Customizing via Warmoth is a terrible thing for an indecisive person, which I am... first world problems... Doing some mock-ups for one of my upcoming builds, would love to see similar builds from others or get some input. The image is of the actual body/finish (red on mahogany) routed for American Standard post/spacing. Hombre tiltback conversion neck (flame shaft, no veneer or finish). Everything else is copied/scaled/tinted mocks.
Here's what I know :
- Money isn't part of the decision making process. I'm willing to spend whatever it takes to make this a one time, no mods in the future venture.
- Hardware is either black or gold for this one. Could be a mix and match, but I do not like black tuners with the black headstock variants.
- I don't like the gold bridge with lighter incarnations of the pickgaurd.
- Pickgaurd will be made of wood by a good friend who is a master craftsman - he builds almost everything with zero metal or screws and actually asked if we could glue the pickguard haha.
- Same dude can potentially make me custom knobs/five way switch end/pickup covers... If I show him a part in plastic, he can make it out of wood.
- Pickups will most likely be stacked duncans with 6-poles (not rails) so cover swap to any color (or wood) is possible.
Practical reailities :
- Headstock : Getting the headstock red/reasonably matched is going to be much harder than making it a dark stain or solid black. As much as a I hate to hide that lovely grain I also think the solid black plays into the "Fen Paul" joke well. So I'm leaning towards dark/solid black with gold tuners. Although the image shows button style tuners, I'll probably actually go for keystone.
- Gold Hardware : Fender seems to be having QA issues with gold plating/anodizing - I looked at a brand new bridge in box the other day and it looked pitted - no it wasn't a relic or new old stock. The image of the American Standard in Gold on Fender's own website is actually suspect - like that's the best you could do for the product photoshoot? Wow. I poked around and saw a fair amount of this in online reviews is well. I like the idea of a plug-in bar so I'm probably headed to the hipshot contour (or one of you Babcicz freaks can convince me to get a full contact...). The problem with this is color matching gold plating between manufacturers can get a lot sketchier than black, and I've seen some beautiful instruments that are totally cheapened by a set of gold knobs, a jackplate, and a bridge that are three different interpretations of gold... I would love to hear solutions/suggest on this specific (non-life-threating, truly insignificant, spoiled human) "problem." I should also say, the color match on the tuners to the remainder of the hardware is not significant to me as there's a neck length between the tuners and the other hardware.
Show me what've you done, tell me which of these you think are ugly or cool, suggest something else! Thanks.
Here's what I know :
- Money isn't part of the decision making process. I'm willing to spend whatever it takes to make this a one time, no mods in the future venture.
- Hardware is either black or gold for this one. Could be a mix and match, but I do not like black tuners with the black headstock variants.
- I don't like the gold bridge with lighter incarnations of the pickgaurd.
- Pickgaurd will be made of wood by a good friend who is a master craftsman - he builds almost everything with zero metal or screws and actually asked if we could glue the pickguard haha.
- Same dude can potentially make me custom knobs/five way switch end/pickup covers... If I show him a part in plastic, he can make it out of wood.
- Pickups will most likely be stacked duncans with 6-poles (not rails) so cover swap to any color (or wood) is possible.
Practical reailities :
- Headstock : Getting the headstock red/reasonably matched is going to be much harder than making it a dark stain or solid black. As much as a I hate to hide that lovely grain I also think the solid black plays into the "Fen Paul" joke well. So I'm leaning towards dark/solid black with gold tuners. Although the image shows button style tuners, I'll probably actually go for keystone.
- Gold Hardware : Fender seems to be having QA issues with gold plating/anodizing - I looked at a brand new bridge in box the other day and it looked pitted - no it wasn't a relic or new old stock. The image of the American Standard in Gold on Fender's own website is actually suspect - like that's the best you could do for the product photoshoot? Wow. I poked around and saw a fair amount of this in online reviews is well. I like the idea of a plug-in bar so I'm probably headed to the hipshot contour (or one of you Babcicz freaks can convince me to get a full contact...). The problem with this is color matching gold plating between manufacturers can get a lot sketchier than black, and I've seen some beautiful instruments that are totally cheapened by a set of gold knobs, a jackplate, and a bridge that are three different interpretations of gold... I would love to hear solutions/suggest on this specific (non-life-threating, truly insignificant, spoiled human) "problem." I should also say, the color match on the tuners to the remainder of the hardware is not significant to me as there's a neck length between the tuners and the other hardware.
Show me what've you done, tell me which of these you think are ugly or cool, suggest something else! Thanks.
