Best. Wife. EVAR!!!1!1111 ZOMG!!!!

[bagman67]

So I started a new job, making a damn sight more dough than I've ever seen.  This is good.  My wife's father recently passed, which is very sad.  However, he left her a decent sized chunk of change, most of which we're being very cautious and sensible with.  But between the two of us, we're sitting on a little mad money right now, and she's encouraged me to pull the trigger on a dream guitar build (instead of the 35-bucks-a-month, one-component-at-a-time Bataan Death March of a project I've been laboring over with my Telecaster).

So I am contemplating a couple possibilities:

1.  LPS flattop, 2x humbucker routs, Gotoh 510, Harmonic Design Z90's with tortoise shell bobbin tops, no pickguard, Mary Kaye white over Zebra backed with mahogany, Wenge neck with stainless frets, chrome hardware, PW tuners. 

2.  Some kinda rear-routed superstrat with fancy figured maple on mahogany, purple dye and natural taped-off binding, black backside, and a pair of open-coil lower-output 'buckers (whatcha got, Troubled Treble?), Wilky bridge, and a canary/canary neck, PW tuners.  Maybe a Strat headstock, maybe a Warhead.

...or something else entirely.

Thoughts?

Peace

Bagman

 

[Paul-less]

First

#2, with a Warhead.


EDIT: Congrats about the job. Sorry about her father. (almost mixed the two up whilst I typed)

 

[Tempest]

I'm sorry for your loss, but I'm sure he'd be glad his money could bring some joy.

I LOVE LPS's, but i don't think those colors would look very good, but that's just me, the superstrat sounds cool but seems a bit overdone perhaps

 

[bagman67]

Thanks for the kind sentiments, guys.

I had a LPS (the comparatively cheapy Faded line Gibson was hawking a few years back) and I loved the way it sounded - that was my introduction to P90's after 20-odd years of playing conventionally wired Strats and clones.  But I couldn't get used to the shorter scale length after 20-odd years of... you see where this is going.  So I figure I can kinda-sorta get what I loved about that LPS while inflicting my own aesthetic vision on it (and at a 25.5" scale).  

Separately, I don't have a twin-humbucker workhorse in the stable, and I want those sounds because all I have otherwise is 20-odd-years of Strat clones....and my little girl wants me to get a purple guitar.  Let's face it, I'm a sucker for the kid (at least regarding stuff that doesn't make a difference in her moral and ethical approach to life).  So:  A strong possibility is a purple superstrat to be named after my beautiful daughter.  Sentimental?  Me?  Moving right along...

As for a carved-top LP, I don't like them as a rule, and I now have the only one I'm ever likely to own in the form of the one my father-in-law gave me before he passed:  http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=14900.msg227679#msg227679 -- and it doesn't have humbuckers, it has a P90 bridge and an Alnico V single in the neck.  I gotta do a lot of work to it to make it playable (refret, replace the bridge, cut a new nut, general setup) and then it will take a spot in the lineup.

Peace

Bagman

 

[OzziePete]

On a different approach to spending the mad money, have you considered a carved top Tele all tarted up?

I did that and could not have been happier with the end result. Just a little word of caution though - if you go down that route, ask Warmoth to rout the larger rear control cavity into the body. I didn't and got the LP sized control cavity (as I asked for LP styled controls) and as I was cramming a stack of EMG circuitry in, it was tight!

http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=15789.0

 

[Disco Scottie]

2.  Some kinda rear-routed superstrat with fancy figured maple on mahogany, purple dye and natural taped-off binding, black backside, and a pair of open-coil lower-output 'buckers (whatcha got, Troubled Treble?), Wilky bridge, and a canary/canary neck, PW tuners.  Maybe a Strat headstock, maybe a Warhead.

Sorta like this?

Or maybe this?

I vote for that look!

 

[stubhead]

Not to be sniffly, but I think "Mary Kay White" is specific to the woods Fender used, and mahogany wasn't one of them (nor zebra ). You might be able to bleach your way into the neighborhood - mahogany is just sorta tan - but it's always going to be like Mary Kaye's Sister Beatrice White or something.

 

[bagman67]

Not to be sniffly, but I think "Mary Kay White" is specific to the woods Fender used, and mahogany wasn't one of them (nor zebra ). You might be able to bleach your way into the neighborhood - mahogany is just sorta tan - but it's always going to be like Mary Kaye's Sister Beatrice White or something.

