I just paid to have an “Aged Lake Placid Blue” made in closet clean by MJT. I requested the cleanest finish they can muster, though. I’ll post pics when it arrives.
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MJT finished bodies?
- Thread starter blacktocomm
- Start date
sorry ..had to flip the pictureLast week the MJT precision body with PJ config and the neck arrived. One tuner broke off during shipping, but mjt replaced it immediately, just have to wait a bit longer.so here's a crappy photo after i put everything together:
View attachment 3515847
specs: lightweight swamp ash body, musikraft roasted quartersawn maple neck 44mm width medium c profile 6105 stainless steel frets, sherwood green over 3-tone sunburst medium relic finish, matching headstock. the cracking is not really recognizable on the photo, but it looks awesome.
installed nordstrand PJ pickups (NP4 Splitcoil / N4JSE Noiseless Singlecoil), stacked knob (V/T + V/T + 3-way toggle switch), hipshot kickass bridge. tuners are schallers, gold andonized pickguard.
The neck is one of the nicest necks i've ever played, setup was spot-on right out of the box.
the bass resonates very nice, very even across the fingerboard, it just turned out very nice. i am happy (but then, of course, i am still in the honey moon phase, haha)
will do better fotos when all tuners are on.
I just built a late '60's style P for a client starting with a closet clean MJT. Not a mark on it, yet it still looks vintage.
Bought a beautiful strat body from them. For Some reason, despite using all top quality parts, it just didn’t sound that great. I’m not blaming the body necessarily it was just an observation. But it sure was beautiful
i ordered a closet clean on march 3. i sent them three photos of examples with detailed explanations of the condition and aging i was looking for. nothing difficult, just a closet clean with some clear coat yellowing. no aging down to wood. i would be fine with “very light to minimal aging/wear, and WILL include a nick or ding or two, play wear, light handling wear, polishing swirls, sunken grain on ash/mahogany bodies, etc” as described on their website. i was told i would receive photos at these stages:
may 26 they said they received the body from wildwood. i asked 3 times (apr 2, may 5 and may 25) for updates. and only in response to my request for an update did they tell me the body arrived. they sent me photos of the unpainted body.
after hearing nothing for close to a month, i requested status update on june 23 and was told it was already in finishing and would ship soon. at this point i had not received any photos of the finishing in progress.
july 1 they provide the first photos of the finish and aged body. they say it is finished and will be shipped next week. i did not get any pictures after color and aging. i asked for no wear to the wood as i requested a closet clean. most of the body was free of wear except the upper horn which had a randomly placed sanding wear down to the paint on the inner side of the upper horn about an inch long. it did not look realistic to me. it looked like someone started sanding a little too much and only in that one place. there’s no other significant wear anywhere else as it should be since i requested closet clean. i told them this isn’t what i asked for and i didn’t get pictures during the process like i was told i would.
july 7 they reply with the explanation that it is a buffing burn and said they would see what they can do.
after not hearing anything for a week i ask for an update on july 15. the next day they reply that the only thing the can do is strip and refinish. i’m getting impatient that i have to prompt for updates and answers at this point. i tell them yes redo it. i was pretty clear what i wanted and this wasn’t it.
on july 19 they said it would take 6-8 weeks to redo. i haven’t heard anything since. in a few days it will be 5 months (22 weeks) since i placed my order.
- Check-In
- After Color & Aging
- After Finishing & Buffing/Before Shipping
after hearing nothing for close to a month, i requested status update on june 23 and was told it was already in finishing and would ship soon. at this point i had not received any photos of the finishing in progress.
july 1 they provide the first photos of the finish and aged body. they say it is finished and will be shipped next week. i did not get any pictures after color and aging. i asked for no wear to the wood as i requested a closet clean. most of the body was free of wear except the upper horn which had a randomly placed sanding wear down to the paint on the inner side of the upper horn about an inch long. it did not look realistic to me. it looked like someone started sanding a little too much and only in that one place. there’s no other significant wear anywhere else as it should be since i requested closet clean. i told them this isn’t what i asked for and i didn’t get pictures during the process like i was told i would.
july 7 they reply with the explanation that it is a buffing burn and said they would see what they can do.
after not hearing anything for a week i ask for an update on july 15. the next day they reply that the only thing the can do is strip and refinish. i’m getting impatient that i have to prompt for updates and answers at this point. i tell them yes redo it. i was pretty clear what i wanted and this wasn’t it.
on july 19 they said it would take 6-8 weeks to redo. i haven’t heard anything since. in a few days it will be 5 months (22 weeks) since i placed my order.
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Oh man, that sucks. I really hope this doesn’t happen.
I was going to buy a body online, finish it myself. I heard that the wait for MJT was excruciatingly slow, but most people seem to be pleased with their work. I have read a few negatives as well, but the ratio seems favorable. I figured I’d be paying $100 extra dollars to take the gamble on letting them take the lead on the finishing rather than me. I hope it works out.
Please update us when you get the work.
All 3 of the MJT projects I've done [2013, 2014, 2019] were completed within the estimated timeframe. I wouldn't doubt the pandemic has caused issues, like it has for all businesses.
Nitro is notoriously slow to work with, as well. Warmoth takes roughly two months plus, and MJT seems to hover around three. My trick is that I try to forget I’ve ordered anything until a few months from now.
Warmoth finish is a Poly...I find them quicker than they say
MJT...Mark has been very good at communication with me...But I have not ordered direct from them
I’ve never ordered a custom Warmoth body. Both of mine were ordered out of the showcase and arrived within three weeks or so. I’ve ordered seven necks from them and three custom orders took about nine weeks. The necks out of the showcase shipped in about two.
I don’t know, I’d say MJT is slower than Warmoth given my and others experience in this matter, so far. I figure it’s because they are a smaller operation, they outsource materials, and I’d imagine the use of nitro does slow them down a bit. I’ve finished with nitro. It’s a pain in the ass compared to modern polys. I just love the way it wears.
Over a few years, I've ordered three custom bodies from MJT. It's always taken a little longer than it was supposed to, but my results have always been excellent. One of them is the bass in my profile photo. I've also painted a couple of nitro bodies myself and it is indeed a very slow process and can be further slowed down by factors like humid weather. One little paint run can set you back a couple of weeks. You simply cannot rush the curing process before going to the final finish. The alternative is to buy an MJT pre-made body auctioned on ebay. Instant results if you win. I've done that twice as well.
my custom warmoth body took 44 days from order date to received but i don’t expect to be able to compare warmoth production time to mjt. apples and oranges.
No, you can’t really compare the two other than regarding custom orders in the sense that it just takes time, and that time varies on all those little variables.
Definitely shouldn’t take five months for a body. I think everyone can agree on that.
