# My first build



## Mikev7305 (Jan 6, 2020)

It's been a year in the making, but I finally (almost) finished. I got the jazzmaster kit from solo guitars last summer, and after a lot of procrastinating, I finally got around to finishing it. It was my first time doing any kind of wiring, wood finishing, and I've only ever changed a neck before this.

Overall, I'm really happy with how it turned out. I couldn't stand the colour of the pickguard it came with, so I made my own out of 1/8" mahogany plywood from the lumber yard. I also bought all new wiring and pickups for it.

I first had it together with a fender pickguard and the original p90s and wiring, but the pickguard did not fit it well, and the pickups didn't really do it for me. Also, the wiring definitely needed a treble bleed or something because the tone and volume knobs did some odd things when they were turned down a bit.

I put in tone emporiun PAFs instead and I'm quite impressed by the clarity of them. The only problem I need to fix still, is that I wired something wrong with the tone knob. It was bound to happen being my first time. I'll take it apart soon again and find the error. So for now, tone knob is basically bypassed I believe, and it sounds great anyways.

There's a ton of details I could get into about my finishing process and the mistakes I made, but for now, here it is!


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## Mikev7305 (Jan 6, 2020)

Another of the pickguard


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## DaddyShred (Aug 11, 2019)

Great looking build!!

I also ran into issues with the pots from Solo in regards to funny thing when not turned up all the way. I got some CTS pots from NextGen and that solved my problem. Just as a side note, in my experience, CTS pots were larger than the cavity Solo routed on the guitar. Although, I was building a tele so that might be a specific issue to that body shape. 

What material did you use for your headstock decal? It looks great! 

Sent from my SM-N960W using Tapatalk


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## Mikev7305 (Jan 6, 2020)

I did the same thing and got CTS pots from next gen. I had to do some extra routing once they were on as well. Not a big deal since it's all covered by pickguard anyways. 

For the headstock, I just stained it, then wrote on it with a sharpie paint pen, drew it myself and my wife (with much better penmanship) wrote the "Emvee" on it. My initials are MV, hence the name. I just sprayed it with varsol gloss lacquer 3-4 coats to complete it


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## DaddyShred (Aug 11, 2019)

Mikev7305 said:


> I did the same thing and got CTS pots from next gen. I had to do some extra routing once they were on as well. Not a big deal since it's all covered by pickguard anyways.
> 
> For the headstock, I just stained it, then wrote on it with a sharpie paint pen, drew it myself and my wife (with much better penmanship) wrote the "Emvee" on it. My initials are MV, hence the name. I just sprayed it with varsol gloss lacquer 3-4 coats to complete it


Gotcha! Nice idea with the sharpie lol. 

I went for quick and easy as opposed to putting too much thought into it with a fender waterslide decals that another CG member sent me then threw some clear on it. Went fine, but there's something to be said with "your" logo on "your own" guitar 

Hindsight 20/20 right? Lol

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## skeetz (Mar 26, 2014)

Very nice work. You should be very proud of “your first baby”.


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## Budda (May 29, 2007)

Looking good!


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## Mikev7305 (Jan 6, 2020)

Thanks guys! 
Daddyshred, what was your overall thoughts on the kit? I thought everything went together well and easy, the neck and body fit was perfect, and the frets SEEMED nice and well crowned. But I needed to do quite a bit of setup work to get it playable


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## DaddyShred (Aug 11, 2019)

Mikev7305 said:


> Thanks guys!
> Daddyshred, what was your overall thoughts on the kit? I thought everything went together well and easy, the neck and body fit was perfect, and the frets SEEMED nice and well crowned. But I needed to do quite a bit of setup work to get it playable


I loved the kit. Solo will definitely be my next kit guitar. 

I agree with you, the neck needs some work to be playable. Well, mine was playable, but it definitely needed attention to dial it in. I had some fret buzz and truss rod adjustments to do. Couple high frets as well. Nothing too serious but not 100%. 

I posted my build on the forum if you want to see any of the pictures of how it came/what I did. I think it's under "semi hollow tele build" or something along those lines. 


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## Mikev7305 (Jan 6, 2020)

DaddyShred said:


> I posted my build on the forum if you want to see any of the pictures of how it came/what I did. I think it's under "semi hollow tele build" or something along those


Wow that's a big thread. I'll scan through for sure. Im not upset at all that the nut needed filing, neck needed levelling, wiring wasn't great, because it forced me to learn those skills. Now I've done fret levelling on 3 other guitars as well since I've learned how.


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## DaddyShred (Aug 11, 2019)

Mikev7305 said:


> Wow that's a big thread. I'll scan through for sure. Im not upset at all that the nut needed filing, neck needed levelling, wiring wasn't great, because it forced me to learn those skills. Now I've done fret levelling on 3 other guitars as well since I've learned how.


