Building a JEM or UV from scrap parts.

[Josh Blagg]

I was considering the idea of putting together a JEM or UV from scrap parts. *Basically looking for a rough or unfinished body, a spare neck in good shape, etc. *I'm sure some of you have done this. *Would you like to share your thoughts? *All you guys pretty much cover the all the bases on all the JEMs that have ever been made, so I was gonna try to put an "original" piece together that had character to me.

[dacmo]

What's your budget?

[kirk]

I love project guitars, to me they are better than new ones, especially when I have the time/money/energy to do it!

Budget and patience is a key player.

I recommend finding a used RG550/570 ($275-350). *It is the closest you'll get to the Jem. *

Assuming that you're not handy with routing, send the body to Chris Tatalias at East Coast Music Mall, for uder $100 he'll give ya an exactly proportioned monkey grip. *(now you're in for about $450) *

If you watch eBay, you may even find a cool neck, like maybe a PGM neck (cool reverse headstock!) or maybe even a USA Custom with offset dots (or shark teeth if ya like that kind of thing) or the queen mother, a Jem neck! *Now you're at about $600+ depending on which neck you use.

The you can finish (or unfinish if you like!) and swap your electronics out if you so desire. *

If you're going to get more involved, you may as well buy a used Jem and refinish or mod the electronics.

[ripl3y]

I was recently thinking of dong the same thing myself.

The massive plus now is that my fiance' has just got a job with Makita and she can bring home any tool she wants at the weekends for personal use (oh and the 50% discount helps too)

The router's on it's way


Steve

[Josh Blagg]

I'd rather just buy a used Jem or UV body. *Probably go for a Jem and not a UV though. *I saw a few in some expired ebay auctions for pretty cheap. *They might be hard to find, but I guess this would be the place. *Anyway, I like you idea of mixing and matching necks. *I like the offset dot look on the US Customs, but I also really really like the Vine Desert Yellow neck. *I would most likely refinish the body myself, and the headstock to match, provided I could figure out a worthy clearcoat.

How much does the Edge tremelo cost? *Preferrably used, but might be hard to find used, I dunno.

Either I am going to build this guitar or just outright buy a Parker Fly Classic.

[kirk]

Complete Edge trems cost about $180 for a cosmo black bridge.

Used you're looking at about $50-75 for the bridge itself.

[Rich]

I bought a nice clean one off ebay, was $125 shipped though.

[Josh Blagg]

Not too bad pricewise for a used. *Now, how impossible will it be to find a neck off the Vine Desert Yellow Jem?