Willybomb

Inch by inch

Step by step

Hah, great obscure reference there!

Enjoying your thread. Just thought I'd add a +1 to the WSC pickups that were mentioned many pages ago. I had one that was louder/better than my Dimarzio SuperD, very nice for the $20 I paid for it.

I almost feel like I should paint the back black.

I can see why you'd do that, and almost pretty much totally agree.

Overall, nice comeback.

I dig that shape too! Nice pick.

Thanks man. I've been photoshoping a few ideas as I think they need a maple fretboard and a floyd!! And a birdseye maple top.

Currently I'm keen on the Edwards/ESP/LTD Potbelly.

I've got a Dimarzio FastTrack2 in the bridge of my start copy, pretty nice pickup really.

I like modding up cheaper guitars personally. I've got three electrics (plus a bass and 2 acoustics) in the house:

Musicyo Kramer Striker Custom FR-424CM with PATB-2 and Full Shred pickups.

Casino Strat copy, holoflashed with Hotrails and Fasttrack2.

Mutt Lesocaster made from a spare generic strat body and a hohner neck. Hardtail, with Humbucker from Hell and Super Distortion pickups.

The Kramer I can't put down and cost me less than AU$500 all up, including shipping from the US. The Casino has a great neck and with the pickup upgrade sounds fantastic (I got both pickups for $60 inc shipping and paid $50 cash after a trade-in for the Casino). The Lesocaster is just a good all round guitar, great clean tones in the neck and a raunchy rock sound in the bridge.

no one (i.e., other musicians, the rest of the audience really doesn't care about this part of it) is going to take your show seriously if you show up playing one of those cheapo guitars

Personally, I'd rather have some guitars with personality that I've had some input into than a $1500+ off the shelf fender/ibanez/gibson and I couldn't give a rat's arse what the musos in the audience think. If you can play and the guitar allows you to do that, then that's what will impress...

Until it was stolen, my favorite guitar for about 13 years was an Aria Pro II SL strat that I had floyded with a Dimarzio Megadrive in the bridge. It was sanded back to the plywood and ran straight into a Marshall Valvestate(!) via a tuner pedal and crybaby, and I got nothing but compliments about the sound of that thing (rock type band).

Maybe I'm a cheapskate, but I just can't justify more than AUD$1k on a guitar in most cases and I also think that if I'm paying that much for a guitar it shoudn't really require a pickup change. Lately I've been thinking I'd like a really nice (expensive) guitar and not worry about a bunch of cheapos but the cheapos are more fun to play with. And in the case of my three, they're punching well above their weight in playability and sound.

I'd love to spring for a nice S series, but.. I've got some ideas for a project guitar in the works...

Thanks guys. It looks a lot better in Real Life - for some reason the holoflash doesn't photograph well. Just as a quick reason for how it is - this is my beater for teaching guitar (I'm a full time teacher) so it's a bit rough as I don't plan on being precious about it.

I got some 107 and something similar to 800 (but isn't). I have heaps of it left as they sent out about 3-4 meters of each sample.

Gudday all, thought I might post my holoflash worklog after being inspired by the holoflash page here and some of the guitars on the VintageKramer forums.

This is a Casino strat copy. Cost me AUD$50 after trading in an old Samick. I got the heat applied holofoil from: http://www.foilco.co.uk/ who sent me a couple of free samples. It's heat applied (ie, with an iron) and takes a bit of trial and error to get on nicely. You iron it on, and then pull off the backing sheet to leave the foil on. If you time it right you get a high percentage of cover, but if you don't it'll ripple up but still apply. They can supply it in a variety of patterns, and I found that the flat plain pattern didn't go on as well compared to the patterned one I was supplied with.

It goes on a *lot* thinner than the stick on stuff, but is a lot harder to apply.

Applying:

http://img147.imageshack.us/img147/2620/p2060102uc6.jpg

http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/5367/p2070106wz4.jpg

Finished, with Hotrails(n) in the neck and a Fast Track2 in the bridge, after 3 rattlecans of clearcoat and a lot of cutting and buffing.

http://img85.imageshack.us/img85/5752/holofinisheded3.jpg

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/3594/holofinished2vb1.jpg

http://img141.imageshack.us/img141/3746/holofinished3pp7.jpg

Better photos, taken with my phone, of all things:

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/406/dsc00109bu2.jpg

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1533/dsc00111tc7.jpg

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/188/dsc00112fj4.jpg

Willy.