Blazer

And the tuners look perfectly at home on this headstock.

And then I decided to work on the Pickguard which I envisioned to be a more rounded version of a Les Paul Junior's

Tracing paper, and the rough idea drawn out with a sharpy.

Tracing paper on the pickguard material after I sawed the rough shape out.

And finally, here's the pickguard finished, refined and all.

I'll keep you guys posted on how it comes along, tomorrow will be fret day.

And the headstock, as you can tell I had to work away a little screw up where the nut sits, I took the same wood as the headstock face but it colored differently when I filed it down to size, hopefully I can mask it when I get around to finishing the guitar.

Japanese-made Kluson-style tuners will be on this one.

And here's where I drilled the holes for them to fit.

Bushings fit perfectly, note that the bushing of the B string is from a different type but it came with the tuners in an unopened package so it's a mistake from the company. No matter, a replacement Bushing can be found no problem.

Well I'm sure that most of you remember that I started work on a Pine body Les Paul from the wood I had left of the built of my double neck.

The body and neck just after I finished routing them.

Well in the mean time a lot of time has passed and thanks to a very busy work load I didn't really have that much time to work on that project, until last week that is.

The guitar as it was this morning, I did the lion share of the shaping of the neck last week and the result speaks for itself.

And a nice close up of the neck-body connection

The guitar reminds me of the 80's christian metal band stripper!

That's STRYPER thank you very much.

And although the spandex is gone, their guitars still bear the black with yellow stripes proudly.

Is that a Saga flying V kit you're using?

The body routs and the shape of the headstock of your guitar are a perfect match.

And here they are together.

In the background there's a Wal bass that came in for repair, I wish it were mine, that thing is a tone MONSTER.

Well here's the pictures I promised beginning with the recessed backplate.

And the neck from all angles

And if all goes well it should end up looking like this.

I can't get the color right on Kisekae.

I'll bring along a camera to the workshop tomorrow to show you guys the progres I'm making with this, if all goes well I should have it ready in a few days.

The neck after I finished routing the trussrod channel.

That's an angled headstock here.

The trussrod in place

And with the fingerboard glued on.

Today I've spend a lot of time shaping the neck, trimming the fingerboard edges and profiling the fingerboard's curve to match the feel of the neck of my favorite player: my 1989 Strat "The Veteran" I also routed the body for a reccessed backplate.

The recessed neck cavity, the neck in this picture was just to test it out.

Here's the body after several layers of shellac.

and from the side and back.

It has been a long time since I first started work on this one but the day it will be completed is getting very near now.

Anyway to give you guys a lowdown on the whole thing.

The body three years ago after I did the innitial shaping.

And from the side and back. The big knot has already given it the nickname "Jupiter"

The body after I gave it rounded edges and routed the pickup and electric cavities.

Well I have a theme going with Pinecasters lately, when I made my Pine bodied Double neck I had enough wood left to make another body.

And this time I'm going the whole nine yards, since I'm also making a neck for it.

Different from any real Gibson this'll have a Fender 25.5 scale length and I'll put a Kahler whammy on it. The pickup, I haven't yet decided but it'll probably be a Duncan 59 since those are my favorite pickups.

I'm not yet sure of the color but this is a pretty accurate depiction of what I have in mind for this.

That looks good.

Say are you familiar with Neil Moser? He designed the classic BC Rich rock shapes and now has his own company.

They have a guitar called the "Genesis" that reminds me of your work.

http://www.mosercustomshop.com/index.php?m...products_id=191

That's a cool build.

Style-wise it reminds me of a cross between a PRS and early eighties Matsumoku made Washburn guitars like the wing series.

A 1980 Washburn Eagle.

That looks really good. I know a thing or two about oakwood SG's since I made one myself.

Mine, like yours has a sandwich construction of Oak on top and whitewood at the back, mine, like yours also has a far thicker body than a standard Gibson SG and mine, probably like yours, ended up sounding and playing more like a Fender than a Gibson.

This picture shows off the grain of the oak

And here you can see the sandwich construction.

This is one of two pinewood Telecaster bodies I made last year, the idea was to make a matching pair but things didn't quite turn out that way.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e22/guit...uw/100_0938.jpg

Both bodies.

