Kit guitars are a fun and inexpensive way to create your own uniquely designed guitar - as part of Thomann's DIY Kit Challenge this Harley Benton Jazzmaster kit will be transformed into a bizarre instrument, just as soon as I figure out what to do with that body... Harley Benton DIY Kits: Jazzmaster - thmn.to/thoprod/464648?offid=1&affid=367 For other kits visit - www.thomann.de/gb/thlpg_zaurmxslaa.html DIY Challenge Info - www.thomann.de/blog/en/diykitchallenge22/ Tools and Parts: Alegree Parts - www.alegree.co.uk/ Crimson Guitars Tools - www.crimsonguitars.com/collections/fretting?ref=csguitars Micromesh pads - www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334238666431 This video contains product provided by Thomann and Alegree More details on how CSGuitars implements product promotion - www.csguitars.co.uk/disclosure #kitguitar #diykitchallenge22 #harleybenton More from CSGuitars: Gain access to exclusive content at: www.patreon.com/csguitars Join CSGuitars Discord - discord.gg/csguitars Buy CSGuitars Merchandise - www.csguitars.co.uk/store Website - www.csguitars.co.uk Contact - colin@csguitars.co.uk ____________________________________________________________________ *Description contains affiliate links. Purchasing using one of these links will generate a small commission for CSGuitars at no additional cost to you.* Affiliate Links: Thomann - www.thomann.de/gb/index.html?offid=1&affid=367 Sweetwater - imp.i114863.net/2mGGg Reverb - reverb.grsm.io/csguitars Crimson Luthiery Tools - www.crimsonguitars.com/?ref=csguitars + Discount Code 'CSGUITARS5' for 5% OFF Gthic Jewelry - gthic.com/?aff=230 + Discount Code 'colin20' for 20% OFF Title graphics and logo by: www.studiosmithdesign.co.uk/ Join the discussion at: Facebook - facebook.com/csguitars Instagram - instagram.com/csguitars/ Discord - discord.gg/csguitars
Hey Colin, you're building an offset kit? How awesome, mate! Guess which kit I'm working on and is currently drying in the barn... 😅 This is gonna be awesome, I can't wait to see your guitar when it's done. Cheers man! //Kris
To me, Jazzmasters and Jaguars always seem outlandish and overengineered in the best possible way. I would love to see this thing just take on an absolutely absurd color scheme. Like hot pink, metallic red, and lime green. Just really call attention the fact that this guitar is something different.
A wild color, but with a contrasting color pickguard! Say hot pink/pastel blue, lime green/yellow... I'm currently doing a metallic red jazzmaster with a pearloid blue guard. will look rad at the end
I would stain it translucent cherry red, it would take the stain very well being a light wood, and the grain would really pop. Coupled with the black pickguard, it would look stunning
I'd swap out the scratch plate for clear perspex, shield the cavity with copper tape and stain, orange in the middle to black round the edge. Great video as always.
Interesting! The only part that doesn't really work for me at the moment is that pick guard material. It's kinda gathered in points where you had to bend it around the curves, and it just looks daft. As for finish/colour, I'd love to see it in some kind of outrageous shocking red. Tidy up the pick guard and the black would work nice.
I think the pickguard issue could be solved by doing enough relieve cuts on the backside and then burnishing the edges. That should help to make it conform to the pickguard underneath much nicer!
@@helojoe92 I'm not convinced that would solve the issue. It would need to be heat molded or the material would have to be stretched in some other way. It's all good, and I'm sure it'll end up looking great.
I absolutely love jazzmasters. Great vid. I laughed really hard when you said jm people get bent out of shape when people say jm pups are p90s. I have done that lol. I would do 3 tone sunburst with the headstock as is or seafoam green and matching headstock. Brown tort pickguard is a must to complete the look.
