JZ-6 Build No 7

[stansby40]

Thought a baritone guitar would be nice so ordered the JZ-6 kit. Since the pickups are not well spaced I though I would rout out a space for a humbucker i had left over from another kit. The lower 2 single pole pickups I will wire in series and maybe add a switch to be able to choose each single pole individually. Should allow for a wide range of possible tones. I think I will paint this one sea foam green. The kit is quite good and the neck fits snugly. Being ash it will need plenty of grain filling. Head stock shape needs some thought.

[Bit Confused]

I have always wanted to try a baritone, looking forward to seeing this build eventuate!

[Simon Barden]

You were doing so well until you got to 'sea foam green'.

Just a bit concerned that 4 pickups might provide a lot of magnetic pull on the stings and cut down on sustain. It may also increase the tendency to get wolf notes unless the pickups are dropped down quite low (which will then give thinner and quieter sounds). All big 'mays' and you'll probably be fine. But if it does happen, and the singles are stock kit ones, then there's always the option of having one as a dummy pickup, not wiring it in and removing the magnet that's stuck on to the back of it, so it still looks the same. Or if its a RWRP pickup, leave it so that it's connected up when either of the other single coils (only) are selected, so you get a degree of hum cancelling. Even if it's not RWRP, as you've removed the magnet, you could just swap the coils output wire connections over.

[stansby40]

You were doing so well until you got to 'sea foam green'.

Just a bit concerned that 4 pickups might provide a lot of magnetic pull on the stings and cut down on sustain. It may also increase the tendency to get wolf notes unless the pickups are dropped down quite low (which will then give thinner and quieter sounds). All big 'mays' and you'll probably be fine. But if it does happen, and the singles are stock kit ones, then there's always the option of having one as a dummy pickup, not wiring it in and removing the magnet that's stuck on to the back of it, so it still looks the same. Or if its a RWRP pickup, leave it so that it's connected up when either of the other single coils (only) are selected, so you get a degree of hum cancelling. Even if it's not RWRP, as you've removed the magnet, you could just swap the coils output wire connections over.

Thanks Simon all good points. I had originally thought to keep one of the pickups as a dummy one. How did they get the position of the pickups so wrong? Even if I keep one as a dummy which one, the one nearest the bridge or the middle of the three?

[Simon Barden]

Cost. It's just a standard sized guitar pickguard, so the pickup positions are fine for that, but not for a true baritone. Had the neck been a baritone adapter neck, it would have been longer than the one you have fitted, and the bridge would have been a lot closer to the pickups. But it's a proper 21-fret baritone neck, so the extra 4.5" of scale length over a 25.5" neck is split over the neck and body, so the bridge position gets moved back (and the pickups should be moved back too). With a conversion neck, all the extra scale length has to go on the neck, so you end up with more frets to compensate. With a 30" scale, you'd probably end up with 24 frets.

Making dedicated templates for correct baritone position pickup routs and a matching scratchplate should have been done, but hasn't. I'd imagine that the scratchplate is bought in from another factory and that is the sticking point here, with the cost of a bespoke one just for this guitar kit being too high from their supplier. I expect these kits are done in the minimum run of 100, and a new scratchplate shape minimum run may be 1000 or even 10000 (obviously it's the shape that's important, as it's easy to substitute different base pickguard materials).

Making your own pickguard isn't too hard, it just takes time.

[stansby40]

To Simon, I was thinking of getting a tortoise shell pickguard blank in case there are problems. Guitars such as Les Paul Customs can have three humbuckers (equivalent of six single coils) and still have good sustain so I will try it as it is first. Routing the humbucker hole will be a first for me but I have a template to guide me.

[Simon Barden]

Standard humbucker designs with a single bar magnet underneath the coils and steel slugs/screws generally have less magnetic pull than a rod magnet single coil for the same magnet type.

From someone's reply to a magnetic pull question on another forum: "Using a Gauss meter to check strength at the pole, most A(lnico) 5 rods usually read 800 to 1200 gauss. A(lnico)3 will usually read 500 to 700. Humbuckers don't read so high at the poles. They usually read anywhere from 200 to 500 at the poles, though a thick ceramic type pickup like a super distortion can read 500 to 700 at the top of the poles".

Ceramic magnets underneath steel pole pieces in a single coil (like the standard kit single coil pickups have), will have the field weakened by the steel pole pieces, but ceramic magnets are more powerful than Alnico 5, so you generally end up with slightly more field strength than with rod magnets.

So like most things 'it depends'. But given the same magnet type in all the pickups, and the pickups set the same distance away from the strings, single coils will have a greater magnetic field strength than humbuckers, and so will affect the strings more.

So, one humbucker is probably equivalent to one single coil in terms of pull, but the amount of pull is very dependent on the magnet type used.

[stansby40]

Had a busy day today and routed out a place for a humbucker near the bridge. The humbucker template I got off ebay was very good and made routing quite easy although still scary. I finally decided that 4 pickups was not for me so I got the Triton router table out and made a pickguard template using WeirdBits method. I roughly placed the middle pickup half way between the neck and the humbucker and it turned out ok but not quite square but I dont think it will be noticeable. Have some brown tortoise shell blank pickguard on the way so there is no turning back now.

[stansby40]

Found some craft paint in Spotlight that is very close to a Sea Foam colour and painted the guitar body using a brush. it covers very well and can be smoothed out by sanding. Ready for the clear coat.

[Simon Barden]

I roughly placed the middle pickup half way between the neck and the humbucker and it turned out ok but not quite square but I don't think it will be noticeable.

It feel it will be noticeable, especially to you. It may be worth making another template and get it right now. You could of course angle both the single coils slightly, where any slight deviation from similar angles will be far less obvious.

You could always try making a basic pickup rout template that you stick over the pickguard one (enlarging the hole in that first) so you can get it fully square.