiar's Ultimate Compound. I was really hesitant about buying it, as I'm quite sceptical about the difference between a $10 bottle of Turtle wax scratch remover and a $32 bottle of Meguiar's stuff. I saw it as a bit of a gamble, knowing that it would either be the best $32 I've spent, or the worst...
So I got it home and started rubbing it in and bloody hell! I now understand why people rave about this stuff! You can see in the picture below the reflection of my hand, which I'm still astounded by!

So, so far, I am extremely happy with my redo decision. Now just to take the hardware off the headstock, touch it in and add a few gloss coats. In the meantime, I'll have to file out the hole for the P90 and start re-wiring the electronics. Should be pretty straightforward, and I'm switching out the pots and caps for some that I have from a Squier tele that I upgraded a while back. They should be slightly better quality that what is currently in it, so hopefully that will help with the sound also!

[stan]

great news Mike and a nice result.

[mike]

So quick update.

The body has been wired and set up, all ready to go. I've sprayed the headstock the same colour as the body and sprayed the whole neck with gloss clear. Looking really nice now. All that's left is to wait for it to cure, sand it, buff it, install machine heads and string guides and fit it to the body! So close to finishing!