I have also put a JA from HB together but with a Bigsby term with a roller bridge. I painted the body with gold glitter from the same material which is on greeting cards cause I do screenprinting as a job. The headstock is also gold glitter which has the form of a fender head. I changed the P90 pickups with other better-sounding pickups and It sounds and looks fantastic. Nice to see you modding that guitar and looks terrific too.
I have plans to refinish a squier jazzmaster i bought and love to bits with Rimmel Siren nail polish. Its a metallic classy colour and Nitrocellulose to boot. Might need a few bottles though.
Looks and sounds great! I am a sucker for natural wood finishes and I already love the way it looks, so I would go with a finish that retains that natural look. Or white/vintage white always looks good on Jazzmasters, especially with a black pickguard.
Half joking but also half serious, you should cover the body in fluffy white fur somehow XD Or any color I just think white would look great with that pickguard
As a furry musician, I like this idea. Although maintenance of that guitar could be awfully difficult. Not to mention the smell that fur would pick up over time...
Yellow would be an interesting choice. There isn't many yellow guitars and the few that actually are gravitate towards Jackson/shredder stuff. A vintage classic in something like a "banana yellow" resembling the shade of fiesta red, daphne blue, olympic white, etc; would be a killer instrument. Greetings from Patagonia, Chile
A white to black burst. I wouldn't choose it for myself, but with the color of the pups, and pickguard, it would be pretty cool. And unique. Maybe a little of the black peeking out from under the trem, too.
I know how much work it takes to make a video, but some of your videos look like they took double the work. Just thought I would give a salute, that's all.
Needs a covering of nice flower pattern Fablon on the body. Go totally cottage core. Sure my mum's got some left over from The Past, cos she used acres of it, on kitchen drawers, covering school books, me...
As a surf player, there's nothing like the Fender offset vibrato system. The mechanical design builds in a kind of dampening so that it's not nearly as jumpy as a Strat or Floyd Rose trem. This is perfect when you want to play really smooth dips and use a very rounded vibrato. And yeah, if they aren't staying in tune, they're not set up right. I had to retune once at practice yesterday - and mine has the cheaper Japanese version, not the better made Fender AVRI trem.
that's looking amazing, considering the fretboard and pickguard colors I'd go for a dark metallic red, that would also look amazing if you wanted to add gold hardware, and just as an idea, how about staggered tunners and get rid of the string trees
I found someone on ebay who does custom cut pickguards to match these bodies which has helped me a ton as I've got two of these guitars, for a kit they're brilliant for the price!
I like a wood stain combined with a paint. So, stain the whole body black or grey. Then give it a couple coats of poly. Then paint the edges a hard black. Is a sponge to go gradually from the solid black edges to the transparent middle of the guitar.
Jesus, thanks for the video. This is pretty much exactly what I ordered the JA kit for. I want to throw a Jazzmaster Trem into it, and had some Wide Range Humbuckers that will go in, too👍🐙
I think a competition Mustang style colour scheme would be cool, but with a black stripe to match the guard and headstock. Maybe black stripe over Yellow or an off white?
My issue with the jazzmaster vibrato bridge has never been tuning stability - it's getting the damn thing to stay in! The arm always seems to disconnect from the rest after a while and I have to take the whole thing off to fix it
I suggest that you go for like a racing livery, perhaps wrc Audi from the 80’s, or a Volvo perhaps? I’m not sure, but as a jazzmaster player myself and a shade tree mechanic, I would love to paint my guitar like a race car.
I'd like to take one of these and fill in the cavities and make a jim root style, single humbucker 1 volume thing but dunno how to fill in the voids , any ideas? thanks 👍
this guitar looks killer as it is, I really like what you did with headstock! for final finish I would use just some amber like stain (or vintage tint) and some rub on oil finish
I finish I've always wanted to do but haven't had the right guitar for is to use gold foil. What you do is make a bunch of deep gouges in the body at all kinds of angles and then fill all those crevices with gold foil. Gold foil kits come with an adhesive you use and I think that might. After that you could fill the rest of the gouge up with epoxy resin make it level. Then paint the entire guitar a black or blue or something dark and sand it back to reveal the gold. Then the standard coats and polishing and stuff like that. I think it'll be a cool look.
