Jake E. Lee tribute project *completed*

[metalchurch]

Here's the guitar that I'm copying:


Here's a brief history of Jake's guitar from what I've gathered.
This started out as a sunburst 1974 Fender Hardtail Strat, which Jake's friend at the time who worked for Charvel guitars customized it.

His friend painted it white, with a matching headstock who's profile was sanded down from the large 70's CBS shape to the current Charvel / 50's & 60's shape. A 'Charvel' logo was also slapped on by his buddy.

The now 'Charvel' was fitted with a Seymour Duncan JB humbucker in the bridge, and 2 DiMarzio SDS (DP-111) single coils in the neck and middle positions. They were also reverse slanted ala Strat bridge pickup.
I'm guessing for better low end?

Anyway upon further research I found some pictures of another White guitar, which I believe is an actual Charvel. The picture was from around the 'Ultimate Sin' tour which was 1985/86.
At that time he may have had an endorsement through Jackson/Charvel.
I'm not too sure about that though.

Here's the other White Charvel:


As you can see it has a Strat style trem on it, which was probably blocked because Jake didn't use a trem during that time period.
It also has a single Humbucker, which was most likely a Seymour Duncan JB.
The headstock was bare wood, with a Black Charvel logo.

Well at this point I had a full pallette of options in which to choose from.
There are things from both guitars that I like, so I decided to take the 2 and make one that will suit my own tastes, yet still come off as a tribute type guitar.

Here's my parts list:
Body - Eden Lefty Strat Vintage White
Neck - Charvel Model 1 (matching headstock color & blk. Charvel logo)
Bridge - Kahler flyer
Pickup - Seymour Duncan JB (TB-4)
Tuners - Charvel (stock)

misc...
Jackson neck plate 1993
WD products 1 hum black pickguard
Switchcraft jack
Allparts 500K Volume pot
Charvel strap buttons from a 1987 Charvel Model 3
Jackson 43mm locking nut
All of the hardware including the screws are Black.

I will post pictures of what I have completed so far, I'm still waiting for parts to arrive.
Check back later this evening for an update.

[metalchurch]

This kind of what it will look like as a lefty:

[bassist_25]

Man, I love that guitar. It's just simple and straight to the point with no pretentiousness at all. White also is just so understated and looks great under stage lights. I can't wait to see this project completed, Joe!

[metalchurch]

Ok, I got some pics:





I'm still waiting for the Charvel neck,jack plate,and Seymour to get here.
Then I'll have to paint the head stock and apply the decal.
Some wiring, strings and a setup and I'll be ready to Bark at the moon. (That was cheesy I know.)

I'm going with just 1 volume and 1 humbucker like the "Other White" Charvel.

The reason that i'm using a Kahler and not a hardtail is because I like to have finetuners on my guitars.

I may build a more accurate version over this coming winter for something to do, but for now this will do me just fine as a 'player'.

[Killjingle]

any reason why u are making this?

[metalchurch]

Mainly because I always wanted one really. Jake is one of my fav guitarists (chk out my new avatar! it rocks!!) and being a lefty it's hard for me to have and enjoy the luxuries that the rest of you so easily take for granted.

*ESP made a Jake signature in the mid 90's
That and all of the other signature guitars by various other manufactures and all of the other hot guitars out there.
I'm in constant envy.

Actually what got the ball rolling was about 2 weeks ago I found the pickguard on ebay and couldn't pass it up.
It was cut for a single coil in the bridge, and no other holes drilled.
(Even something as simple as a pickguard is hard to find lefty)

So I built this guitar around a $10.00 piece of plastic.
I get inspired to do shit over the simplest things sometimes.


I'm also working on a left handed Jackson Rhoads, wait til you guys see this thing.

[Killjingle]

cool

[songsmith]

I'd have love the strat in it's original form... the big 70's headstock and a hardtail bridge... those are things I always wanted but never had. I could have done without the reverse pickup angles, but hey, if they actually worked well, I'd have been okay with that. They just look odd to me.
It's funny, I know several guys who were really influenced by Jake's work with Ozzy and later, but he's not on the list with Randy Rhoades or Zakk, or the other Ozzy alumni.------->JMS

[metalchurch]

I'd have love the strat in it's original form... the big 70's headstock and a hardtail bridge... those are things I always wanted but never had. I could have done without the reverse pickup angles, but hey, if they actually worked well, I'd have been okay with that. They just look odd to me.
It's funny, I know several guys who were really influenced by Jake's work with Ozzy and later, but he's not on the list with Randy Rhoades or Zakk, or the other Ozzy alumni.------->JMS

Johnny I agree, those single coils are far fetched for me as well, that's why I'm not using them.
And you know that's one reason why I do not like Strats in their original form: The middle pup get in the way of my picking, and the volume knob is TOO close to my hand.

