Custom Built Guitars

same here. And I stumbled acrossed it in a similar manner. And like you stated, easy to duplicate...

low budget build for a customer. The neck is off the pink strat in my cherry neck thread. As will be the pickups. GFS Teisco style trem and TOM. Tuners from some old guitar. I made the body and pickguard yesterday and layed everything all out. American Elm body. Looking good so far.

I needed to try out a new neck template I made. I had a few scraps of cherry lying around, so I glued them up snd made this. Just the neck...I'm NOT responsable for making the body...

the fret markers are just scraps of dark antique cherry and black pickguard plastic. So I'm sold. I've used cherry plenty of times as a body wood. This is the 1st as a neck wood or fingerboard. I like it. Thru some fender singles I had lying around in the cheapy body and made a large steel trem block while I was at it.

sweet cheap strat! god awful color...but plays so nice!

in short...... I should really keep this one for a while. It's a really nice axe.

I played this last night at band practice for a little over 2 hours. American Elm is a killer tone wood. Our drummer described the tone as mahogony lp capped with maple. Yeah, I'd say he is darn close. Just a tad brighter than that I'd say. Brighter might not even be the right word. It cuts thru better than a Paul. I say the tone is Dave Davies live tone on the late 70's Kinks live album. Or the tone he got on Destroyer. We played Destroyer last night and the tone was dead on.

So this is my bloviated way of saying...if you can get a hold of some American Elm, build n axe with it. You will like it!

lovely guitar. only concern is that theres no top hat, and this makes me sad : (

thanks! lol, didn't have one. Maybe the new owner will add one. Supposing someone buys it that is..........

Looks very good. Glad to hear that you tried elm with success... I have a source of spalted elm, which I'll ask for a piece.

I used American Elm. I can't say what european elm will sound like. I know they look a bit different. Try it and let us know....

it reminds me more of a kay headstock than teisco... but i thoroughly agree it doesnt have to match nicely for thsi kind of thing

+1 on what chris said. you style is making a lot more sense with recent builds

i would love to see this style with a gaudy finish, a bigsby and (really small & **** point) bigger slide switches positioned under the pickups

teal, Tiesco style trem from GFS, and the bigger slide switches, if anything were to change. But I gotta say, I love it just as is. Of course I don't really dig "normal" guitars anyway.....

i like the tele vibe on it

thanks Wez. I agree, it works...

finished this one up yesterday.

The body is spalted Elm. I've never used elm before, but I sure wish I has. This thing sustains for days! Lots of bite too. A little heavy, but thats ok. Sure is a pretty piece of wood. This thing Rocks!

that looks so hot! And I love the tone from tiesco pickups. Is that bridge from fleabay? That guy in Canada? If so how do you like it?

freakin spectacular! the pickguard is perfect...

yup Wez, my inspiration is a Phantom. Love the shape. But i like guitars simple, clean.

That car is freakin awsum!

Yeah thats what I figured. What did you use as the green finish?

The green is arts and crafts water based acrilic, wiped on, and back off. 2 coats. I just use it as a stain. Topcoated with deft laquer sprayed from a cheap gravity feed hvlp. When I put new strings on it, I'll rub it out, to bring up a little more gloss. It still has that new guitar smell to it.........

Cool I really like that. Looks like a pickle or something. How's that GFS neck?

I find the neck very comfortable. Thankfully it has jumbo frets. It needed A LOT of leveling. Now that the frets are leveled, crowned and polished, it's good. Out of the box.... not so much. But for the price, and a little time.... it is a nice neck.

love it. Particularly the use of Teisco parts, and the fhole. Sweet stuff...

just a low budget " I need to build a new guitar " build.

14k Epiphone humbucker that I potted this past winter. Badass style bridge off fleabay, GFS neck, spezel style tuners. 11 to 50 GHS strings. I put a treble bleed on the volume pot, and an oil filled cap I had on the tone. Full of tone (s). Roll down the volume and the tone cleans up nicely. The tone pot sounds amazing with the cap I had lying around. 1 piece poplar body.

Now thats what I needed. I tend to play more after I build myself a new guitar. Hard to put it down....

looking really good.

#2 for sure

I use templates. But have never bought one. I make my own templates. Most often AFTER I freehand one out.Sometimes the body template gets made 1st. This way I can make the next one quicker. To me, paying for a tracing of a guitar is insane.

I either freehand draw out the guitar, or trace one I want to build. More often than not the former.

dont change the design to fit the wood, change the wood to fit the design.

would it look better with a strip of a darker wood down the middle... quite probably!!!

+1 to that!

I like it, very cool.

I agree, pine really isn't any softer than basswood. AND, you shouldn't be dropping ANY guitar!

Good stuf. Thats a solid "Win" if ever there was one.

I just sold it for a VERY healthy profit. So it was a real win. Waiting for the next sale on these to pick up another one.....

keep the critters.

Lam up the maple and mahogany for the neck. Good strong neck, reletively easy to shape, and it looks cool. At least thats what I'd do.....

Did the body come like that or did you strip it?

If I'm not mistaken I think he chucked the original plywood body and made that one himself.

you are correct.