I have heard the Astro Jet!

So after work yesterday I stopped by a couple local music stores that are more or less on the way home and got a Switchcraft L switch, three WD 500K pots (dunno who makes these, not Alpha and not CTS by the looks of them), a Switchcraft 1/4" mono jack and a pump bottle of Gibson Guitar Polish with polishing cloth. I really, really like this stuff! I went over the whole gutar twice with it before I did any further work. It looks remarkable.

From Astro Jet Work 2

The last major chore was cutting a new nut. I have to do this all by hand, as I don't have a belt sander or band saw. I do have a nice Zona saw and a large selection of files, however, so it takes a while longer, but usually goes well. I have heard some repair shops refuse to do new a nut unless it's part of a larger package of work, these days. I can fully understand. I know I've been quoted $50 for a new nut before and while that seems reasonable, if that's all I did for an 8 hour day, I think at best I might be able to get four done....if all went very well.

From Astro Jet Work 2

I made mine from Micarta. This is a synthetic material that, supposedly, is what Martin prefers to make their acoustic guitar nuts from. I have a couple aged bone blanks, but for this guitar I thought I'd use my little stock of Micarta pieces. Since the Astro Jet has a zero fret, the nut more or less serves as a side to side string guide anyway. The Micarta cuts and sands well and can be polished out to a nice shine, plus it matches the binding. As I get into the final setup, I will tweek it as necessary, but it's pretty much good to go right now.

From Astro Jet Work 2

Then I wanted to get the pickups fitted, My FilterTrons have screws that exit out the bottom of the pickup. The original SuperTrons in a Astro Jet have bar pole pieces that don't. So I had to make room for the screws in the routes. Cheap knock off Dremel to the rescue. I removed as little wood as I could and get by. Didn't take long. I had already done the bridge pup, though not quite as elegantly.

From Astro Jet Work 2

Pups installed! I need to get some new screws though. I only had two chrome and two black...not sure how hard it will be to find these locally, or if I'll need to order them online. I bought silver pickup rings and clear pickup rings. I tried the clear first and didn't care for the look on this guitar . So I installed silver, which looks OK to me. I may paint the clear ones black however and install them at a later date. Stock Astro Jet rings where black.

From Astro Jet Work 2

I'd never measured the fret board radius, though I suspected it was pretty flat. Turns out it's about 16". Like a shredder! Ha.

From Astro Jet Work 2

The last thing I did yesterday evening was install the output jack cup. It had been glued in at the factory back in `64 or so with a couple dabs of hide glue. To get those off and get it cleaned up, I just ran it under hot water in the sing for a while. Then a few minutes with a Olfa knife had it all cleaned up. I checked the hole in the body, cleaned out the crap that had accumulated in there and then used a brass hammer and a block of wood to drive it home. Then I cut a couple lengths of wire, soldered them to the Switchcraft jack and got it installed.

Got up early again (gonna need to catch up on sleep soon) and worked on it some more before coming to work. Hit it with some more of that cool Gibson polish, then got the Sperzel tuners put in. Then I trimmed the screws for the tension bar by about 1/8th inch and got it installed. Next I reassembled the Burns, cut a piece of wire for a string ground, and got it installed. I slipped the bridge in place and got an idea how much I was going to need to trim off the base for the pickguard to clear. Once I determined that, I made and cleaned up the cuts, strung the guitar up and connected the bridge pup to the output jack temporarily.

I wanted to get some tension on the neck for the day, but didn't want any pressure on the bridge unless I knew it was where it needed to be, lest it mar the still very fresh (and somewhat soft) lacquer finish. That's why I twisted the pickup and output jack wires together and have, thusly, heard the Astro Jet in it's almost completed form! I tuned it up and slid the bridge around till the intonation was correct and then played a couple tunes on it. Sounds more or less like it did when I mocked it up before undertaking the rebuild. A note on interest was the bridge. I bought it from Joel and Shanghai because I wanted to have a flat bridge base and a tuneomatic style bridge. I had a part number for the bridge used on the BillyBo, which has a flat top and Joel was the only guy who had that bridge and base in stock. Here's the thing, once I had the fore and aft placement of the bridge tweaked based on the low and high E strings, the intonation of all the strings is almost exactly spot on. I know this came off a BillyBo initially, and find it interesting the compensation is essentially identical.

From Astro Jet Work 2

So, not much left to do. Need to decide on the control layout and drill the appropriate holes in the pickguard, Then I need to try and remember to put some shielding (aluminum foil) on the underside, get the pots and switch installed and get everything soldered up. I'm hoping Radio Shack has a suitable .022mF capacitor in case I do not. I might also install a treble bleed on the volume controls. The srap buttons need to be put on, the set up tweaked and then.....

I've got my original pickguard template drawing here at work, which also has the outline of the control cavity on it. I brought dimensions of the pots and switch and knobs so I can do a mockup drawing and see where and how everything might fit together. I even have four knobs and pots, though I may only use three or perhaps two. Here are some pics I took this morning to give me some control visuals:

From Astro Jet Work 2

From Astro Jet Work 2