But they must have been effective because Jake had one of the best clean sounds ever. Check out 'Killer of Giants' enough said.
Among others...

You are so very right about him being the red headed step child of Ozzy's guitarist. (Sorry Bush I know you're a Ginger Snap I meant no disrespect)
He deserves way more credit than he gets.
I love Zakk's work on "No Rest for the Wicked" but other than that I believe that guy is WAY over rated. I can't get on board that Crazy Train.

Ozzy always had some damn good guitar players, actually his whole band was awesome through out the years.

[metalchurch]

I got the Charvel neck and the Seymour Duncan today.
Got the pup installed and got some sanding done to the neck. I still need to paint the headstock and rout it for a locking nut.

Still waiting for more parts to arrive..

[metalchurch]

I have the headstock painted now. This neck was an '87 Charvel neck, and those had a regular nut and a Kahler 'behind the nut' locking nut for their double locking system.

So that meant filling in some screw holes, and routing a nut shelf and also adding some wood for the floyd nut to sit on.
What a pain that was let me tell you. I've never done that before cause I always started off w/ a neck that already had the Floyd nut routing.

The truss rod does not sit out as far as the Floyd nut routed truss rods do, so the piece of wood that I glued in had to have a half circle relief cut into it to allow for the truss rod wrench to get a good bite on the truss rod.

It turned out to not be a big deal because the nut hides 95% of it, and it actually look factory to me.
I also had to use some wood filler to transition the nut shelf to the headstock so it looked more 'natural' to me.

I also put an 1/8" black pin stripe around the perimeter of the headstock to hide some of the paint line and to add some visuals to it.
I will then clear over it to seal it in.

* I add 1/8" white to all of my headstocks if theyre painted black. It's somewhat of my trademark.





Still have some more wet sanding to do, add the Charvel logo, clearcoat, buffing. I need to find some Black lefty/reverse tuners.
I have 3 sets of Chrome ones that are of no use to this project.

[metalchurch]

I finally got all of my parts and it's all put together now. All that's left is the wiring and a setup and I'll be jammin.
I am really excited to get this done, I always wanted to build this guitar, just never got around to it until lately.
Eventually I will build a more accurate version with the hardtail body and the DiMarzio SDS slanted single coils.

I'd like to thank Paul from Big Head Guitars for his help, you are the man!

[onegunguitar]

Looks great Joe!!!

[MeYatch]

That's awesome Joe. Are you getting used to a strat body yet?

[metalchurch]

That's awesome Joe. Are you getting used to a strat body yet?

Not really actually! When sitting down, I hold them like my V's, which is over my left leg, kind of like a classical guitar position. Also the horns of the body get in my way sometimes, and it's akward to hold while standing up also. I'm slowly trying to adapt.

[MeYatch]

since you are left handed, wouldn't holding it over your left leg be the normal position?

[metalchurch]

since you are left handed, wouldn't holding it over your left leg be the normal position?

I meant the butt of the guitar is rested on my left leg. Just like the 'V' part of my King V's are rested on my leg.
Basically, I hold it like my other guitars out of habit. that's pretty much where my picking position is and I have to hold everything that way for comfort.

That's about the best way I can explain it hope that answers ya?

[VENTGtr]

Looks good. You do nice work on this stuff.

Actually, I really like the look of the tilted singles. One of the models of Ibanez (Paul
Gilbert used 'em for a while) had them as well. But...that's just me. I like odd-looking
stuff. Prolly from being used to all my relatives.

Anyway, ya, Lee is by far my pick as far as the Ozzy guitar guys go. Not even close.
Though, I prefer Badlands to Ozzy anyway. I'd like to hear Lee in something like Vivian
Campbell did in The Riverdogs. Pretty unusual for me to like a guitarist but not what the
band they're in plays, but Jake Lee and Campbell in Dio are exceptions.

Not to say I don't like or appreciate what or how someone is playing whether I like their
genre (Can't stand Malmsteen's music or style but appreciate that he does it and there
are aspects I like enough), just that it's doubtful it'd get much listening.

