Drak

Thank you, Scott. Me too, really. I think I pulled that off to look pretty 'rustic cowboy realistic' and not super-faked. If I tried to do it again I can't think of anything else I'd try to do to it or change, it hits the mark pretty well. Of course that's my favorite part, haha, its always all about the steerhead in my world! To be honest, you can't ask for much more than that, to come up with a theme and then find a way to morph that theme into your own theme. I call that a win. ...It gets better tho.

So, onward. The neck I decided to use is a Mahogany/Rosewood neck. Again, breaking the 'biblical Roy/Nancy rule' of having to use a Maple neck for authenticity. I have three Maple necks already done, fully assembled, even Plek'd. They've all been on other guitars before and are ready to go. Nope, I didn't like it. It removed the 'dark, ominous' theme I was shooting for. So I ran into a problem of the sanded Mahogany body not matching the look of the Mahogany headstock close enough for my liking. They looked too dissimilar. The headstock was a very rich and deep Mahogany, and the body seemed too 'washed out' to me, I didn't like the match. So I decided to try shooting a toner coat over the bare Mahogany areas. I used Behlen Medium Brown Walnut. And that didn't work either. It actually matched well, but it took 'something' away from the 'raw ominous' thing I didn't like. Damned if I do and damned if I don't scenario. So what I discovered/wound up doing was sanding back the toner coats, in areas, to taste, and (IMO) that totally worked. Check this pic with the one above, the difference isn't massive, but with the toner coat sprayed on, the match now is dead-on. This is with the full toner coat, before I sanded it back. Nailed that shit, didn't I? But we're not even close to done yet. It gets better.

So, I've never been a relic fan, never even found it interesting. But I've done the mega-burst thing so long, I think I was looking for something different to do. Everything becomes standard and boring after awhile, no matter how good you are at it. I look at this as a distressed finish, because for many reasons it doesn't follow any standard relic guidelines. Although at a casual glance I would think that's what would come to mind. But it breaks many relic 'rules of the road'. And, as with anything guitar building, you have to just keep putting the foot forward, see what happens, and adjust to suit. I didn't know whether I would like this shiny or flat, so I did it both ways. Relic rules are everything must be flat and de-glossed, but I never follow rules. And I always have a goal in mind when I do anything. This goal wasn't to create a relic, this was about capturing Roy Buchanan's dark side, and that guy had a serious dark side. Which is what made him what he was, and his music what it was. Which I think was right out in the open for everyone to see, but everyone seemingly avoids it. People always want to avoid looking at the dark side of life, but that's where a lot of the flavor of a person comes in. And I got to incorporate Roy's dark side with allowing me to play around with the Steerhead in a way I never had done before. And I really dig it, I think I nailed my goals. I like 'irritating' people for some reason, I like to break their 'box of assumed reality' which makes most people uncomfortable and squirmy. No regular Roy fan would probably dig this because it breaks just about every single rule for a 'Nancy' build. Yet, to me, it encompasses more Roy than just about any other build I've ever seen (my opinion only, of course) Most Tele guys would hate the black hardware, the Mahogany underneath, but I adore it all. As I said, it's not about copying a guitar (which I really never do), which everyone else focuses on, its about the guy himself. Guitars don't make music, people do. A guitar by itself doesn't make a sound.

And so the transformation begins. Nevermind the square HB mark, it was just an idea. The goal here, as you will begin to see formulate, was to borrow ideas from the relic world, but to also break all of their rules at the same time. That's why I shot the pic showing the grain so much, I wanted to preserve as much of the grain as I could. I didn't get to preserve as much as I would have liked, but the effect is there.

Just thought I'd add this in before things go dark. I did a front roundover using a 15" speaker as the guide. The top is 1/2" Mahogany so I shaved it down right to the edge.