I love that you did almost all of the wood routing and shaping by hand. The countersink in the headstock was a nice touch 🤌. The finish should be a Scottish flag!
Hey Colin, would you be up for trying a leather wrap for the body? With that black guard, I think a dark brown / dark red leather finish would look super sweet. Of course, ain't nothing wrong with black-on-black, so black leather could also work.
The first thing I did was buy a pearloid pickguard with no pickup holes, so I could set it up for three mini-humbuckers. Some custom controls later, and I have a truly unique Jazz Master.
I'd like to see that technique, hydro dipping I think it's called? When you float paint on water and then pass the object through the paint layer in to the water. Get some real trippy vibes.
I would love to paint an original artwork in a Jazzmaster. Maybe you should check out, shootout and and explain us the science behind the gold anodized jazzmaster pickguard. I'm happy you choose to put it the proper tremolo and pickups.
Great start !. My suggestion/idea: do an hotrodded jazzmaster with traditionnal hardware but higher output pickups (like hot p90) and a 'muscle car' paint such as a racing metallic blue (automotive spray paint on a primer coat) with two white stripes (decal or painted).
As far as the finish goes for this guitar, I would be tempted to use stains and then finish it off with shellac because the dry time is only 30 minutes and to buff it smooth you need nothing more complexed than steel wool. The figuring is not very clear with the wood so I would suggest using a heavy black stain and then sanding it back to enhance the wood patterns before applying the colour you actually want. Since you went for a black scratch plate I would suggest something like a cherry stain, possibly attempting some kind of burst effect to make things interesting. I know you decided to go for the Jazzmaster style pick-ups to Fender specs, but they do have a couple of issues which can make them less useful to many. Firstly, they are very low output. The obvious way to fix that would be to run the guitar through a clean boost pedal or install a boost feature into the guitar like an active pre-amp. Otherwise the single coil nature of these pick-ups can make them quite susceptible to picking up interference. I think I heard a demo of a very similar guitar from Fender (I can't remember who's signature model it was) which either had Jazzmaster or P90 pick-ups but with a slight difference - they featured 'dummy coils' underneath the pick-ups to make them hum cancelling without changing the sound. Is that something you might be interested in trying since you have the gear for pick-up winding yourself?
Hey since you are in Europe-a-land you have access to RAL colours probably pretty easily. RAL 4006 (traffic purple) is a personal favourite. 6021 is famous for its use on old MAHO equipment and looks super industrial. Or if you're a mad man just Flock It!
Kit guitars are a fun and inexpensive way to create your own uniquely designed guitar - as part of Thomann's DIY Kit Challenge this Harley Benton Jazzmaster kit will be transformed into a bizarre instrument, just as soon as I figure out what to do with that body...
Harley Benton DIY Kits:
Jazzmaster - thmn.to/thoprod/464648?offid=1&affid=367
For other kits visit - www.thomann.de/gb/thlpg_zaurmxslaa.html
DIY Challenge Info - www.thomann.de/blog/en/diykitchallenge22/
Tools and Parts:
Alegree Parts - www.alegree.co.uk/
Crimson Guitars Tools - www.crimsonguitars.com/collections/fretting?ref=csguitars
Micromesh pads - www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334238666431
This video contains product provided by Thomann and Alegree
More details on how CSGuitars implements product promotion - www.csguitars.co.uk/disclosure
#kitguitar #diykitchallenge22 #harleybenton
More from CSGuitars:
Gain access to exclusive content at: www.patreon.com/csguitars
Join CSGuitars Discord - discord.gg/csguitars
Buy CSGuitars Merchandise - www.csguitars.co.uk/store
Website - www.csguitars.co.uk
Contact - colin@csguitars.co.uk
____________________________________________________________________
*Description contains affiliate links. Purchasing using one of these links will generate a small commission for CSGuitars at no additional cost to you.*
Affiliate Links:
Thomann - www.thomann.de/gb/index.html?offid=1&affid=367
Sweetwater - imp.i114863.net/2mGGg
Reverb - reverb.grsm.io/csguitars
Crimson Luthiery Tools - www.crimsonguitars.com/?ref=csguitars + Discount Code 'CSGUITARS5' for 5% OFF
Gthic Jewelry - gthic.com/?aff=230 + Discount Code 'colin20' for 20% OFF
Title graphics and logo by:
www.studiosmithdesign.co.uk/
Join the discussion at:
Facebook - facebook.com/csguitars
Instagram - instagram.com/csguitars/
Discord - discord.gg/csguitars
Why not a black and blue body?