Anywayzzz, again, good job and look forward to seeing the next proj.

[metalchurch]

Thanks Dave,Scott, and Mitch, that means alot to me really it does.

Well I got it wired and strung and I played around with it for a little bit.
I've never used a Seymour JB yet, so I was wondering what that sounded like. It has a darker low end, but the mids and high end are nice and crystal clear like. I'm so used to using actives I almost forgot what passives had to offer.
It's like going from Jim Beam & Chili dogs to Grape Kool-aid & Macaroni and Cheese. Or something like that...

Dave, I have my Kramer V and my Jackson Rhoads to finish yet, and then probably that Heavy Metal Tele will be my next project, and it will be right handed so I can sell it easier.

[coffin feeder]

dude this is sweet, i cant believe you built this man! i think that you should do more projects. think you missed your calling in life! good job, did you get it done yet? what does it sound like anyway? looks so cool, maybe you can start building right handed guitars? i would be interested in one. call me 494-3372 ask for Rob

[metalchurch]

Thanks for the compliments Rob, it means alot. I do have this done actually, and it sounds phenomenal I think. It took me a little while to get used to the JB, cause I'm used to active EMG's. This also intonated extremely well for me, which is something that concerned me at first, bacause I'm using s mix of old and new parts.

I've been messing around trying to get Jake's sound from the Bark at the moon album, and I'm getting kind of close actually.

Another thing that I've been messing with are the pole pieces and the pickup height of the JB. I think I may add an ON/ON/ON switch with one side wired as a Series Parallel, the middle postition a Spit Parallel, and the other side a Single coil, just for some different tonal options within the Single Humbucker. Right now it is in Series Parallel (both sides wired as a standard humbucker.)

I did notice a fair amount of fret wear on the 2nd fret B string. It buzzes when I play the A note. I leveled the 3rd fret and adjusted the truss to compensate, and got rid of most of it, but I think I'm just gonna swap the neck out for something else, maybe this winter.

This went together nicely for me once I had all of the parts here to continue. I'm getting used to the Strat shape a little more, and I'm thinking about doing another Strat for myself soon.

Thanks again dude, and yeah I'll get ahold of you and we can go from there.
Joe

[Jared Michaels]

Dude you did an absolutely AWESOME job on that Jake E. Lee axx!
I think that is so fuckin cool! (you have a gift my friend)

I hope I get to hear you play that thing sometime.

Rock on bro!!!

[metalchurch]

Well as much as I wanted this guitar to have the look and tone of JEL's Charvel, I couldn't get used to having a passive humbucker in this. My amp and EQ are setup for actives, so needless to say my amp setting didn't allow the Seymour JB to reach it's full potential.
If I had another amp to dial in just for this guitar, or passive equipped guitars only, it would be ok.

I took the JB out and put an EMG '85 in it this morning, and it was definitely sounding better to my ears, cause I'm used to EMG's now.

I've been wanting to put an 85 in the bridge to take advantage of the lower voicing of it in the bridge position after hearing about it on JCF.
I really like this configuration alot! It doesnt have as much high end as the 81 or the JB, but I'm running alot of mids anyway, so that makes up for it.

I compromised a little when building this guitar, and I dont feel as bad because I went w/ actives in it also. I want to build a more accurate version anyway, so I guess I'll save the sound and looks for that guitar instead.

If any of you EMG players get a chance to put an 85 in the bridge, I highly recommend it.
alot of guys are now running an 85 bridge/81 neck because they seem to be voiced much better for those positions.
I don't have neck pickups in any of my guitars, so I can't vouch for the 81/neck combo, but judging by what the 85/B offers, I'm gonna say that the 81/N rocks.

[metalchurch]

Here's some pics






The '85 has an almost PAF, or vintage type of output. It has slightly less gain and output than the '81, which is ok with me. It has an Iron Maiden/Priest type of output. Kind of reminds me of Hammett's tone on Ride the Lightning.
The JB sort of held it back, cause like I said, my sound is set up for active pickups, and the JB didnt have a chance to really shine.

[metalchurch]

Oh, I forgot to add, that I am also going to add the 18v mod to this, jst to see what it does to the 85.
Since this has a pickguard, it will be easier to add a toggle to go from 9-18v.
I'll post what my thoughts are on that when I'm done.