OK, so what exactly is 'a Nancy'? For most people, it's some version or rendition of Roy Buchanan's beat-up 1953 naturally relic'd Butterscotch Blackplate Telecaster. Most people who build a 'Nancy' wind up with either a relic'd copy or (more usually) a very pretty version of that scenario. Which isn't really real. So the real 'thing' about Nancy was the sound. A damaged bridge pickup with a very 'AM Radio' sound that lacked most of it's bass. Don Mare chased it down for years and what he finally wound up with was using a .0033uF cap in series with the bridge pickup. YT search Don Mare & Nancy and you'll hear it, he has one YT of it. That was his third and final 'version' of his 'Nancy' pickup. But along the way, Don made three different versions of a 'Nancy' bridge pickup before he hit on the .0033uF solution. That is the basic core of a Roy Buchanan 'Nancy', unless you intend on hanging the guitar on a wall, is the particular tone of that bridge pickup. You can build butterscotch blackguard Teles all day long, if they don't have the AM Radio bridge pickup sound, it isn't really a Nancy. Don encapsulates a .0033uF cap inside the wind under the tape, but you can do it to any pickup you want. I believe Rickenbacker called it a 'strangle switch', that for whatever reason seems to replicate whatever happened to Roy's bridge pickup. Back then, no one knew he would wind up making three versions, ...at version 1, everyone thought that was 'it'. So. many years ago, I bought two bridge pickups of version 1, and one pickup of final version three. The first versions ohm out at around 5.2k, the final version with the cap only reads capacitance, not resistance. I have a bunch of .0033uF caps now, and when I measure the version 3 with a .0033uF cap, they read identical. Now, I would just use whatever pickup I want and attach a .0033uF to it (in series), but, its all part of the story that will unfold. I called him many years ago with a question about the versions, and he told me 'No, those first ones won't cut it for Roy'. I believe because he underwound them so much, trying to achieve the thin Roy sound in his early efforts. Well, low-wind Tele bridge pickups are good for Bakersfield Twang and Bill Kirtchen does that very well. And so, we have the origins of the Dieselbilly build. I decided to use BOTH of those 5.2k pickups in bridge and middle, I cutout a pickguard for the second one in the middle position. And I used a 4-position switch (does series and parallel) coupled with a push-pull knob to select either neck or middle to go with the bridge. 4-position switches are funny to use because whatever volume pots you use probably will not be suited well when you kick in the series connection. Usually using 250k pots for Teles, the series connection will (usually) not match too well, especially if you use higher output pickups. But for two 5.2k pickups, it worked great, all connections and combinations worked really well. So this guitar is 1/2" Mahogany over a chambered Maple core and is only 1.5" thick. OK, we are at the first stop in the road, Dieselbilly, with it's (two) 5.2k Don Mare Nancy bridge pickups. You may have seen this pic from the Steerhead pages, but now you have some background content to work with. No one needs to see construction pics of a Tele, there's no need of that. And...it looks Nothing like this now, ...this was just a stop in the road.

Well, for anyone who knows me, a LOT can happen as my builds progress. Sometimes too much for the faint-of-heart. So this one's far enough down the track that I'm reasonably confident I won't cause heart failure amongst the more tender hearted. It's about 95% done, but you know...anything can happen. So, this one has some history behind it, a story. What would a Cowboy Sunset guitar be without a story to go with it? And how would the name Moonshadow be aligned with Cowboy Sunsets? Well, what comes after sunset? Duh... Darkness, that's what. And in Cowboy Country, darkness can be Ominously dark, ain't no city lights out there 'in the Lonesome'...if you get my drift. We will come back around to this theme of darkness and ominous-ness later on. And so, we begin our tall Tele tale with a Telecaster formerly named 'Dieselbilly'. Name taken from Bill Kirtchen's usage of the term along his pathway to Telecaster Twangin' Glory and golden halls made of pure steel twang. But Dieselbilly didn't start out as Dieselbilly (see line item No. 1 above) Dieselbilly started out as a 'Nancy', my ode to Roy Buchanan, the father figure of ominousness and darkness and all things wolven. There was very little 'happiness' you could attribute to Roy. He was a loner mostly, rarely laughed, usually somber, with some 'issues'. Road-dog mostly, which can be a lonesome, and sometimes dark, path. Welcome.

