Soul's Tongue

Kostas

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1,382
The guitar started back in 2008 when I saw this unfinished body in the showcase. My choice of color was the new & special order (at the time) washed black. As you can see in the first pic it has shades of cream, gray, black and light blue. It has the 3D quality where the colors change depending the angle you are looking at it making the quilt "moving". Whoever finished it he did a great job. I wanted this body because of the very symmetric quilt top, it joins my other Warmoth guitars with spalted, flame and burl tops.

All these years I tried a few necks (mine and friends) and I decided I didn't want to match it with a wood of brown color. I had settled on a flame maple neck/fingerboard until I saw this piece of ebony in the site and I took my chance. I like so much this ebony that I would have kept the neck for another project if I didn't liked the combination. Thankfully I love the guitar. Time will tell but this time I believe I did everything right from the beginning. All my experience with the previous guitars paid off and there is nothing I don't like in this one, at least something that could be changed.

The pickups were recommended to me years ago from a guy at TGP. We exchanged a few private messages about capacitors and he told me about Budz. They are clear and as bright as they have to be. Through my involvement with Hi-Fi I learned there is a thin line between extended highs and harsh highs. These pickups are everything I was expecting to be, great classic Fender clean tone and they shine on dirt. The clarity with a drive pedal on max is impressive. I hit a chord and I can hear every note despite the overdrive.

Specs:
Black Korina body (solid) with Maple top (3lbs, 14oz)
Finished/routed by Warmoth
Schaller strap locks
Rutters chopped bridge
Budz Purebred pickups
CTS audio pots, matched & measured at 261k, treble bleed on volume
PIO .047uF capacitor
3 way CRL switch

Flame Maple neck with Macassar Ebony fingerboard
'59 neck profile
10'' radius
SS6150 frets
MOP side dots
Gotoh SGS510Z tuners
Gloss nitro finish & decal placement by Greg (Tonar)
Decals made by Rothko and Frost

Chrome plate art by Doug
Top hat switch tip was given to me by Pete

Since it's a birthday guitar I wanted to experiment with decals. My name was my first idea but I found it too common so I changed it. The name was inspired from a song of Greg Sage's '85 first solo LP "Straight Ahead". An album that I have listened hundreds of times, especially last year when I was unemployed for months. "35 summers" comes from Coppola' s "Rumble Fish" movie, a Tom Waits line where he wonders about the time middleaged people have left to live. It's also the title of a song of my favorite band, again inspired by the movie line.

The impeccable quilt top and the flame neck represent my teen desire to acquire a guitar like the ones I was seeing in the guitar magazines of the early 90's. Although I like every shade of green, red and blue and I would be happy to have guitars with solid colors those with figured woods were always the ones that made the biggest impression on me. I must be the only punk rocker who likes guitars with figured woods...

















Thanks to everyone who contributed to the making of this guitar. A special thanks to Doug who has been a great help in several occassions the last years  :eek:ccasion14:

 
Someone is either in denial, can't count, or spent a few northern/southern hemisphere back to back winters.

JK. Nice guitar.
 
That turned out amazing. Thank you for letting me be a part of this special build. I still say that is one of the most beautiful necks I have ever had my hands on!!
 
great build.  I love those tuners.  I have them on one of my build and they are top notch!!
 
Happy Birthday!
And congratulations for a beautiful BD present to yourself. Nice job.
:rock-on:
 
I hate your gutz. :headbang1:

Will you marry me? No sex required or desired, just community property lawz.... :cool01:

Iz perfectionz actually making a comeback?!?!  :icon_thumright:


Z!
 
Elegant and cool.  Amazing!  From the see-through back plate to your decals.  Truly a custom custom.  What's next? 
 
Subjectively, I don't much care for the washed out black dye - but that neck is one of the loveliest I've seen.  Altogether a beautiful axe, and I'm sure you'll get lots of love out of it.  Congratulations on a vision realized!

 
Thanks for all the nice comments. I'm afraid it will take time before I'll try the guitar in a band context since all of my friends who play music don't live close anymore. So far I have done what guitarists have been doing for so long, playing along records, and the guitar cuts through well and sounds great as when I play alone. I had a night jam with some great musicians a few days ago. I was listening to Peter Green's first LP and his soulful  playing made me grab the guitar and I tried to do my best following him... I put the first Blackfoot LP next, beautiful music with sincere lyrics and such a meaningful title. Roth's final album with Scorpions followed and finally Social Distortion's masterpiece (White Heat LP) just to change the mood and try different pedals.

Teles are versatile guitars, they go from clean to scream with single coils, no need for HB's or humbucker sized pickups. I'm glad mine sounds great either clean or with drive. Like I said above, I highly recommend Budz pickups. Not only they have a classic tele clean sound but I tried different drive pedals (Rat, Barber silver ltd) along with my Xotic BB and the pickups shine with either light or more drive. They have clarity and the guitar's tone does not get lost when more drive is used.
 
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