New project on the way

[DangerousR6]

Those sound pretty sweet, but I might get Ken from Roadhouse to conjure me up a set...

Man, I LOVE the pickups Ken did for the Black Dog tele.  I would try a set of his strat pickups in a heartbeat. 
He will make em custom to what ever sound you are looking for; at a fraction of the cost.
Ken's work will defiantly be on my next build.

:headbang:

 

[AutoBat]

I figured you were going to say EMG SA to go with that.  Either way, post more pics!

 

[Rickgrxbass]

Uau, that's definitely shiny  :headbang:

Once again, my own Strat project is feeling inadequate  :sad1:

Any hints on the neck?

 

[Ddbltrbl]

Very Nice!!  :headbang1:

Any hints on the neck?

Maybe a very patterned Macassar Ebony?  :dontknow:

 

[Updown]

Any hints on the neck?

Something made out of aircraft bits  :dontknow:

We expect to see some fancy machined Knobs too you know ....  :icon_biggrin:

This  :laughing7:

 

[Rickgrxbass]

Something made out of aircraft bits  :dontknow:

We expect to see some fancy machined Knobs too you know ....  :icon_biggrin:

This  :laughing7:

So it will be wrapped in the same material as the Stealth Bomber?

 

[Death by Uberschall]

That's so metal it hurts!!  :headbang1:

 

[stubhead]

Not just any aluminum body, it's a leftover NOS from the Fender custom shop run in '94..

It'll be sister (cousin?) to Gleamo, my Telecaster-shaped aluminum guitar!

I don't know how much you know... they were fabricated by a Minnesota shop called Spruce Hill Guitars. There were 400 aluminum Strat bodies and 100 Telecaster bodies that got SENT to Fender. My Telecaster body has some faint polishing streaks, like a gob of polishing compound was stuck on it, leaving faint irregularities. You really have to look for them at an angle, but still - not perfect. No one knows (or is speaking about)* how many leftover bodies there actually were, but the owners of Spruce Hill apparently called Fender and said we have these "seconds type bodies" and who ever talked to them said, if effect, "So?"

So Spruce Hill up and sold some/most/all of them - cheap - to Pete Wagner, who owned "Pete's Guitars" in St. Paul (now deceased, both). He took a pile of them down to the Dallas Guitar Show and sold them there, but not before my friend Leo Whitebird snagged one of the Telecaster bodies, probably in exchange for some studio time (for Pete). And a week after they were gone, Fender called them up and said "Don't sell them!" Oooops....

I played in a "band" with Leo back in high school, mid -70's. And many other dangerous stunts... Leo built and runs a respected Minneapolis studio and has done concert sound, stage design all over that area, produced a jillion albums etc. Years back, he mentioned to ME in passing that he had this aluminum body in his closet for 10 years, I got the tinglies - but it still took me 5 more years to get it out of him!

*(all these are because there has been some really shady stuff going on, there are two different people who both claim to be making guitars out of what's left of the production run - only there weren't supposed to be any left. Some people have sent large deposits and waited two years to get a guitar, some people have sent large deposits and still not gotten a guitar...)

I am curious - do you see any buffing streaks when you hold it to a light? I don't know if you've done all the other internet sleuthing, but of the ones that Fender got, they made 109 Harley-Davidson 50th Anniversary models - which were selling at between $22,000 and $30,000 before our little Wall Street welfare program. They made some into Ford Mustang commemoratives which, if I remember right, were given to hotshot Ford dealers as a prize! But most of the bodies Fender got were either Custom-Shopped into godawful "Hawaiian"-themed guitars or, even worse, anodized with blotchy green or blue finishes:

I mean... WTF?!? :tard: :sad1: Consider yourself lucky to get a naked one...

This cowboy one is one of the ones claimed to be real. I can't remember their names right now, but it'll come to me. And nowadays there are at least four people outside of the whole Spruce Hill shenanigans who are making Aluminum teles, Normandy guitars, Alumisonic etc. Let me know how your build proceeds; one thing is sure and that is - it WILL be bright enough! :laughing3: :laughing3: :laughing3: No lack of treble response...

Adendedumdedum: "Kellett Guitars" is one of the two who seem to have a bottomless supply of extras, if in fact they have anything at all. This website hasn't been updated in years, I think.

http://kellettguitars.com/default.asp

But now there are people with non-Fender "Spruce Hill" guitars on YouTube.

 

[Super Turbo Deluxe Custom]

So in other words, don't use no load or 1K meg pots?

 

[DangerousR6]

Yip I've done some sluething, I know about spruce hill making the bodies. And the ones that were done with the graphix were done by Peter Kellet. And I remember the guitar show in Dallas seeing the bodies for sale. It was in the later 90's, cause i almost bought a tele for $200, but I wasn't really diggin' tele's back then. That was my first mistake that day. the second was passing on a pink EVH EB sig for $1200, which is worth over 10k now.... :doh:

 

[Updown]

Hey Doug ....  :sign13:

Since we all here, helped you in some small way to buy this  :icon_jokercolor:  :laughing7:

There should be plenty of room on that thing to engrave all our names onto it !!



   

 

[DangerousR6]

Hey Doug ....  :sign13:

Since we all here, helped you in some small way to buy this  :icon_jokercolor:  :laughing7:

There should be plenty of room on that thing to engrave all our names onto it !!



   

Could look cool on a scratch plate, but it aint happening on the body, I'm painting it flat black.... :icon_biggrin:

 

[Updown]

:laughing7:  :laughing3:  :laughing11: .....................  :toothy12:

 

[swarfrat]

Anodize that puppy! It needs to show it's aluminum character somehow.

 

[Phinox]

i say anodize also, but if you are going to paint it make sure you use an etching primer first or else the paint will end up flaking off.

 

[Cagey]

You can't seriously think he's gonna paint that thing, can you? I don't think so. Not when you can get beautiful self-adhesive vinyl wood grain contact paper like this...

A roll 18" wide and 49.5' long is only $65. He could do several guitars all the same, and have 'em match. And being vinyl, you can spill beer and sweat and what have you on there and be able to just wipe it right off. Plus, if it gets dinged up, just peel it off and stick on a new finish! What could possibly be wrong with that?

 

[DangerousR6]

No, I'm not going to paint it. I was being sarcastic to updown..... :toothy12:

 

[ORCRiST]

No, I'm not going to paint it. I was being sarcastic to updown..... :toothy12:

Screw the paint! I say you should be the only one with a chrome strat body milled out for a Floyd!  :headbang1:

:icon_thumright:

 

[Updown]

I say you should be the only one with a chrome strat body milled out for a Floyd!  :headbang1:

Ha Ha Ha .... Classic  :icon_thumright:

You can sure count on us Doug  :icon_biggrin:

We're just full of idea's for that beauty :laughing7:

So what Neck you putting on this beast ?
Come on, time to spill the beans, ya killing me with suspense. 

 

[Cagey]

Y'know... it occurs to me that a body like that would be a prime candidate for one of the more colorful woods that are tough to match to anything else. Like Padouk. What would be wrong with a Bloodwood over Padouk Warhead on that body? It would not only match perfectly, it wouldn't draw anything away from the body's appearance, and it would play like sex. Either that, or a black Ebony over Bloodwood Warhead. Stainless frets. Mmmm...