komodo

Hmm. Where was Wally at the time of the incident? Not sure if you have any on hand, but the Cellosolve works wonders if you end up with any little areas that don't want to blend. It couldn't be in any more capable hands.

Gah! I suffered through this last year with the Black Queen. It was made worse with the Trisonics, body mounted and no great way to adjust up or down. Lots of measuring, checking, rechecking, measuring, at almost every stage. I'm not sure I was ever 100% confident until it was strung up and I was playing it. It also has a pretty strong neck angle (can't remember how much), but isn't really an ergonomic issue.

Casually enters room looks around and notices nothing out of order. @ScottR has everything under control and looking fantastic as usual.

I've been eyeballing that TWA for awhile now. There's a new version 3 that's smaller.

I wouldn't spend another second worrying about aesthetic details, it looks excellent. I'd be practicing Eruption, because anyone who sees that will expect to hear it.

Especially if you typically poop gold. Then, it would be quite upsetting. Even Silver would suck, because everyone knows that coming in second is first loser.

RE most of the second link: yes of course. That's insane. What I was referring to was at the very bottom of the page, in the comments section. The gent says he worked at Tom Anderson and had Frankie for awhile. He says "definitely Ash" and that it wasn't that heavy. Every single mention of Frankie by anyone who has held it says that it is light. Certainly any two blocks from the same log even can be different weights, this just seems to be a particularly light piece. RE Swamp Ash: I've used it on many guitars, and it's so different from other Ash it's almost hard to believe that it's the same wood. It almost reminds me of Balsa!

http://www.sparkslinger.com/guitars/BoogieBodies/boogiebodiesinfo.html They made bodies for Mighty Mite, Charvel, and Schecter. Lynn Ellsworth says EVH had a mahogany body. I'm not sure if he's indicating that Frankie is mahogany, but I have heard that it's a light body. Most ash is pretty heavy unless it's swamp ash. EDIT: I also found this (very last comment at the bottom of the page). Of course it's internet here say, but it doesn't sound off. https://www.woodytone.com/2010/11/19/evh-frankie-wood-mystery-deepens/

Here it is much earlier, maybe 74-75. Notice the Gibson logo he put on the head stock. I'm not sure there was much play on it if any as a black guitar? Did he acquire the Mighty Mite body and neck, paint and assemble what we see here? Next pic is one of the oldest I've seen of VH. They're standing on grass! It really reminds me of my high school bands first legit show, very similar to this. I was stringing up the first guitar I'd ever built while everyone else was packing out to the show. I played it's first chords live for our first song, maybe 500 people and 15 kegs. EDIT: I'm not sure of the accuracy of the dates above. Watch this guys vids (he has many). He really goes down the rabbit hole.

Vid is killer. More than once did I also sense a little Govan in there. @Prostheta I think you are bang on with the satin. Polished satin would definitely be better than satinized gloss IMO.

Me too. It's also kinda similar to the Ibanez Artist. I thought both were better looking than the Gibson LP double cut which has a weird asymmetric horn thing going on. But Pat Travers had a custom Gibson double cut made where they are symmetrical LP horns.

When he played that explorer with the SD . . . .haha! There it is.

In one of my bands, we played Iron Maiden - Rime of the Ancient Mariner. During the quiet bit with the ships timbers creaking, the other guitar player would rock his guitar back and forth on his leather strap which made creaking noises exactly like the record. It was dumb but super effective. Semi-related: -We also did YYZ, and would kick a small PA that had reverb springs during the solo where the whip snap sound is. -At the beginning of Ozzy - I Don't Know, we moved a mic in circular motions over a cymbal while the drummer used soft mallets. Sounded just like the record.

I built a 4 string and I'm pretty sure I didn't use a truss or carbon. It's hard maple and has a baseball bat profile neck though. I had scrap ebony so did an ebony FB, lol. I'll try to remember to take some measurements if you want to compare.

Why would it matter what anyone else thinks? Do what you want if you like it and that’s that.

Love the free thinking discourse, it's a bit heavy-handed for what we have here. It's not even a build thread or a proper build really. This is not really about the guitar object itself, it's more like exercise. I'm negating other life stressors, screwing around, and having fun. I've got no preconceived notions, and no real goal other than to see what I'll do with the parts laying around here.

Oh for sure. It started when I saw it sitting there and couldn’t really pass it up for $20. Very little thought other than ‘the neck is straight and it has good flame’. Now it’s sitting here and I’m trying to figure out what to do with it. I’ve got a lot of parts sitting around, and could easily make it into something but I don’t really want to spend time or money on it. I could do a cheap build and flip it, maybe sell off the neck, I don’t know. I’ve got at least three other serious scratch builds started, but too busy with work/life. This came along and tweaked my impulse response, so I’ll do something to it and move on to the next one. I’ve spent some time relicing some hardware already, which is mindless fun. Therapy.

One of my favorite phrases is "just because you can, doesn't mean you should". @mistermikev your train of thought is very much what mine is/was. I've already plugged the holes, but there wasn't a lot of grain matching there. The finish looks like it's probably a poly of some sort and I don't think filling it is going to be a decent option. Stripping it would even be a PITA. I think running it through the planer and taking off the surface on both sides will be a good start. I'm leaning solid color to help hide the plugs and the wood repair up by the neck pocket. Or, a front and back plate, but I don't love that idea. I've got the basic tele hardware and am starting to relic the crap out of it ala barncaster. Worst case is it's a regular relic'd tele. I could also sell the neck off and ditch the body. Or do the EVH Frankenstrat paint on the body and make into a beast. Honestly, if the neck was a maple fretboard I probably would've already done that.

Oh my. That's why I suggested it not be a competition. lol Anyhoo, just thoughts. Probably best to let everyone go about their day and build whatever they see fit. Back on topic, the Frankenstrat had many necks over the years, many pickguards, and the useless single coil and switch added. You could slip into the continuum at many places but it seems like most tend to do the final incarnation. Interestingly, the guy at Fender custom shop that built the replicas did all of it by pictures only without having the original in hand. EVH said everything about it was better than the original. lol If I built one, I don't think I'd include the reflectors just for comforts sake. But that would probably make some people's head explode.

Getting the itch? It would be fun if we did a PG-wide build. Like everyone simultaneously builds a Frankenstrat, or '58 Korina V, or an SG. Or maybe a theme? Everyone builds a Franken-something. Your build did have me considering a Frankenbuild to my crappy tele.

Congrats! Isn't this the first out of the new shop? Throw it on the pile and start another one!

This will be fun! I'm also going to do some hard relic to this crappy telecaster body that followed me home. I found a guy who does relic finishes and has a whole bunch of pictures in his galleries, which make for good reference photos. https://www.mjtagedfinishes.com/ I wonder if anyone has created a machine to do some kind of repeated motion to simulate wear? lol "Stick it on the arm and belt bucklizer and turn it up to 7!"

Yeah I was thinking about a top or back and top. That first pic is a piece of a family barn I snagged awhile ago. I think its too weathered and porous. But I’ve got some nice weathered oak barn beams that I’m going to try to do a glueup with.

Drak. I’m far prettier than Kate.

Maybe something like