I would want a bit more detail about the maple top before giving you recommendations. What look are you shooting for? Can you find a pic on the web of something close and post it here? About pore-fill. Not trying to confuse the issue early on, but you can do it two ways: IF you Really like the natural color of your Mahogany as-is, you can lay down a thinned poly coat first to lock it in. Then do your pore filler, then go back to poly. That first thinned coat 'locks in' the very nature of your Mahogany so the pore-filler doesn't affect it. And only fills the pores, period. Also, be wary of what color pore-fill you buy, I would recommend it be a shade or two darker than your Mahogany. And Mahogany comes in all kinds of colors and shades. Otherwise, you can pore-fill right onto raw wood, but then the pore filler will have some effect on the overall appearance. Using a thinned 'sealer' coat first protects the Mahogany against any colorant of the pore filler. And specifically just keeps the pore-filler to the pores and that's it. IF you decide to used a thinned coat of poly first, then pore-fill, this is a good way to 'do' the pore fill. Using a steel wool pad to wipe off the excess while its still damp. It's a bit different approach than what you normally see, but I like it.

Yes, by all means do not try to dunk the entire pickup, I see complete dead-fail in all caps with that. Removing the cover, two typical methods: Dremel tool with a cutter wheel (total PITA if you ask me, I've tried it and didn't care for it, tho it does work) And heating it up with a soldering iron, which is what I prefer to do. But, you need a reasonably powerful soldering iron and set it all the way to maximum caliente (hot). There's so much metal there, it all acts as a heat absorber and sucks the heat from your iron away from the joint. So its gotta be REALLY hot and you have to be ready to act pretty quickly. As once you get it hot enough, the second you pull the iron away to start prying the cover from the base, it will begin to cool immediately. Truth, having another pair of steady hands around would be super helpful. You can have someone else holding the iron steady on the joint while you suck the solder out or pry the two apart. However you do it, another pair of STEADY hands is very handy here.

So you got me thinking about my own words last night. If I were to build an 'Eddie' in the way I described 'I do', how would I do it? And I came up with an 'Eddie-fied' version of this grain-filled theme, this is a Red Oak body, w/ big pores. What I would do is do the body red (instead of black, of course) Then add black and white stripes in similar patterns to his taped off thang. But the colors would only show on the grain pattern, sort of like I did here, get it? So it would absolutely 'incite the spirit' of Ed, any VH fan would recognize the color scheme and pattern. But it would be obviously completely different. Was just daydreaming and imagining how I would approach something like that.

Like I said, I wasn't expecting the Eddie sound to pop out of that thing like it did. I felt weird since the guitar was a TOM/stoptail and took it out sometime after that, expecting that I would put it in a Floyd one day. Then, I think one day I put a UOA5 in it, and it's been back in the drawer awaiting its new home. I have, like, six different Floyd builds in progress, haha! Of course, I was just kidding about the CNC, you go on with your bad self then. Looking forward to seeing how this progresses and where and how you land it.

A real Neal Moser build, just to show the spirit of the guy. And, a little-known fact about BC Rich and Neal Moser creations. All those weird curves were originally taken from the silhouettes of women dancing. Google modern dance and click on images and look closely at the forms of women as they dance and hold a pose. Its a serious fact, that's where they got all the weird metal curves from. If you look for it, you'll always see it in their creations.

I'm going to guess it's a home-brew, with some particular parentage behind it. I shall explain: So, its primary parentage (I would believe) goes back to BC Rich. But its not an actual BC Rich, I think its a home-build job inspired by BC Rich kinda... It actually reminds me more of something Neal Moser would have thought up. Neal worked for BC Rich back in the day, then left and started his own thing. You can look him up, he has a website. His designs don't stray too far from home, and are very popular with the METAL (devils horn fist pump) crowd. AAMOF, he pretty much took the heart of what BC Rich did and expanded on it. So, I looked up old Neal to see if I could find your body. Just typed in Neal Moser in Google and clicked on images. And I found this, with the caption: 'Neal Moser Inspired Build'. That's what I got.

