Peter's Guitar
by mrs.rabbit
Last night we FINALLY finished Peter's new, custom, electric guitar. This has been a work-in-progress going back to December '08 Peter picked out, and paid for, all the components himself. Due to many factors, including a mid-stream design change, this guitar truly is one-of-a-kind.
The body and neck are a Stratocaster style, both made from mahogany. Both pieces were produced by Warmoth in Washington state, under license from Fender. We let Warmoth finish the body, but we finished the neck. The fretboard on the neck is made of ebony. There are lots of choices when it comes to the various "tone woods" used to make guitars. Mahogany tends to produce a "warm" tone, with good sustain. The body has a dark-blue finish which looks black in low-light, but reveals the blue wood-grains in light -- really pretty.
The pickups were made by Gibson, complete with gold covers. They're what you'd normally find on a Les Paul Special. Peter wanted a three-way switch which functions like what you'd find on a Fender Telecaster -- two volumes, one tone -- top setting is neck-pickup only, bottom is bridge pickup only, middle is both, the tone works in all three positions.
One major decision was going with an Original Floyd Rose Tremolo (complete with "whammy bar"). This is something Eddie Van Halen worked with Floyd Rose on in the early 80s. It's what you call a "floating bridge" and allows a huge variation in sound, string bending, etc, w/o the guitar going out of tune. Part of the system requires a "locking nut" (the place where the strings enter the guitar from the tuning pegs to the fretboard. We ordered the neck w/o the necessary milling for the "locking nut", but Peter changed his mind and ordered the body milled for a "Floyd". When we were in LA two weeks ago, we found a shop in Whittier that could mill the neck.
The neck was finished with a treatment used mainly for gun-stocks. It came out really well and was approved by Warmoth as a finish suitable for maintaining the warranty.
We had a heck of a time getting the wiring figured out for this unique set-up, but we eventually got it right -- lots of soldering.
Many of the parts had to be modified to get them to fit/work, too much to list. Again, it's virtually impossible there's another "axe" just like this on the planet. Lots and lots of work and time, but there's something very satisfying about building a non-factory-made custom, set up exactly the way you want it.
The bottom line is this is a Fender Strat/Gibson Les Paul hybrid. The goal was to integrate the best aspects of each guitar and I think that goal was accomplished. We at least got pretty darn close. The sound is absolutely amazing -- better than anything I've ever heard (in Peter's hands, not mine!)
Dan
