First build baritone JMA-1 and TL

[vanOverload]

Hello everyone,

After three month I finally picked up my kits from the customs office.
I got myself two kits which will be built in July.
The first one is a JMA-1 with maple 30" neck

It is one of the mahogany bodies that popped up in Feb/March.
Tuners will be Grovers and I will use Twin Loco and 12 Gauge pickups from Warman with a preamp.
I am thinking about staining the fretboard and switching the pickguard either to a black jazzmaster pickguard (that I'd need to could in order to put the bridge/tremolo in) or painting the pickguard from the kit black.
Colorwise I will probably try to pop the grain by staining and sanding it and then oil it with tru-oil.

The second one is a TL-12 body with 27" engineered rosewood neck.


It will be crimson red with black grain, black hardware and black pickguard.
Pickups will be Seymour Duncan AHB-1 Blackout, I will test installing the neck pickup hidden beneath the pickguard to achieve the esquire look.
Unfortunately the neck does not fit the body very well. The pocket is a little too big so there would be some room left and right. The string trough holes seem to be a little off but I will recheck that and it should be within tolerances.
I will try to make the engineered rosewood more sturdy by applying tru-oil.

Cheers

[DarkMark]

Good call on the Tru Oil over the engineered rosewood. I did the same thing myself. I must of put about seven coats on which might of been too many. I didn’t like the grippy feel, so I rubbed it with 0000 steel wool which gave me a result I was happy with.

[Mosrite Slab]

Good call on the Tru Oil over the engineered rosewood. I did the same thing myself. I must of put about seven coats on which might of been too many. I didn’t like the grippy feel, so I rubbed it with 0000 steel wool which gave me a result I was happy with.

I’m pleased you’ve posted that as I’ve put a few coats on my MKA-2 board, it looked nice when I wire wooled the first coat so hopefully a rub down of the latter coats should do the job.


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[vanOverload]

This weekend I started with the first build.
I wanted a s slimmer body at the horn and where the belly cut is so I started with some 80 grid sanding and went up to 600 before applying the wood filler and stain.


The idea was to pop the grain by using black wood filler and sanding it back but the effect is not as strong as I thought. Nonetheless I went on and stained the guitar with a water based mahogany stain that I bought a few month ago. It turned out a little more red and dark than I intended so I had a little fun mixing my stains and added red and a little black.
Why add black and red if it is too red and too dark? Because I kinda liked the color but I seemed a little to boring to me.
This is what I looked like after a light sanding and two thin layers of the new mixture.

First layer vs Third layer


Other than that I tried a little experiment on the neck. After some of us discussed the necessity of inlays in another thread I liked the idea of black inlays on a black fretboard. So I stained the maple black and I think it works out.

On the TL I checked the fitting of the neck again. I was hoping to see some change after it adjusted a little more to the german climate. But it is still pretty loose. So I will probably try to apply some woodfiller to narrow the neck pocket when I route the hole for the humbucker.

That's it for this weekend. Until I will be able to go back to the workbench I will be shopping for some accessories (switches for phase revers, pots etc).

[vanOverload]

This weekend I cut the headstocks, rerouted and painted the TL body.

I was pretty happy with the shape of the JMA headstock (the black one), so I did the same on the other but due a glued on part coming off the TL headstock got a little slimmer.

I got myself I router and for my first run with it the routing looks pretty good I guess. Actually it doesnt matter because it will be covered anyway but still.


Staining the veneer on the TL required some testing as the stain looked a lot more purple than on a scrap piece I tried it on. But I am pretty happy with the result now.


Now I will finish the necks, route the JMA plate and clear coat the bodies.

[FrankenWashie]

Did you freehand that rout Van? Pretty gutsy for first time out if you did!

[vanOverload]

I did some lines with a pencil so I had a rough idea where to stop. It was an angled single coil route so it was not that hard using a small router.


Oh yes and I did a slight belly cut on the TL as I think it's more comfortable and looks a lot more pleasing.

[FrankenWashie]

On the TL I checked the fitting of the neck again. I was hoping to see some change after it adjusted a little more to the german climate. But it is still pretty loose. So I will probably try to apply some woodfiller to narrow the neck pocket when I route the hole for the humbucker.

That's it for this weekend. Until I will be able to go back to the workbench I will be shopping for some accessories (switches for phase revers, pots etc).

I would recommend you try and shim the sides of the neck pocket with birch or maple veneer and then sand it back to suit the fit you want.

[vanOverload]

I would recommend you try and shim the sides of the neck pocket with birch or maple veneer and then sand it back to suit the fit you want.

Thanks for the hint.
Unfortunately I had no veneer on hand or available in town. So I applied two layers of wood filler und will check the fitting again when everything is dry.

[FrankenWashie]

Thanks for the hint.
Unfortunately I had no veneer on hand or available in town. So I applied two layers of wood filler und will check the fitting again when everything is dry.

IT should work out, as long as you can get a square sanding block in there to evenly dress the sides of the pocket, referencing off the bottom. You can make one out of some hard wood, double stick tape and sand paper.