Troubleshooting is part of my job, if I can't help someone make something adhere the way they want it to through phone conversations or e-mail I either go on a field trip, ask for samples, or get a sales rep to visit. The end result is that my office is filled with materials, mostly wood. A lot of guitar makers, both big and small, use Titebond products and make me very happy because this allows me to spend time technically doing my job but chatting for sometimes up to an hour about guitars, visiting factories, and spending quality time in the lab and saw room. During a recent round of cleaning I inherited some scrap that appear to be an alder American Stratocaster body, and a Les Paul neck. These are fresh from their respective factories and have fulfilled their duties to answer our questions in the lab... time to make them fulfill their true purpose! If anyone is interested in more detailed pictures or measurements I will be more than happy to oblige. The neck in particular is a unique opportunity because it conforms to factory specs and has never been finished, it will be measured and rendered in CAD. I will not answer any questions regarding the identity of the manufacturers or their processes.
I've had some birdseye maple and dark quartersawn cocobolo aging while awaiting the right project for the past 10 years. The Strat body is exactly what I want to use them for. I'm going to start by removing the finish so I can shoot it with some nitro lake placid blue instead. The cocobolo is about 3/8"x3"x24" which means I have just enough for two fretboards. So I'm going to make a sister neck at the same time. No decision yet on whether or not to bookmatch the fretboards... Opinions? The overall appearance will be somewhere between vintage and modern: pre-cbs style headstock, traditional single coil pickups (nothing wound over 7k ohms DC), parchment 11-screw pickguard, aged white/cream pickup covers, american deluxe tremolo with a nice heavy steel block, 6 in-line kluson style tuners, jumbo frets, and clay dot inlays. This is immediately what came to mind when I looked at the pile of wood... Anyone else ever feel like the wood practically tells you what it wants to be?
As odd as it may sound, I sure am glad the headstock of this neck came cut off. Now I can start it off with a proper scarf joint rather than repairing a break down the road! It's going to be my next project after the Strat. Aside from the short tenon and lack of binding this is otherwise going to be inspired as a traditional LP 'burst. Okay, so I'm a sucker for something more faded but not all the way to -unburst, it's going to be nice and clean, I won't have any part of this relic nonsense in my collection. I want to go with a nice wide flame pattern on the top and either a 1 or 2 piece back. All nickle hardware, tonepros bridge and tailpiece, probably ivoroid binding, and I have a set of SD pearly gates that I absolutely love and will be perfect for this project.
This should be a lot of fun as always, and will be my first builds to be documented online! If I'm sufficiently happy with the end results I plan to take the plunge and go semi-pro building to sell as a full time hobby. All hand made on a custom basis at a flat rate above the cost of materials. Since I already have a solid day job any profit is just a nice little bonus.
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