Outlines

The whole premise of Offkilter is putting the guts of a Telecaster in a more comfortable, ergonomic body. Fender, of course, had this same idea, by releasing guitars like their Paranormal Offsets, and offering them in their Mod Shop as well. However, I always found this combination of Telecaster + Jazzmaster body to not quite work. A Jazzmaster body is much larger than a Telecaster body, presumably to accommodate the large vibrato system at the base of the guitar. I think it looks great on a Jazzmaster, but when that hardware is swapped out for Telecaster hardware, it looks visually unbalanced (in my opinion) because there is so much empty space where the vibrato plate once lived.

So, I refined the Jazzmaster silhouette, keeping the curvature of the top half the same but reducing the visual “weight” of the bottom half. Here is a diagram of the difference between an Offkilter and a Jazzmaster body:

I wanted to bring the body size more in line with a Strat or Tele, volumetrically. Here is an overlay of an Offkilter body with a traditional Telecaster: 

Not only does this reduction improve the comfort and feel when playing, it also reduces the overall weigh, which was another priority for me.