Magma Attack!

[Drak]

About the pickup rings...you know, I know what I'm good at and what I suck at, and I suck at a lot of stuff, and typically stick to the things that I'm good at .

There are guys here on the forum who blow me out of the water when it comes to making things like custom wooden pickup rings.

If I wanted them, I would probably buy them from someone here who does that very well, because I don't, and don't really feel like trying when other guys here do such a damn excellent job of it.

Sometimes, it's just easier to buy what you need.

[PTU 7's.]

Hey man, those guitars are awesome

[willy78]

Hey DRak great job!! where did you get that beautiful wood?

[verhoevenc]

That guitar is WAY too close to me... I'm breakin' in!

Chris

[Kenny]

hey drak on the tele you posted what is the blue in the wood?

[Dean]

That's a great piece of wood for the body......but ,the chrome ,blue ,black,and red take away from the over all flow of the guitar.If I'am not mistaken you just put a Warmoth (or premade ) neck on it.It is still a cool guitar,just think it could be tricked out a little more,for such a great body.IMO at least take the wood to the head stock.

[westhemann]

Drak...guitarpartsdepot.com will allow you to custom order emg you want,or at least they used to.

also...budman 68 has a site with phenolic pickup rings that are slightly thicker than stock,I think they would cover the rout.www.fretsonthenet.com

[Drak]

Thanks again!

1) I get my wood from various sources, no one place in particular.

2) The 'blue spot' was a soft spalted rot spot/incursion that I had to fill with something, so I decided to try something creative with the blue, which is blue sparkle (Createx I think it was) mixed with 2-part epoxy.

3) Wes, thanks for the word up.

That's a great piece of wood for the body

Thanks Dean.

but, the chrome, blue, black, and red take away from the over all flow of the guitar.

That is an excellent observation that I agree with for the most part.

The detailed eye you have for critique/flow should serve you well on your own builds, not everyone has that ability.

Chrome - The bridge is a Glendale with custom SS saddles. I have all of my Glendale bridges gold-plated locally.

I tried brass saddles (which are gold) but found the tone of the SS more to my liking.

Nothing saying I couldn't slap a set of brass saddles back on there to help the look out, but I was more concerned with the overall tone in the end, and have to suffer the look not being 'perfect' as a result.

The chrome 3-way switch screws, well, I was just too lazy to try and track some gold ones down. Since I built that one, I have sourced gold screws down, it may very well have gold screws for the lever switch on it now.

Blue / Red - I agree there also, I had the S-90 in stock here, loved the tone of it, so on it went.

If I could find a HD S-90 in blue sparkle, I would probably opt for that if I had the money lying around for it, it certainly would look and match much nicer.

The blue was applied to give a bright and splashy contrast to the color of the wood, I wanted it to stand out against the natural wood color, so I didn't use red for that reason, red would go 'with' it, I wanted a contrast to the amber body color.

Black - Personally, I really like the black hardware choices. I have gold knobs, I tried both gold and black, I liked the black knobs and black pkp combo mo' bettuh', personal choice.

I appreciate the detailed reply tho, and as I said, I basically agree with most of it.

If I'm not mistaken you just put a Warmoth neck on it.

100% correct. I love Warmoth necks.

My hand fits their standard contour necks perfectly, and their compound radius feature fit my build designs/playing style perfectly as well.

From an overall design standpoint, their necks and my typical builds are a perfect match.

It is still a cool guitar, just think it could be tricked out a little more, for such a great body.

IMO at least take the wood to the head stock.

Thanks for the nice words, most appreciated.

Over the years, I have posted tons of pics that show body wood veneers that do indeed get taken to the headstock.

It's almost a standard feature for my builds (see Magma pics above for example)

I do that almost all the time, the exception being Maple Telecaster necks.

IMO, that feature does not work well with what I envision in my head for CT Telecasters, it could certainly be argued both ways depending on personal tastes, but I much prefer not taking a body wood veneer to the headstock on my CTT builds that use Maple necks.

I am a huge Telecaster Tone fan, and my custom CTT builds were carefully thought out in my head as to what I wanted in a custom guitar versus what needed to stay there to still be able to call it a Basic True Tele and not have that be a blasphemous statement.