Haha yeah when I got my kit I mocked it up to start and tested the low and high e strings (you'll see all this in the thread) but after that, almost everything except the neck, body, pickups, and tuners went into a drawer somewhere in my shop. 

I've seen so many vids and threads about their stuff being good, but not great. Since I was aiming to almost "make my own fender" I did as many upgrades as my wallet/wife would let me lol. 

I learned so much with this kit that it immediately got me excited for my next one. It's honestly gonna be an addiction that I keep until I retire....then I'll do it all the time. 

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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

annabomby said:


> Hey! Who wanna to play with me? 😍
> I'm bored in quarantine 😭
> Write me here 👇


Reported.


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## laristotle (Aug 29, 2019)

greco said:


> Reported.


Same here. It's gone.
@greco maybe delete the quoted link?


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

laristotle said:


> @greco maybe delete the quoted link?


Done. Thanks for catching that.
I should have thought of it...DOH!


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## sambonee (Dec 20, 2007)

I typically don’t like green guitars. You did a very good job. Congratulations


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## mhammer (Nov 30, 2007)

Very nice. I like the jade green colour. I have a Tele-body guitar a similar shade of jade green only I think yours is maybe a smidgen darker.

Does the bridge, or more specifically the saddles, cause you any issues when using the vibrato?


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## Mikev7305 (Jan 6, 2020)

Thanks mhammer!


mhammer said:


> Does the bridge, or more specifically the saddles, cause you any issues when using the vibrato?


I actually can't find the trem arm at the moment... But when I had it going the first time around (with a fender pickguard and p90s) I had it in there. It never gave me any issues. The break angle is a bit steeping than the classic vibe jazzmaster my uncle has. Plus it is tune-o-matic style saddles which have a deeper groove, not like the roller kind of saddles that come on the CV jazzmaster. I don't use the vibrato much so it's not really an issue anyways. 

BTW, I was actually trying to go for a turquoise with the stain. Once the poly coats went on it started coming across as greener. I still love it though.


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## Loot the Body (Feb 22, 2021)

Mikev7305 said:


> It's been a year in the making, but I finally (almost) finished. I got the jazzmaster kit from solo guitars last summer, and after a lot of procrastinating, I finally got around to finishing it. It was my first time doing any kind of wiring, wood finishing, and I've only ever changed a neck before this.
> 
> Overall, I'm really happy with how it turned out. I couldn't stand the colour of the pickguard it came with, so I made my own out of 1/8" mahogany plywood from the lumber yard. I also bought all new wiring and pickups for it.
> 
> ...


Wow! Looks great! I just ordered this kit and also have never done anything like it. I have zero experience and usually pay someone to do my set-ups and such, which is stupid considering how long I've been playing. I'm using this kit as a way to push myself out of my comfort zone and getting some skills.

I'm gonna build it as it comes with the hopes of upgrading parts as I discover how and why they suck.


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## Loot the Body (Feb 22, 2021)

Mikev7305 said:


> It's been a year in the making, but I finally (almost) finished. I got the jazzmaster kit from solo guitars last summer, and after a lot of procrastinating, I finally got around to finishing it. It was my first time doing any kind of wiring, wood finishing, and I've only ever changed a neck before this.
> 
> Overall, I'm really happy with how it turned out. I couldn't stand the colour of the pickguard it came with, so I made my own out of 1/8" mahogany plywood from the lumber yard. I also bought all new wiring and pickups for it.
> 
> ...


Just a question if you don't mind. Did you end up shimming the neck? I'm curious how the fit was and if you needed to increase the angle to get the bridge to work properly. I see a lot of jazzmasters getting shimmed online.

Thanks


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## Mikev7305 (Jan 6, 2020)

Loot the Body said:


> Did you end up shimming the neck?


I did not have to. I know what you mean though, fender jazzmaster bridges have this issue, and I noticed it on my uncles classic vibe jazz. But the break angle on the solo bridge is a little steeper, and the groove in the tune o matic is a bit deeper than the fender's.


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## Loot the Body (Feb 22, 2021)

OK, cool. Thanks!


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## cement_head (Jan 1, 2022)

DaddyShred said:


> Great looking build!!
> 
> I also ran into issues with the pots from Solo in regards to funny thing when not turned up all the way. I got some CTS pots from NextGen and that solved my problem. Just as a side note, in my experience, CTS pots were larger than the cavity Solo routed on the guitar. Although, I was building a tele so that might be a specific issue to that body shape.
> 
> ...


You can buy METRIC COURSE CTS pots and they should be drop in replacements for the SOLO (Alpha/Korean) pots.


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