Now it takes a man to admit that he screwed up and I screwed up big time when routing the pickup cavities for both bodies prompting me to add recessed pieces of maple in both guitars and rout the pickup cavities again. During that time I subconciously decided to abandon the idea of making two matching guitars.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e22/guit...91/100_1095.jpg

This picture of the second body shows the recessed slab of maple. This body underwent so many modifications that I eventually named it the "Pine Pain" since there always was something wrong with it. I eventually finished the guitar in Flat black and gave it an allparts neck and that's how it remains.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e22/guit...91/100_1244.jpg

The first body however prompted a friend of mine to ask if I could make it into something on similar lines to the Fender "Snakehead" Telecaster prototype. I told him no problem.

A Fender Custom shop Snakehead copy.

So that gave me a purpose and with that I started to work.

Again this picture shows the slab of recessed maple I used to cover up the screw up with the pickup rout.

And this time I wanted to make sure that I got a professional result. I bought a Seymour Duncan "Broadcaster" Pickup, switchcraft electronics and an Allparts neck with a set of Schaller tuners and a genuine bone nut. I also swallowed my pride and got somebody to help me do the finishing, knowing that that person could help me deliver a far better result than I could do on my own.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e22/guit...n91/Tele1-1.jpg

The body after the first layers of paint.

The body in the end recieved 12 layers of paint with me wetsanding the thing smooth in between, making sure I had an even layer of paint on the guitar (white is a difficult color to get right, you see every detail, every fault.) and it was a lot of work to polish it to a shine.

Today however all that hard work was vindicated.

The picture doesn't do it justice, it has a mirror smooth gloss all over. It also sounds really good, the Duncan Broadcaster is a pocket rocket.

I already send an email to that buddy of mine that his guitar is finished, I'm still awaiting his reply. But he'll probably be over the moon.

Well you guys it has been a while since I updated this thread but things have been crazy with both my job and with my band. Anyway, I just got this one back from the guy who was painting it for me.

I asked for a vintage Fender cream color, like the strats that Yngwie Malmsteen plays, I got my wish.

Now all I need to do is assemble it.

That looks really nice, here's MY explorer build. Three piece maple and walnut body, Duncan pickups and Kahler trem.

i'm supposed to be starting one in the new year too... although its been postponed a few time already.

It will most likely be a bass/12-string through neck kinda thing. my biggest concern is working on something so large - so the idea is to make the through necks wide enough (just a hair wider than bridge and pickups) so that i can get them working well on there own before glueing it all together and work out final dimensions/angles of the wings and centre section by laying out the completed necks.

mine will have two seperate outputs as it would never be played through the same amp anyway

When I saw Genesis play live 2 years ago Mike Rutherford was playing his Chandler made Gibson 12/ Yamaha TRB bass double neck through seperate amps as well.

Nice find. And your plan sounds like a good one. Have at it!

What kind of wood is the strat back made of?

Zebrano if I'm not mistaken.

And check this out, I put the bass together. I nicknamed it "Tangarine" I guess it's not too hard to see why...

It has EMG pickups, the de-fretted neck of an eighties Westone bass and the body itself is mahogany with a birdseye maple top.

A guy I know used to custom build guitars in the eighties was getting rid of of a lot of stuff he had lying around including THIS.

Now, I'm thinking: Floyd Rose, white cover EMG SA pickups, or white cover Duncan hot rail pickups and a self made birdseye maple neck with ebony fingerboard would be a good way to make this one a cool player don't you guys think?

and I also bought a bass he never fished.

Okay then, I made this one nine years ago from a piece of maple that was left over and too short and too narrow to make a real body from, part of the inspiration was KK Downing's custom Hamer cut off flying V's.

When I made it it had a Tele bridge and Pickup but it sounded really bad, very Ice Pick so I lend it to a music store's "Freak show" where it hung for over five years.

Last week however I decided to retrieve it because I had an idea on what to do with this "Pizzar". I pulled out the Tele bridge and pickup and replaced them with a Solid Brass bridge and a Duncan Classic Cover JB pickup. It now sounds so much better and it's a fun guitar to play while sitting on my lazy chair.

This is how I see it:

The main reason to use a Pine body is for the natural looks and softer tone.

I know a lot of the guys at the TDPRI are into Pine these days, and that's cool, but you 'left the tracks'.