Why not go for a dinosaur theme
Cover it in fur or do an EVH stripe scheme. I dare you, good sir lol.
Black to white fade burst so the pickguard stands out against the white
and learn!! well done
Hey Colin, you're building an offset kit? How awesome, mate! Guess which kit I'm working on and is currently drying in the barn... 😅 This is gonna be awesome, I can't wait to see your guitar when it's done. Cheers man! //Kris
Any left handed kits yet ???
Dear Thomann,
Please please please do a kit with the tremolo like Colin and perhaps surf green would be sweet.
Maybe a thinner neck 305mm is way to thick for me tbh😅😅😅
To me, Jazzmasters and Jaguars always seem outlandish and overengineered in the best possible way. I would love to see this thing just take on an absolutely absurd color scheme. Like hot pink, metallic red, and lime green. Just really call attention the fact that this guitar is something different.
I've always wanted a hot pink or safety green Jazzmaster lol
Exactly what I was thinking! A neon pink like a Racer X era Paul Gilbert color. Tassels optional.
I am so glad to see more votes for Hot Pink
A wild color, but with a contrasting color pickguard! Say hot pink/pastel blue, lime green/yellow... I'm currently doing a metallic red jazzmaster with a pearloid blue guard. will look rad at the end
imagine for a second a purple burst one, would be so cool!
honestly, the natural looks pretty clean
I would stain it translucent cherry red, it would take the stain very well being a light wood, and the grain would really pop. Coupled with the black pickguard, it would look stunning
Colin, that headstock is PERFECT
I'm an absolute sucker for a good purple burst on a guitar and I think that would look fantastic on this one!
I think a proper paint job opposed to a stain would look great on it. Would cover up the wood plugs nicely.
Shou sugi ban the body!! Black and honey browns wood and the black pickguard must look amazing
I'd swap out the scratch plate for clear perspex, shield the cavity with copper tape and stain, orange in the middle to black round the edge. Great video as always.
Flat black with a neon green splatter would be sick! Too many jazzmasters look pretty, make it look cool!
Always loved Army green type paint jobs. Or u could do the racing stripe which is awesome
Great job Colin, adding a jazzmaster vibrato is a great job!
Damn! Cool Jazzmaster! Looks and sounds awesome. I love those pickups, very big, warm and bright.
Love the GTHIC jewelry man! I have that same necklace, and have been looking at that ring for a while now!
Unusual for a Jazzmaster I think - translucent white to show the grain would look great with the black/white of the pickups and guard!
Could you do white stain/see through white? It could end up looking really cool.
Interesting! The only part that doesn't really work for me at the moment is that pick guard material. It's kinda gathered in points where you had to bend it around the curves, and it just looks daft. As for finish/colour, I'd love to see it in some kind of outrageous shocking red. Tidy up the pick guard and the black would work nice.
I think the pickguard issue could be solved by doing enough relieve cuts on the backside and then burnishing the edges. That should help to make it conform to the pickguard underneath much nicer!
