Ddbltrbl
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Sometime back I got an Email from Warmoth letting me know they finally had some Macassar Ebony in that they could make a neck from. It arrived late last year and was just an amazing job (THANKS Warmoth Team!!)! It's a 1 5/8" width, 59 Roundback made from a single piece of Macassar Ebony with Pau Ferro skunk stripe and plug, and SS6150 frets. I installed an Earvanna nut after I got it.
As I considered what to with such a nice neck, an alder Musiclander body (M888) showed up in the showcase! As 8 is my lucky number or for some other equally capricious reason, I quickly decided to do an Olympic White ML. I've also been wanting to do a contoured heel on a ML, so I decided I would finish it myself. The body arrived and as I was adding the contoured heel I started to notice just how much character this piece of Alder had. It's got a lot of whorls and swirels, strange rings and stripes kind of like stretch marks, and is just surprizingly gorgeous for alder! So, my plans changed from Olympic White to using Tru Oil to get a natural alder finish.
Normally, that should have been easy! Unfortunately, I used a local Japanese brand sealer before I made the decision to go natural, and that sealer didn't want to play well with the tru Oil. It took several rounds of sanding back the Tru Oil before I finally managed to get rid of all the effects of the sealer. But, it was worth it! This body shines like an star sapphire and changes looks and colors quite significantly with the different angles of the light, a truly unique piece of alder. Add to that 4 trips to the US on business and various other things happening in life and has taken me until last week to complete this.
I already had black hardware that I had planned to use with the white, so I just went with what I had; Schaller mini-lockers and Wilkinson VS100 Trem.
Since I've built an ML with P90's (BK Super Massives) and one with Humbuckers (BK Blackhawks) I wanted to do something closer to a Strat this time. I am also always looking for more versatility, so I've wanted to try out the single coil size mini-humbuckers from Seymour Duncan for a while. So, I got a JB Jr for the bridge, a Duckbuster for the middle, and a Lil 59 for the neck.
However, after I got it together I discovered that the combination of those pups and the ebony was just too bright. It would have been a great shredder, but it just wasn't as warm as I wanted for blues, etc. So, I stuck a set of Zexcoils in it and got exactly the sound I was looking for!! The Ebony gives it brightness and great sustain and the alder and Zexcoils put back in just the right amount of warmth and growl. With some Splatted Maple pup rings as highlights here is how it turned out >>
So, What do you think? :guitarplayer2:
As I considered what to with such a nice neck, an alder Musiclander body (M888) showed up in the showcase! As 8 is my lucky number or for some other equally capricious reason, I quickly decided to do an Olympic White ML. I've also been wanting to do a contoured heel on a ML, so I decided I would finish it myself. The body arrived and as I was adding the contoured heel I started to notice just how much character this piece of Alder had. It's got a lot of whorls and swirels, strange rings and stripes kind of like stretch marks, and is just surprizingly gorgeous for alder! So, my plans changed from Olympic White to using Tru Oil to get a natural alder finish.
Normally, that should have been easy! Unfortunately, I used a local Japanese brand sealer before I made the decision to go natural, and that sealer didn't want to play well with the tru Oil. It took several rounds of sanding back the Tru Oil before I finally managed to get rid of all the effects of the sealer. But, it was worth it! This body shines like an star sapphire and changes looks and colors quite significantly with the different angles of the light, a truly unique piece of alder. Add to that 4 trips to the US on business and various other things happening in life and has taken me until last week to complete this.
I already had black hardware that I had planned to use with the white, so I just went with what I had; Schaller mini-lockers and Wilkinson VS100 Trem.
Since I've built an ML with P90's (BK Super Massives) and one with Humbuckers (BK Blackhawks) I wanted to do something closer to a Strat this time. I am also always looking for more versatility, so I've wanted to try out the single coil size mini-humbuckers from Seymour Duncan for a while. So, I got a JB Jr for the bridge, a Duckbuster for the middle, and a Lil 59 for the neck.
However, after I got it together I discovered that the combination of those pups and the ebony was just too bright. It would have been a great shredder, but it just wasn't as warm as I wanted for blues, etc. So, I stuck a set of Zexcoils in it and got exactly the sound I was looking for!! The Ebony gives it brightness and great sustain and the alder and Zexcoils put back in just the right amount of warmth and growl. With some Splatted Maple pup rings as highlights here is how it turned out >>
So, What do you think? :guitarplayer2:
:toothy10: 