I'm wondering why you couldn't use a typical Tele bridge and pickguard, finish her off in natural, and have a great looking Telecaster still. The bridge and pickguard would cover up your patch (nice job btw), and still leave you with a great looking natural finished Tele with a nice black guard to compliment the natural color. It would look great I think, and still remain true to what it was going to be in the first place.

Your plan leaves you with a 'mutt', a guitar that has no real heritage, a little of this, a little of that, a mishy-mashy of parts combined, with a very very soft Pine body that will get dented and nickered in no time.

There's nothing wrong with a hybrid guitar if that's what you want, but you're going to find out that Pine is not the best body to use.

Well, I haven't told you what I'm planning with the other pine body. That one WILL get tele pickups and ditto bridge

You use Pine for a particular reason, and if not using it for that reason, it's better left alone I guess is what I'm saying, and I don't see why you can't still move forward with the original Pine bodied Tele idea you had.

I will leave you with a good idea tho. If you want to go ahead with your plan to paint it, then use A/B Epoxy or CYA glue to seal it before you use any paint, either one will toughen it up as much as can be expected so it doesn't dent as easy.

Thanks I'll keep that in mind.

BTW, I think your roundover is a bit too much roundover for a typical Tele, Teles have very little roundover to them.

On my Pine Tele bodies it's actually the normal standard body rounding. The Mahogany body however is a different case that's where I indeed gave it a very steep rounding. I got the idea from my eighties Ibanez Roadstar, which has a slab body but with very wide and steep roundings, it makes for a very comfortable feel. The Mahogany Tele which also is nearing completion is a heavy guitar but the roundings make it at least comfortable to play.

Well I guess you guys all remember that I started the building of two matching Pinecasters.

My intention was to use up spare parts I had lying around and to have them both in aged natural. But because of me making a HUGE mistake by routing the pickup cavities for 24 fret necks, the project was shelved in favor of the Mahogany Body tele I started to make. Today I took one of the bodies because I once again was a man with a plan.

I filled the pickup cavity and covered it with a piece of maple, I then got out the routing template for strat pickups and went to work.

The fill is clearly visible.

Maybe you can see it but the neck I'm planning to use sat on the imfamous "Pink Nightmare" before.

I'm planning to either finish it baby blue of make it into the "Rasta Frank" Signature model.

So what do you guys say?

I guess since most of us love to tinker on this board, we all have one-of-kind mutt instruments that we love and others pull their noses at. I figure it would be fun to showcase that special mutt and tell the story behind it. In my case it's the "Fido"

Me using the Fido at a Slavantas rehearsal in 2006

Now that one has an interresting story. At the time we had the pine floor boards of the living room of my parent's house replaced by solid oak ones. I took some of the left over oak floor boards and the left overs from the pine floorboards and glued them together. And made it a sandwich body.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e22/guit...91/100_1089.jpg

The side of the body, showing clearly the layer of pine and Oak.

The neck came from a Squier Affinity Tele, a Baltic blue one which I bought for the specific reason of modifying the tar out of. So when I needed a neck for my Pine and Oak sandwich body I knew which one I'd use. But instead of routing the body in the shape of a Tele I decided to do it a little different. I already made my Tele/Paul hybrid and I figured to go with another Gibson model and pulled the SG template from the storage.

http://i36.photobucket.com/albums/e22/guit...91/100_1090.jpg

The neck join, I used expoxy to permanently glue that neck into place, the two screws were used to keep the neck in place while the glue dried, I decided to leave them there. This picture also shows how fat the body is.

My SG/Tele in it's first incarnation in 2002. Back then I used it as my back up guitar with the band I was in at the time. After some time I took it apart and used the parts in other projects.

But people began asking me about the whereabouts of that Funky Oak guitar and I decided to restore the guitar again. I made a new pickguard of transparent plastic which I then spray painted gold from the back (The painted side is in on the body surface), routed out the cavity to a Swimming pool, so I could experiment with Pickup placings without having to modify the body itself too much and went with a more uniform look of two black Humbuckers, an Ibanez V8 in the bridge and a Dimarzio PAF at the neck.

Evident in this picture is the outline of a strat jack I drew with a sharpie. I wanted to install such a thing there but never actually did it but I left the outline, it adds to the character of the instrument. The mini switch is the coil tap for the Ibby Humbucker.

I have since used this guitar on both live performances and as my main studio guitar and it has proven itself to be a dependable workhorse. As for why it's called the "Fido" a close up of the headstock will clarify that.