@@helojoe92 I'm not convinced that would solve the issue. It would need to be heat molded or the material would have to be stretched in some other way. It's all good, and I'm sure it'll end up looking great.
@@periurban I'd give it a try anyways^^
But taking a heatgun and/or some moisture to it should help aswell 👍🏻👍🏻
I absolutely love jazzmasters. Great vid. I laughed really hard when you said jm people get bent out of shape when people say jm pups are p90s. I have done that lol. I would do 3 tone sunburst with the headstock as is or seafoam green and matching headstock. Brown tort pickguard is a must to complete the look.
Nicely done Colin! Metallic green would look pretty sweet on that ax!
I have also put a JA from HB together but with a Bigsby term with a roller bridge. I painted the body with gold glitter from the same material which is on greeting cards cause I do screenprinting as a job. The headstock is also gold glitter which has the form of a fender head. I changed the P90 pickups with other better-sounding pickups and It sounds and looks fantastic. Nice to see you modding that guitar and looks terrific too.
I actually love the angled, polygonal look of the pickguard
Graffiti yellow with the black pickguard sounds awesome
This is hands down the most amazing background song you've had
I have plans to refinish a squier jazzmaster i bought and love to bits with Rimmel Siren nail polish. Its a metallic classy colour and Nitrocellulose to boot. Might need a few bottles though.
Looks great so far. Always loved the jag body. Keep up the awesome work cant wait to see the final results
Just got a pink one of these and changed the pots, bridge, and put on a tremolo. Now I want to buy a kit.
Looks and sounds great! I am a sucker for natural wood finishes and I already love the way it looks, so I would go with a finish that retains that natural look. Or white/vintage white always looks good on Jazzmasters, especially with a black pickguard.
Great video watching you build and create the whole thing!
Half joking but also half serious, you should cover the body in fluffy white fur somehow XD Or any color I just think white would look great with that pickguard
As a furry musician, I like this idea.
Although maintenance of that guitar could be awfully difficult. Not to mention the smell that fur would pick up over time...
How about burnt and branded with the CS Guitars logo?
A fluffy white sheep hide look would be very, very epic.
He be better off adding some haggis fur on it.
Yellow would be an interesting choice. There isn't many yellow guitars and the few that actually are gravitate towards Jackson/shredder stuff.
A vintage classic in something like a "banana yellow" resembling the shade of fiesta red, daphne blue, olympic white, etc; would be a killer instrument.
Greetings from Patagonia, Chile
I usually hate epoxy top videos, but this guy is on a different league.
Nice mid century modern headstock ❤
A white to black burst. I wouldn't choose it for myself, but with the color of the pups, and pickguard, it would be pretty cool. And unique. Maybe a little of the black peeking out from under the trem, too.
Great project!!!
Which material did you use to cover the pickguard? On minute 7:54...
Thank you in advance
Matte black, with black screws for the pickguard and even a black tip for the bar!
White fur finish with fuzzy dice knobs and the square shiny bits off a disco ball for some kind of accent or inlay somewhere
My only suggestion, make it green. Not like a lime green but something darker and rich, green is good and this all I have to offer thank you
purple with matching headstock. ..but it needs a new pickguard as well. ..maybe purple mirror or chrome.
For me, Jazzers and Jags have always had that look that always screams sunburst, plus it would be cool to see somebody try one by hand
Sick jams. I’m getting Circa Survive vibes
Great fun!!
Painted pale blue, maybe with some metal flake, would be good with the tortoise shell. Consider doing the front of the headstock to match.
"They say jazz is more about the notes you don't play." hahahahaha legendary man! Cool video!!
With those wood plugs in place, I would avoid staining. That would only accentuate the plugs.
like the natural finish.. just a light stain would be good. great video and documentation. well done.
Those kits look fun. A candy coat of some sort over a sparkle finish is always cool. Not sure how difficult that would be though.
I know how much work it takes to make a video, but some of your videos look like they took double the work. Just thought I would give a salute, that's all.
