Re: Revisiting the Red Special
Yep, the guy's got it right. Our Pete C. knows him, and we talked a bit about the RS Mk.1 that was before this one. *Sigh* I hope to have one some day. Now that information about the guitar is widely available, it's much easier to make an accurate replica than it was 10-15 years ago.
The guitar puts paid to all the cork sniffery surrounding 'tonewoods'. The original is indeed blockboard and oak, and assembled just as this guy has done it in alternating the different layers.
People like to complain about the expense of RS replicas, but the reason for that is that so much has to be custom made, like the bridge and trem; and time consuming - like the sandwich construction of the body etc., and if you want to do a nice job, multiply that.
The pickups are a bit special too - neck one has no baseplate, which changes the sound considerably when used in isolation and others, especially out of phase. This was a mod Brian and Dad did in the early days.
Can't believe the guy managed to source the original Jean Renaud slider switches...
Other makers of nice replicas these days are Cquadro in Italy and Dansan in France.
