Let's start with a photo
it started with a carved slab of mahogany and a rosewood neck. I tweaked a bit by adding a korina top, slimming down the body and installing two prails. Then, I added a new neck to the mix (wenge and bubinga, ziricote board), new pickups, new wiring and a new guitar was born. The history of the guitar kinda limited what I could do with the entire wiring and configuration but still: this is one of my favorites nowadays. She tips in a little under 9 pounds, making her a nimble sweet guitar. It's like marrying a les paul, SG and a Guild M75.
Then I took it upon me to breath a bit of life in an old stratty guitar I had. I added a 5 ply neck (bubinga/maple/wenge/maple/bubinga), added sycamore trimmings on the headstock, backplates and pickguard, installed 3 p90's, gave her a new trem (Schaller 3801). high gloss finish to boot and voila. This guitar initially came to be as a test case for myself:
- what timber would sonically dominate: core, or wings? (answer: neither).
-Would a guitar with a superhard core and superlight wings result in a fairly light guitar? (answer: no).
- if I install other necks, would the timber of the neck make a difference? (answer: oh hell yeah).
- if I install the first neck on an other body, would that make a difference? (answer: yes, body material is just as important as the neck material).
- will Franz p90's, with their lower inductance, work well in a strat-style environment? (yes, but only if used on a body with gibson-style timbers, like korina and mahogany).
The best part is: all timbers (except for the fretboards and veneers) were repurposed & reclaimed timbers.
it started with a carved slab of mahogany and a rosewood neck. I tweaked a bit by adding a korina top, slimming down the body and installing two prails. Then, I added a new neck to the mix (wenge and bubinga, ziricote board), new pickups, new wiring and a new guitar was born. The history of the guitar kinda limited what I could do with the entire wiring and configuration but still: this is one of my favorites nowadays. She tips in a little under 9 pounds, making her a nimble sweet guitar. It's like marrying a les paul, SG and a Guild M75.
Then I took it upon me to breath a bit of life in an old stratty guitar I had. I added a 5 ply neck (bubinga/maple/wenge/maple/bubinga), added sycamore trimmings on the headstock, backplates and pickguard, installed 3 p90's, gave her a new trem (Schaller 3801). high gloss finish to boot and voila. This guitar initially came to be as a test case for myself:
- what timber would sonically dominate: core, or wings? (answer: neither).
-Would a guitar with a superhard core and superlight wings result in a fairly light guitar? (answer: no).
- if I install other necks, would the timber of the neck make a difference? (answer: oh hell yeah).
- if I install the first neck on an other body, would that make a difference? (answer: yes, body material is just as important as the neck material).
- will Franz p90's, with their lower inductance, work well in a strat-style environment? (yes, but only if used on a body with gibson-style timbers, like korina and mahogany).
The best part is: all timbers (except for the fretboards and veneers) were repurposed & reclaimed timbers.
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Nicely done!