Well thank you! I think I can say I 'dialed that in', if you know how I layer most of them, you'd probably agree. So here's how most of my bursts go down, my standard 'cowboy sunset' recipe: Basecoat color over entire top, then sandback with differing levels of drama incorporated. Next color goes over whole guitar, usually wiped on. Next 2-3 burst colors get shot on, either with airbrush or regular gun, onto wood. Then I do clearcoats and let it sit for a day or two, then level sand that in prep for shader coats. Then I'll usually do 2-3 shader coats, whatever I think it needs to really finish it off. Then final clearcoats. So...there's a lot of shading going on, both on the wood and in the lacquer. Both approaches 'give' a 'certain' look, and I like both effects, and I like to combine them, so, best of both worlds. Which, I would believe, gives them the 'layered overtones' you're referring to.

So...three notes. One: I found it hilarious that you're using a CNC to do an Eddie... I mean, the guy probably used a frickin' butter knife, spit and swearing to route his guitars (early days, y'know). Two: Strange story. I never learned any VH, it's not 'really' my style, tho I did see them on their first tour (1978). Funny girl story to go with that but never mind for now... My point is about the Custom Custom. I bought one many, many years ago used and tossed it in the pickup drawer for a few years. Didn't really even 'know' what it was supposed to represent, it was a cheap, good deal (probably $40.00 used if I know me) So the day came when I had a build done and was looking for what pickups I wanted to use in it. And decided to pull the CC out for the bridge and a Bill Lawrence 8k job for the neck. So I get everything installed, its a brand new build so I'm checking and fiddling and adjusting everything. I finally get it operational, plug it in, and give it its first power chord whack. And, it sounded Exactly Like Eddie Van Halen! I wasn't expecting it, I wasn't looking for it, and I never whacked a pickup in expectation that it would 'sound like' somebody. It just came out of nowhere, but it was really obvious How Much it sounded like VH. So Go figure. They obviously did something right there, overwound w/ A2 magnet. Additional note: Before that, he used an Ibanez Super 70 (was stock) in his Ibanez Destroyer before he chainsawed it. Those old Super 70's use A8 magnets, which is a really strong magnet, and a rather rare choice for back in the day (go Ibanez!). So, I bought a used hollowbody guitar once that had a replaced neck pickup. A crazy job, it was a mini-humbucker with some old Japanese chrome cover from some other pickup slapped over it which didn't really fit. So one day I pulled this thing apart trying to figure out what I was looking at. And what I found was what I had was an Ibanez Super 70 MIN-HUM! A8 magnet and all, with gold polepieces. My research led me to conclude it had been part of a George Bensen Ibanez model from back in the day. You canNOT find any information on an Ibanez Super 70 mini-humbucker, anywhere on the net. If you do, its probably something I posted. I still have that pickup. So...just another Eddie-related off-topic 'my funny Ibanez pickup story'. Three: Whenever I want to do a 'sig' build, I approach it completely different than most people do (but hey, I'm like that) I always shoot for who the person was (their personality) and their sound, rather than copy the exact/specific guitar they used. Like, I did a Michael Schenker V, and although it Sounds like early MS, it looks nothing like any V he ever used. If I did an Eddie, it 'might' have stripes, or I might turn the stripes into curves, but maybe keep the colors and the 'spirit' of his guitar, if you follow... But for whatever reason, I never wanted to own a guitar that looked like someone else's famous guitar. A good example is Roy Buchanan (who IS up my alley style-wise) Everyone wants to build a butterscotch blonde blackguard Tele, just like Roy's Nancy. That man is one of my absolute guitar heroes, but I would never want a butterscotch blond blackguard Tele. With all the Tele's I've built, I certainly could have by now. But he was a really dark, brooding, loner of a personality, and I would want to build a guitar like 'that'. A guitar that appears dark, brooding, ominous somehow, because that was his real spirit. OK, enough from me, Build Away Then with your CNC! <I kid, of course>

It is not science that need be brought under scrutiny or the lash. It is more the culture of voodoo and its various offshoot -ism's that is the central suspect here. Could one 'really' think the steerhead is 'simply' a symbol of a bull and that's as far as it goes? Would that not be a rather limited interpretation of what lies behind the steerhead, hidden in plain sight? Otherwise, wouldn't a simple surface-mount inlay 'do the trick'? Once could wonder whether this goes much, much further than that simple observation...

