Starting JMA-6 Baritone Guitar build

[Sonic Mountain]

Ha hah. Well I moved to this from building cars and my wife is a lot happier having a bunch of guitars lying around than half finished cars

I'm over near Centenary Heights High school - technically South Toowoomba.

You are right, the first build is a bit nerve wracking I was paranoid building my first one that I was going to stuff it up. I've since learned there is almost nothing you can't fix/recover from and there is more than one way to skin the proverbial cat.

Happy to help out if you need it. I work from home so I'm normally around (both IRL and on the forum)

[Z80AL]

Thanks, mate - talk to you when I've made more progress!

[Z80AL]

To Sonic Mountain ..... Mate, the more I look at the soldering I need to do (as little it may be), the more nervous I get that I will stuff up the PCB or whatever, and that's something I don't want to do! (Having done a number of "practice" soldering runs, I'm convinced that the end result will not be pretty.) .......... If I wandered over to your place (at a some day/time to suit you), would you be able to help me do that job? I would be more than happy to pay you for your time.

[Sonic Mountain]

Sure thing. Hows does some time this weekend work for you? Saturday arvo or Sunday till about 2:30 is good for me.

No payment required either mate, it won't take long and I'm happy to help out.

PM me and I'll shoot you my address

[Z80AL]

Have PM'ed you - hopefully you'll get that!

[Sonic Mountain]

Yep all good, just shot you back an Email.

[Z80AL]

For anyone interested, a few pix of the completed JMA-6 Baritone ......





Attachment 29954
Attachment 29955
Attachment 29956


Overall, I was happy with the result (for a first build, that is). Yes, I needed some help (see below), so it was great to be able to call on the forum! Of course, the neck needed adjustment, but the intonation was surprisingly good straight out of the box, with some strings absolutely spot on, and the others needing only slight tweaking. Perhaps my only slight disappointment is the quality of the tone controls, but, hey, if you’re not spending a lot, you can’t expect a lot!

Biggest challenge for a complete newbie like myself was the wiring, probably because this is a relatively new kit, and there seemed to be little info available. Brendan at Pit Bull did kindly send me a diagram that would probably have been fine for the average guru on this forum, but was still somewhat hazy for Yours Truly. Particular thanks to forum members “Weirdbits”/Scott (who went to the trouble of providing a detailed range of switching options) and “Sonic Mountain”/Phil (who gave me invaluable hands-on assistance and advice after we discovered that we live less than 4 kms apart!).

Difficulties encountered:-

(1) I found getting the bridge posts into the body a real pain — boy, they were TIGHT! Thanks to Sonic Mountain / Phil for his handy hint of placing them in the freezer before insertion, but it was still a battle.

(2) The nut on this kit simply can’t accommodate the baritone strings supplied (Ernie Ball 13-72’s) — well, at the low end, anyway. The lower B, in particular, is too wide to fit in the slot. I installed a lighter gauge set (D’Addario 13-62’s) but, even so, the lower B still doesn’t sit right. (Perhaps this is how all baritone kits ship, ’cos it almost seems to me that it’s a standard guitar nut, which would explain why a 72 string is a tight squeeze!) Yes, I guess I could have hacked into the nut to widen the slot, but I’ve heard horror stories of ruined nuts, and I suspect there’s no easy way back from that kind of stuff-up. Being a novice at kit building, I wasn’t prepared to risk it. I’ll see how it goes, anyway, before visiting an expert — I’m not into string bending, so perhaps it won’t be a problem.

Lessons learned:-

Shaping the headstock by hand (fretsaw and sandpaper) is a mug’s game. Yes, I finally got there, but next time I’ll have power tools!

[Sonic Mountain]

Well done mate! Unfortunately there is a bug with the forum at the moment an pics aren't displaying. I'm pretty sure Darren and his team of hamster wranglers are on to it, so hopefully they will pop up later.

There isn't anything to be particularly scared of in adjusting the nut slots, the big issue is finding appropriate files (without spending on a proper set) given it's the larger strings it should be fairly easy to rectify. Happy to help out again there if you decide to fix it. Worst case there are a variety of nuts available at Bandland and online that could be modified. I also have quite a collection of the plastic kit ones I'd be happy to give you.

[Z80AL]

Thanks, mate — I may take you up on the offer of a "consultation" re the nut; I'll just see how it goes when playing. ..... I noticed that the photo thing was a bit odd on the forum, although I was able to double-click on the ATTACHMENT link and see the pix, so you may want to try that in the interim.

[Sonic Mountain]

Hmmm - ignore this one - just tried to hotlink one of you pics back into the thread.... can anyone else see it?