 

I'm far from religious about Vintage Correctness.  I think I come down with Cagey (albeit perhaps more diplomatically at times) when it comes replicating dysfunctional technology just because That's How Leo Did It:  Leo didn't have the benefit of 60 years of technological improvement back in the 1950's, and he made a few innovations of his own (some good, some less so) during the ensuing years.

But anyway:  I've seen MK white on  a zebra-topped something or another, and I liked it - so I may go that route.  But those purple superstrats Disco Scottie posted are pretty nifty looking too...

Edit:  Here is smjenkins's MK white zebra-topped strat with wenge neck:  http://www.unofficialwarmoth.com/index.php?topic=13389.0 

 

[dmraco]

LPS all the way...not crazy on the color choice though

 

[bagman67]

On further reflection, DMRACO, I'm not so sure about the MK white myself - I mean, it's been DONE, and so why do it again?  Then again, I could use that as a justification for not playing the blues, which won't happen...that said, there's more than one way to skin an LPS, so I'm open to suggestions.  Come to think of it, Tonar has that sandy tan lacquer he used on somebody's jazzmaster or something....

Bagman

 

[dmraco]

On further reflection, DMRACO, I'm not so sure about the MK white myself - I mean, it's been DONE, and so why do it again?  Then again, I could use that as a justification for not playing the blues, which won't happen...that said, there's more than one way to skin an LPS, so I'm open to suggestions.  Come to think of it, Tonar has that sandy tan lacquer he used on somebody's jazzmaster or something....

Bagman

I have been dying to do a faded blue flat top LPS with either quilt or flame...mostly quilt.  Or you could go all natural with a rosewood or wenge cap.  Tooooooo many possibilities. 

 

[bagman67]

Clear-finish on uncolored wood is out.  The Finance Department has decreed that natural wood is for furniture, not electric guitars.  I tend to agree, and not just because the Finance Department is also the Bureau of Physical Affection.

 

[JimBeed]

Your Finance Department is very wise on that subject, as i previously referred to them as end tables  :laughing7:
Sounds like good plans you have.
+10000000 on the purple colour, we need more of them around  :headbang1:

However on the natural wood finish, i wouldnt mind some purpleheart and bloodwood goodness, likely of gecko origin  :cool01: Theres build three  :doh:

 

[Kaoskadosk]

The Finance Department has decreed that natural wood is for furniture, not electric guitars.

Sometimes furnitures can be very pretty. :laughing7:

 

[drewfx]

I'd say that if you make the little girl happy, you will make the big girl even happier. So I'd go for the purple...

 

[Cagey]

Go for the Super-Strat option. A flat-top LP, LPS, LPJr, etc. just looks like you cheaped out, but wanna be part of the "in" crowd anyway. But, if you like the idea of a Super-Strat and the sound of a pair of traditional 'buckers, then look no further than the VIP. You get the carved top of a real LP and the comfortable shape of a Strat, and it looks perfectly natural with a pair of traditional 'buckers in it and a Gotoh 510 hardtail. Put a maple top on a mahogany body along with an ebony over mahogany conversion neck with a Warmoth headstock, and you'd basically have a Les Paul with none of the Les Paul drawbacks. You could even have 'em paint the neck to match the body, rather than buy into exotic grains. Mmm... gold hardware on a black neck/body... what could possibly be wrong with that?

 

[Torment Leaves Scars]

I love the SECOND purple that was posted.  Very nice.  It's purple, so it would be cool for a girl, but at the same time, it's a cool enough guitar that a guy wouldn't be made fun of for rockin' it...at least not by me, anyway...

 

[llmtelecaster]

Keep it classy, man. Go with the LPS.

 

[dmraco]

Keep it classy, man. Go with the LPS.

Some fine examples...some of them carved tops, but you get the idea...classy AND unique...strats are everywhere (this is not a bash...I even own three!!)...the LPS is more infrequent and exceptional.

opps...how did that last one get in there???? :laughing7:

 

[stubhead]

I've always thought that there was something... wrong with the LPS shape, it's like the design guys got back from a three-martini lunch on Friday afternoon and just kinda slapped the shape together in a hurry... it's like something needs to be rounded and something needs to be longer, and... hey! I just invented the VIP! :hello2:

http://www.warmoth.com/Guitar/Bodies/Default.aspx

I mean if you just compare it to VIP, Strat, Soloist, even Teles and Les Pauls the LPS looks more like a lollipop or a ping-pong paddle with ears. It's just not right. I has spoke.