Look up industrial gray Harley Davidson paint. Would look awesome with that pickguard.
Needs a covering of nice flower pattern Fablon on the body. Go totally cottage core. Sure my mum's got some left over from The Past, cos she used acres of it, on kitchen drawers, covering school books, me...
Very impressive.
As a surf player, there's nothing like the Fender offset vibrato system. The mechanical design builds in a kind of dampening so that it's not nearly as jumpy as a Strat or Floyd Rose trem. This is perfect when you want to play really smooth dips and use a very rounded vibrato. And yeah, if they aren't staying in tune, they're not set up right. I had to retune once at practice yesterday - and mine has the cheaper Japanese version, not the better made Fender AVRI trem.
Acid yellow
A guitar build montage to rival even the most classic 80s character development montages
that's looking amazing, considering the fretboard and pickguard colors I'd go for a dark metallic red, that would also look amazing if you wanted to add gold hardware, and just as an idea, how about staggered tunners and get rid of the string trees
Lime green 🍏 in the center. Darker green on the outside and back to create a green burst. Lime green the headstock. Just a thought.
How about a charred black exposed grain finish and diamond plate pickguard?
Paint it something vaguely resembling Sherwood green - I think it is the most beautiful looking Jazzmaster, but they're not easy to find.
It'll be beautiful if it will be painted sparkle blue. ❤️🎸 ...love your vid sir.😊
I found someone on ebay who does custom cut pickguards to match these bodies which has helped me a ton as I've got two of these guitars, for a kit they're brilliant for the price!
Oh wow, can you share their name?
I quie like it in a natural finish, but I can also see a deep, metallic Gold with that black scratchplate.
I like a wood stain combined with a paint. So, stain the whole body black or grey. Then give it a couple coats of poly. Then paint the edges a hard black. Is a sponge to go gradually from the solid black edges to the transparent middle of the guitar.
try wood carvings or appliques, hit with nitrocarburizing (blowtourch) patterns or highlights
You should do a sparkle finish for sure, maybe a gold sparkle!
IMO I think a 3 color flame burst would look cool. I would also get rid of the cream color knobs.
Jesus, thanks for the video. This is pretty much exactly what I ordered the JA kit for. I want to throw a Jazzmaster Trem into it, and had some Wide Range Humbuckers that will go in, too👍🐙
I think a leather wrap would look good. With the little pleats and the studs, the leather like a dsrk burgundy type color. Would look real nice👌
White Tolex/vinyl for the body like an old Höfner would look sick imo
I think a competition Mustang style colour scheme would be cool, but with a black stripe to match the guard and headstock. Maybe black stripe over Yellow or an off white?
Diamond tread paint job?? would look REALLY funky but maybe in a good way?
My issue with the jazzmaster vibrato bridge has never been tuning stability - it's getting the damn thing to stay in!
The arm always seems to disconnect from the rest after a while and I have to take the whole thing off to fix it
I suggest that you go for like a racing livery, perhaps wrc Audi from the 80’s, or a Volvo perhaps? I’m not sure, but as a jazzmaster player myself and a shade tree mechanic, I would love to paint my guitar like a race car.
I'd like to take one of these and fill in the cavities and make a jim root style, single humbucker 1 volume thing but dunno how to fill in the voids , any ideas?
thanks 👍
A brushed aluminum look maybe. Thats my thought. I feel it would work well with the pickguard and the headstock mod you made
this guitar looks killer as it is, I really like what you did with headstock!
for final finish I would use just some amber like stain (or vintage tint) and some rub on oil finish
Love the headstock, it's kind of becomming a cs trademark 💪
I finish I've always wanted to do but haven't had the right guitar for is to use gold foil.
What you do is make a bunch of deep gouges in the body at all kinds of angles and then fill all those crevices with gold foil. Gold foil kits come with an adhesive you use and I think that might. After that you could fill the rest of the gouge up with epoxy resin make it level. Then paint the entire guitar a black or blue or something dark and sand it back to reveal the gold. Then the standard coats and polishing and stuff like that.