That also can be easily argued both ways, but I know personally what I find acceptable and what I don't, what stays within 'True Tele' limits and what crosses the line into 'no longer Tele, just Tele in shape alone', and veneered headstocks don't fit my vision of a Telecaster.

Others could easily argue differently and be correct too.

[Drak]

Here is a bona-fide CTT before I finished wiring it up.

You can see at this point I had the exact same bridge on this one as is shown in the other pic.

During final assemblies (I was doing 6 just about all at the same time) I swapped bridges, pkps, knobs around a lot until I made some final decisions...

That is a SD P-90 neck under the gold cover.

Actually, I think that bridge pkp wound up staying on this guitar, it is a P-90 neck and an S-90 bridge, perfect combination.

I believe Blue Star Spalt now has a Barden in the bridge, Barden in the neck and the Cruiser in the middle.

This one sounds very different than most of the others due to the Mahogony core and P-90 pkps, it's really warm, sweet, smooth and sexy and can rock out easier compared to the rest which are all Alder bodied and sound much more standard Fender Telecaster in nature (until you turn the Afterburner on and hit the SPC, then they're all hotter than hell ).

It will still do Tele tho, due to the bridge and 3-piece saddles, just not so 'pure country' as the rest, you have to really pick right on top of the saddles to get the twang happenin' with this one, but it's still there.

[Daniel Sorbera]

^^^^^^^ Thats my favorite guitar of yours, always has been. It's so classic, yet so unique. Perfectly balanced in appearance. Very well done indeed, obviously very well thought out.

IIRC you shoot nitro correct? So how is the durability holding up for you after all these years? Sorry, I cant just admire, I have to ask questions and learn something

[Dean]

Yhea , this one flows much better ,even with the red pickup....blends right in.I liked the blue on the other one,it just got a little busy with all the other colors.+1 on the steer head.....Texas being my home state....my great ,great ,grandfather was a Texas Ranger after the civil war.

[Drak]

IIRC you shoot nitro correct? So how is the durability holding up for you after all these years? Sorry, I cant just admire, I have to ask questions and learn something

Yup, all Nitro.

An interesting question, and I have an interesting reply .

Being that I am both the builder and end user, I have two completely different outlooks about nitro finishes.

When I'm building a guitar, I'm fanatical about everything having to be exactly the way I want it (I won't use the word perfect, because nothing is truly perfect, and I'm not that good anyway), if the color is 2 notches off, it will get completely stripped back off and completely redone...that kind of thing...

But...once it is done, set up, adjusted, and it has officially become a guitar...well, guitars get beat up, that's just a fact of life, so once it's done, if it gets scratched (and they all do, if that answers your question), no big deal, that's life and guitars, that's the way it goes with Nitro.

So yes, Nitro has a beautiful 'feel' to it that I completely enjoy holding and playing...but it's not super tough, it is what it is, and it will scratch and dent and wear and all that stuff unless you baby it to death or don't use the guitar that much, which would suck.

[guitar101]

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Initial Staining Shot

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First Sand Back Shot

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Secondary Color Addition

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Pickups Cut and (hardtail) Bridge basics done

[avengers63]

I don't know what anyone is griping about. The turquoise sparkles embedded in the body are a really cool feature. The way they fill in the cavity make you want to think it's a natural part of the wood. It's a great little feature. It looks very... country, rustic, etc. The southwestern flair it gives the instrument is a real treat.

[Drak]

Thanks very much.

PS, I didn't see any griping at all, just good constructional criticism and comments.

I'm glad you like it, I love it!

[erikbojerik]

The Magma appeals to the volcanologist in me...sometime down the road I will have to hit you up for the dye schedule.

What color hardware are you planning for that one?

[Drak]

Everything I have ever done is all gold, or sometimes black.

Magma will be black pkps and gold hardware. Not sure what the knobs will be until I slap both on and see what strikes me.

PS Erik, if I ever get back to building, I still have that Super-Raked Rhoads V half-done using your Bubinga topper.

Thanks for that beautiful wood.

That one will certainly see completion!