Varijazz....a teaser pic or two

[drivenmore]

So, after having my Varijazz project sitting gathering dust at a local luthiers for 3 months, I decided to take it upon myself to do all of the work.

Surprisingly, it only took about 5 hours to do the routing and moving of all of the electronics.

The bad news is that one of the piezo elements seems to have broken, so I've got to get that replaced.

Just a couple of quick pics for y'all to enjoy

 

[Rano Bass]

What is that exactly, a jazz with variax electronics?

 

[superbassman2000]

thats what it looks like

very cool! that is going to look cooler than a variax! will it be keeping the regular jazz pickups too in case you want just the plain jazz bas sound?

 

[Mark Wilson]

I don't know what boggles my mind more...

A jazz with Variax electronics

Or the fact you managed to get that steinberger to stay on that stand

 

[Snarf]

The pickguard . . . is weird.

 

[Lokire]

The pickguard . . . is weird.

I love it!

 

[drivenmore]

What is that exactly, a jazz with variax electronics?

Yep, that's it exactly

 

[drivenmore]

I don't know what boggles my mind more...

A jazz with Variax electronics

Or the fact you managed to get that steinberger to stay on that stand

Ah, what you don't see is that there is another guitar hold surrounding the bridge of the Steinberger

 

[keb]

I don't know what boggles my mind more...

A jazz with Variax electronics

Or the fact you managed to get that steinberger to stay on that stand

It's like... totally... floating...

...whoah.

 

[drivenmore]

The pickguard . . . is weird.

Well, that's because it is the entire pickguard/electronics assembly from the Variax; way too difficult trying to separate the two, so I just moved it over in whole.

 

[drivenmore]

thats what it looks like

very cool! that is going to look cooler than a variax! will it be keeping the regular jazz pickups too in case you want just the plain jazz bas sound?

No, just the Variax electronics; the body was a loaded Signature I got off of eBay, and I wasn't too hip on the pickups anyway.

 

[Rano Bass]

Does that Fender neck fits the regular Variax body?

 

[GobBass]

that's a funky one, has to be said.

 

[sb69coupe]

Perhaps it's just the strange angle of the photo, but it looks like the pickguard is actually hanging over the edge of the body on the "knee" cutaway on the lower side of the body? Is that the case?

 

[drivenmore]

Perhaps it's just the strange angle of the photo, but it looks like the pickguard is actually hanging over the edge of the body on the "knee" cutaway on the lower side of the body? Is that the case?

Yep; I didn't want to radically modify the pickguard in case my little experiment didn't work, so I went with "best-fit". Again, please keep in mind that all I did was modify an existing body and swap the pieces-parts from the Variax.

 

[drivenmore]

Does that Fender neck fits the regular Variax body?

No, it doesn't; only the modern-style Fender necks fit. I originally bought the neck to put on to the variax body, but when it didn't, I figured I try building a total jazz.

 

[drivenmore]

I called Line6 asking about getting a replacement piezo element; they intially tell me I need to go through a local repair shop. I go to the shop, and the guy essentially tells me he's too busy to deal with me, so I call Line6 again. I explain that one of the elements is out, and the guy tells me "we'll send out two sets for you--Merry Christmas! "

So I got the elements a couple of days ago, I set to replacing the D string one. Well, that didn't correct the problem. After a little bit of noodling, I realized that I had rewired the bridge incorrectly (my first correction brought the D string back to life, but the strings were in reverse order; my second correction fixed that) . Anyway, it's finally complete, and working like a charm

 

[Pennydreadful]

Bad. Ass.

 

[vene-nemesis]

Does that body have the pickup routings on it????

 

[drivenmore]

Does that body have the pickup routings on it????

Yes; I just routed an extra triangular section for the pickguard electronics. The covers and pickguard hide the pickup routes.