The guitars I have built from scratch;
About 4 years ago I was fortunate enough to work at a guitar shop where we repaired, painted and built electric guitars by order. One December I was alone at the shop finishing some paint jobs and decided that while waiting for the paint layers to dry I would build an electric guitar for my son's 3rd birthday just "to see if I can pull it off on my own" and so with some books and a lot of patience, the Stevie Special was born.
1 -. The Stevie Special;
Guitar built from scrap material taken out of the trash container in the Guitar shop I used to work at.
Body; Ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica)
Neck; Sycamore (Acer pseudoplatanus) Heavily infested by woodworms.
Fretboard; Makassar Ebony (Diospyros celebica)
Scale; 25"
Finish; Tinted wood and Polyurethane.
Tuners; Hosco
Pick ups; from a 70 ish Fender Telecaster given as a gift from a friend.
Bridge;Hosco Modern Tele Style.
Very light and resonant but the pick up is really sharp and with lots of Highs but that is tipical of 70's Telecasters. Actually the whole guitar was built around the pick up which was the first part I had.
It has no frets beyond the 12th fret because I could not find anymore fret wire left over from previous builds at the shop. I told my son he would get the rest of the frets whe he learnt to play all songs by The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. He's only 6 yrs old right so he still has time even though his favorite band is Iron Maiden.
Sound example;
Crush
2 -. Paula (Hibrid LesPaul/Telecaster) ;
Body; American Walnut - Juglans regia
Top; Poplar - Populus nigra L
Neck; Wenge - Millettia laurentii
Fretboard; Rosewood (Indian Palisnader) - Dalbergia latifolia
Scale; 25"
Finish; Tinted top and Shellac applied with airbrush
Tuners;Gotoh
Pick ups; Armstrong P-90
Selector; Rotating PRS styled.
Bridge; Gotoh tuneOmatic.
A bit heavier than Steve's and has a darker tone. I guess it is due to the P-90s which are "pure Rock'N'Roll when pushed a bit. Excelent for those pesky "crunch" tones without getting too much into Heavy Metal land.
I really like the tone of the neck for melodic soloing. I played it thru a friend's '65 Deluxe Reverb and it was Pure Creamy tone from Heaven!!!
An Example of its sound can be heard here;
Paula
3 -. Anna Lee ;
Body; Valsain Forest Yellow Pine - Pinus sylvestris L.
Neck; Hard Maple bought in GFS (Soon with a home made neck made out of flamed maple. I just need a few tools more to be able to make the neck myself)
Fretboard; Maple
Scale; 25 1/2 "
Finish; Shellac sanded with 500 sandpaper until satin and then rubbed with a home made natural wax mix
Tuners; Wilkinson
Pick ups; GFS Classic Vintage
Bridge;GFS with Bronze block (Not that it makes any difference really, but it was on sale
)This one was built for 2 purposes:
One was to make a Pinecaster and see if it felt or sounded different to other Strats I have owned. It does "vibrate" a bit different. The unplugged sound seems to be a bit more "Alive" and bright than other strats and it definetely brighter than my Mahogany strat even though "Brownie" sports a Floyd Rose and a one piece Brazilian Rosewood neck. Plugged I hear a standard strat. Probably it would sound different if I had the money to install a set of Lollar or similar high end pick ups, but I think. It will stay as is.
The second purpose was that my 15 yr old daughter was somewhat jealous and complained that I had built her little brother a guitar but none for her, so now the guitar is hers with an occassional permission to use it for recording sessions
A clean sound test;
Anna lee test 1
I'm crafting a song around the guitar but it will take a while as the instrument was finished only a couple weeks ago.
I built these guitars thanks to books by Melvin Hiscock, Martin Koch, Dan Erlewine and by watching other people both in the shop and on the internet.
Later on I will post pics of other guitars I have either helped make or painted while working at the guitar shop.
Sorry for the looooong post and for linking to the albums.
@Hink; thanks for pointing me to this forum dude!
If anybody has any questions or doubts, feel free to ask or send me a PM
) 3 of them are really good at Pedal and amp building and have been tyying to get me into building them too, but I refuse as I already have a severe case of GAS. 