I think it'll be a cool look.
I love that you did almost all of the wood routing and shaping by hand. The countersink in the headstock was a nice touch 🤌. The finish should be a Scottish flag!
Hey Colin, would you be up for trying a leather wrap for the body? With that black guard, I think a dark brown / dark red leather finish would look super sweet. Of course, ain't nothing wrong with black-on-black, so black leather could also work.
Definitely would love to see a fur covered body. Just go completely wild on this one
like ZZ Top guitars 😂
What about a dark wood stain with a bright opaque paint stripe? Like the fender mustang competition stripe, something of the like
You know, I don't see a lot of transparent white finishes. Any idea why that is?
... if not, maybe this is a good guitar to find out on.
I'd love to see the rhythm circuit get implemented on that guy
I think the finish should reflect your Spaceman, Robbie the Robot vibe from your intro!
The grain is half-decent, so you might try a translucent darkish red?
Looks fun all round.
The first thing I did was buy a pearloid pickguard with no pickup holes, so I could set it up for three mini-humbuckers. Some custom controls later, and I have a truly unique Jazz Master.
I'd like to see that technique, hydro dipping I think it's called? When you float paint on water and then pass the object through the paint layer in to the water. Get some real trippy vibes.
I would love to paint an original artwork in a Jazzmaster. Maybe you should check out, shootout and and explain us the science behind the gold anodized jazzmaster pickguard. I'm happy you choose to put it the proper tremolo and pickups.
I would paint it teal. I think it would look nice with the black pickguard and everything.
I would suggest a slightly transparent yellow or butterscotch for the body. Match the neck and headstock to that.
I’d really love to see a second Channel where you’d upload the unedited guitar builds
I would love to see a decent sunburst finish tutorial... also, classic finish for a Jazzmaster?
I'd love to see a do it yourself silverburst or something similar
Personally I'd do a swirl paint job for it. It's always fun and you're never know 100% what you're going to get.
Great start !. My suggestion/idea: do an hotrodded jazzmaster with traditionnal hardware but higher output pickups (like hot p90) and a 'muscle car' paint such as a racing metallic blue (automotive spray paint on a primer coat) with two white stripes (decal or painted).
Does it need a wallpaper paisley finish? 🤔
As far as the finish goes for this guitar, I would be tempted to use stains and then finish it off with shellac because the dry time is only 30 minutes and to buff it smooth you need nothing more complexed than steel wool. The figuring is not very clear with the wood so I would suggest using a heavy black stain and then sanding it back to enhance the wood patterns before applying the colour you actually want. Since you went for a black scratch plate I would suggest something like a cherry stain, possibly attempting some kind of burst effect to make things interesting.
I know you decided to go for the Jazzmaster style pick-ups to Fender specs, but they do have a couple of issues which can make them less useful to many. Firstly, they are very low output. The obvious way to fix that would be to run the guitar through a clean boost pedal or install a boost feature into the guitar like an active pre-amp. Otherwise the single coil nature of these pick-ups can make them quite susceptible to picking up interference. I think I heard a demo of a very similar guitar from Fender (I can't remember who's signature model it was) which either had Jazzmaster or P90 pick-ups but with a slight difference - they featured 'dummy coils' underneath the pick-ups to make them hum cancelling without changing the sound. Is that something you might be interested in trying since you have the gear for pick-up winding yourself?
Ice blue purple with pearloid pickguard or Olympic white with sparkles and black guard
Hey since you are in Europe-a-land you have access to RAL colours probably pretty easily. RAL 4006 (traffic purple) is a personal favourite. 6021 is famous for its use on old MAHO equipment and looks super industrial.
Or if you're a mad man just Flock It!
Zebra stripes would fit the black and white theme on the fretboard and pickguard