Ahh yes, the old soldering iron trick. I always use a soldering iron to heat up rear ferrules and the finish before I drive them in.

That was hilarious. At 1:45, he says "I get at the end of something, then look back and say how did I get here, then I see these series of bad choices and bad steps'. That is exactly how a geopolitics professor I follow describes the series of events that lead to war. That war is Never a mistake, it is always a series of bad choices and bad steps. That guy would find it quite humorous to hear a tenured geopolitics professor say exactly the same words he said there about how all wars start.

MMV, click on his link, it does indeed show a routed body. With no tigerstripe colors, its all one color. They just took the stripes usually painted on and turned that pattern into a recessed deal. Interesting about the trim router...I always thought I needed one but never bought one, I'll avoid the urge to buy one now.

If you're going to remove the dots, I would at least call Warmoth ahead of time and ask them what they use to install them. For example, if they say epoxy, I would maybe be looking for alternatives...just me. But you never know until you ask. It may be just a little piece of information, but information never hurts, in any amount, and they may tell you something useful. That's why they have a customer support team and phone numbers. It can't hurt to ask.

No. They usually are some variation of this, because you need to connect the steerhead cavity to that secret tone chamber in the back to make the secret sauce balance out correctly (I kid, of course). Sometimes more chambering if its a heavy core body wood like Maple or Cherry. This is a 2-piece Alder body, so just the regular recipe.

I'll detail that whole shooting match. Top Row, front to back: passive volume control, passive tone control, EMG Afterburner pre-amp (rarely ever used, explanation below) Bottom Row, front to back: EMG EXG control (happy face EQ), EMG SPC control (frown face EQ w/ gain boost ) these two are constantly used, the main attraction. So the deal behind that whole thing: What started me building guitars in the first place was when the Fritz Brothers introduced their Roy Buchanan Bluesmaster. That was the goal I had in mind when I started, around 1990-ish. I'm from the DC area, and the DC 'burbs is really a Tele town at heart. But as I progressed building,...I didn't want to be limited strictly to EMG pickups. So I had to figure out how to blend (anybody's) passive pickups onto an active EMG harness. So I finally figured out how to do that, which involves using exactly what I listed, that's how it works. 'Regular' pickups mate with 'regular' volume/tone, then > into the EMG harness and out. Back in the day when I started, you couldn't use the EXG and SPC without the pre-amp, you Had to have the pre-amp (Afterburner) to make the other tone pots operate. From what I understand, that's not the case now, I believe you can take any of their pots and use them as a single stand-alone device (with battery, of course). I have yet to buy or try any newer versions that do that, but I might. So, the Afterburner pre-amp I really have little use for and almost never use it, it just had to come along for the ride. The EXG and SPC are really what's useful for me. The Afterburner is only operable if you pull up on it, otherwise it just sits there, offering power to the other devices.

I've used CA glue as a clear pore filler on guitars for decades, its nothing new to me. I've never used it as a stand-alone finish, but I've built it up to the point where I can level-sand the guitar body. So, although its not my cup of tea for a final finish, I see nothing wrong in doing it. I say you're good to go. The only thing I've learned over the years is to be aware of the humidity level when applying it. My preference is outdoors on a reasonably warm and dry day, humidity as near 50% or below as possible. Under those conditions, it goes down easy (I do wear a respirator when doing it) I usually use a plastic throwaway squeegee/putty knife to apply it. If its humid, you can get white spots (trapped moisture) in it. And I don't do 'small areas', I bang the whole thing out all at once. I don't leave puddles, I scrape it across the surface just like I was applying a pore filler product for the initial first coat. You will need to do 2-3 coats to do what you're talking about, you won't nail it all in one application. Apply the first, let dry, sand as level as you can, then apply a second coat. To build a final finish with...you'll have to be a little dexterous with your putty knife because you're not scraping it across, that's only for the first coat. The following coats will be like applying paint with a paintbrush-ish. You'll be using the putty knife more like a paintbrush, which will take a little dexterity and thought.