aguyinaustintx
Junior Member
- Messages
- 88
Thanks for all the complements, everyone! Here are some closing thoughts.
This guitar is "version 2" of an earlier semi-hollow koa Tele build, with the goal of having a warmer tone, i.e. less treble. This one has an Indian rosewood/ebony neck, whereas the last one had a roasted maple/pau ferro neck. It also has a solid koa top and a one-piece Honduran mahogany core, both of which I supplied to Warmoth. The last one was koa/mahogany supplied by Warmoth, with the koa being a veneer on top of mahogany. For whatever reason, this one has a distinctly louder and warmer unplugged sound, which sounds better to my ears. It has humbucker pickups vs P90's, which of course makes it sound warmer plugged in as well.
I like the color scheme of this one more. Black complements the golden tone of the koa very well. There were a number of trade-offs involved, however. The customer did not want fretboard inlays or side dots. Although the look is classic, a learning curve is required -- although it's easier than one would think. The Schaller Signum bridge is painted black, vs. chrome which would have been plated. Black paint scratches off quite easily, which can be seen in the bridge height adjustment screws. The black saddles adversely effected the tone, dampening the highs. For this reason, the saddle slots had to be filed down to metal -- resulting in an audible improvement to the unplugged tone. Switchcraft does not offer a black three-way switch, so a lower quality import was used instead. I suspect that the black paint will wear more quickly as well.
The ebony pickup covers and rings were quite a challenge. Wooden humbucker covers and rings are quite rare, and I can see why. The cover and ring depths had to be carefully calculated, as the covers were too thick to fit into the pickup cavities. The geometry had to be such that they fit within the rings but not extend into the cavity, and yet allow the pickup height to be adjustable. Coming up with the dimensions required precise measurement of the neck angle, bridge height, action, etc. And one of the rings broke into two pieces when I accidently dropped it.
Would I do anything differently, given another chance? Probably not much, except maybe having plastic pickup rings with wood covers, and having chrome saddles with a black bridge. For me, the allure of a custom-built guitar is to have as much control as possible over the end result -- as opposed to having a cost-effectively built guitar.
This guitar is "version 2" of an earlier semi-hollow koa Tele build, with the goal of having a warmer tone, i.e. less treble. This one has an Indian rosewood/ebony neck, whereas the last one had a roasted maple/pau ferro neck. It also has a solid koa top and a one-piece Honduran mahogany core, both of which I supplied to Warmoth. The last one was koa/mahogany supplied by Warmoth, with the koa being a veneer on top of mahogany. For whatever reason, this one has a distinctly louder and warmer unplugged sound, which sounds better to my ears. It has humbucker pickups vs P90's, which of course makes it sound warmer plugged in as well.
I like the color scheme of this one more. Black complements the golden tone of the koa very well. There were a number of trade-offs involved, however. The customer did not want fretboard inlays or side dots. Although the look is classic, a learning curve is required -- although it's easier than one would think. The Schaller Signum bridge is painted black, vs. chrome which would have been plated. Black paint scratches off quite easily, which can be seen in the bridge height adjustment screws. The black saddles adversely effected the tone, dampening the highs. For this reason, the saddle slots had to be filed down to metal -- resulting in an audible improvement to the unplugged tone. Switchcraft does not offer a black three-way switch, so a lower quality import was used instead. I suspect that the black paint will wear more quickly as well.
The ebony pickup covers and rings were quite a challenge. Wooden humbucker covers and rings are quite rare, and I can see why. The cover and ring depths had to be carefully calculated, as the covers were too thick to fit into the pickup cavities. The geometry had to be such that they fit within the rings but not extend into the cavity, and yet allow the pickup height to be adjustable. Coming up with the dimensions required precise measurement of the neck angle, bridge height, action, etc. And one of the rings broke into two pieces when I accidently dropped it.
Would I do anything differently, given another chance? Probably not much, except maybe having plastic pickup rings with wood covers, and having chrome saddles with a black bridge. For me, the allure of a custom-built guitar is to have as much control as possible over the end result -- as opposed to having a cost-effectively built guitar.
