Trans Red VIP

[Tipperman]

Hey all, piecing together the latest guitar here. First and foremost, I have to thank Cagey for the body with parts. Thanks a bunch, Cagey. You're the man. As you may have guessed, it's a transparent red VIP build. Gold hardware, two EMGs, Gotoh hardtail.

The body is black korina with a black korina top that's slightly curly, which I'm told is unusual for this particular wood. The current plan for the neck is either Warmoth or Warhead headstock. Leaning towards Bloodwood/ebony because that would look great on it. Another option, depending on how much I have to spend, is a Roasted Maple neck with pau ferro. Either way the neck will have no inlays, SS6115 frets, and either Sperzel or Schaller locking tuners.

In the mean time I'll be using my Maple/Indian Rosewood strat neck. It needs some fixing up and fretwork anyways, might as well slap it on this guitar as I have nothing with humbuckers currently. Anyways, more to come when I have the temporary neck added on, as well as when I order a custom neck. Hope you like it, and feel free to offer suggestions for neck woods etc, anything you think would look good.

 

[Logrinn]

That looks awesome! Woohoo! ccasion14:

I can tell you I've got first hand experience with a bloodwood/ebony neck. Extremely slick. Feels like glass. I think it would look great on your VIP. And I think a body like the VIP will also be a better type of body for a neck like that. Because the neck is on the heavy side, and a small body like a Tele or a light body might end up with some neck dive (like mine did).

 

[rgand]

That's beautiful. I would tend to avoid really wild grain patterns so it keeps your eye on the body itself. That said, almost any neck wood will look good on it. The gold frets would be nice, too. Looking forward to following your build.

 

[Tipperman]

Thanks Rgand and Logrinn. I'm not one for fancy woods generally speaking, so whatever it is will look nice and simple. I'm boring like that. No flame maple necks or anything for me. Just a hunk of wood that looks good.

 

[Verne Bunsen]

Trans red black korina, what a beautiful thing! For whatever my opinion is worth I think the Warmoth headstock on a VIP is perfection.

 

[Zhaezzy]

This will make for an amazing axe. I think Padouk would look nice too once it ages and darkens a bit.

 

[Tipperman]

Well, I WAS going to use my strat neck I had but..... I kinda just pulled the trigger on this one.

As for specs:

Roasted Maple with Ebony fretboard, no inlays. Strat headstock. You may have noticed these details already.

SS6100 frets. 1 11/16" nut width. Standard thin contour. Black corian nut because Black is metal. Tuner ream is for Sperzels, not sure if I want those to be gold on that headstock for the sake of matching, or black. I think the black would look better for my like, but hey. We'll see where it goes.

Unfortunately it's now a waiting game. And it's going to feel like forever, especially when I get a tracking number and sit at the computer all day hitting the F5 key over and over. I'm excited for this to say the least. Any suggestions on color for the tuners? Am I insane for wanting them to be black while everything else is gold?

 

[Cagey]

I'd want gold, but Sperzels are a satin finish plating while the rest of your gold hardware has a brilliant finish. However, you could kill two birds with one 10ga load of #9 shot if they were at the right distance and close enough together stone. Here's another idea. Check these guys out. They sell a wide variety of Sperzel tuners and knobs in colors you might not have known were available. Not that I'd use a different color, but... halfway down the page are some black pearl tuner buttons designed to fit Sperzel tuners. Get some gold bodies, and put those buttons on them. Then the mismatched gold finish would be more or less out of sight, you'd still have the black tied to your fretboard, and it would be a fancy black. What could possibly be wrong with that? Two birds, one piece of imitation clam immune reaction stone.

Here's a question for you. Who hunts birds with stones? You'd think even the stupidest of cavemen could have come up with a better idea than that.

 

[Tipperman]

I'd want gold, but Sperzels are a satin finish plating while the rest of your gold hardware has a brilliant finish. However, you could kill two birds with one 10ga load of #9 shot if they were at the right distance and close enough together stone. Here's another idea. Check these guys out. They sell a wide variety of Sperzel tuners and knobs in colors you might not have known were available. Not that I'd use a different color, but... halfway down the page are some black pearl tuner buttons designed to fit Sperzel tuners. Get some gold bodies, and put those buttons on them. Then the mismatched gold finish would be more or less out of sight, you'd still have the black tied to your fretboard, and it would be a fancy black. What could possibly be wrong with that? Two birds, one piece of imitation clam immune reaction stone.

Here's a question for you. Who hunts birds with stones? You'd think even the stupidest of cavemen could have come up with a better idea than that.

I wound up ordering Black sperzels because I'm a madman who cares not for matching colors. Now I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of all of these goodies so I can be in the middle of work and not be able to make it to my tech for a week. I think it'll still look decent either way, and if not... I don't care because it'll sound good and I don't gig! Either way, I'll still be showing it off here. I'd have been more inclined to go with gold Schallers if I'd gone with a bloodwood or padouk neck, but the price on this was too good to pass up.

 

[Axkoa]

Here's a question for you. Who hunts birds with stones? You'd think even the stupidest of cavemen could have come up with a better idea than that.

:yourock:

 

[pabloman]

You can get polished Sperzels. I think the black will look fine. I've done it with chrome hardware.  :bananaguitar:

 

[Cagey]

Thank you. polished! That's where I screwed up. I used the wrong word (brilliant) in my search.

 

[Cagey]

...I'm a madman who cares not for matching colors. 

I was a madman once. Then my mother sent me back to my room to change my shirt.

 

[Tipperman]

Haha. Classic Cagey! Yeah, I'm excited to say the least. I'll get some unboxing shots and a picture after burnishing the neck. Should be mighty fun to noodle around with, even if it isn't attached to anything.

 

[Cagey]

Here's a question for you. Who hunts birds with stones? You'd think even the stupidest of cavemen could have come up with a better idea than that.

:yourock:

That poorly designed necklace doesn't look like a shotgun at all.

 

[new-killer-star]

A mix of black and gold hardware is going to be just fine, it's soo much better to get it playable and played, then you can noodle about whether the tuners should be gold or black or whatever while you're enjoying it.

 

[ghotiphry]

^this

I favor black hardware, but have dabbled in an all chrome thingy.  And one of mine has a mix of black and chrome.  Go figure.

Oh, yeah, fantastic guitar!

 

[Tipperman]

Thanks new-killer-star and ghotiphry! I can't wait to post some pictures as it comes together. I'm not sure how I'll like the EMGs, never used them before. Never used any active pickup before for that matter. Can't wait to pump it through the Blues Jr and see how it sounds.

 

[Tipperman]

Woo! The neck arrived today, and she's a beauty. Roasted maple for the neck meat, Ebony fretboard. SS6100's for fretwire. Turns out 6100s are huge. Just gotta get this baby put together. I'll post more pics after I burnish the neck and make it all slippery and stuff.

 

[Tipperman]

First and foremost, I'd like to apologize for the quality of the pictures and the lighting. The weather has been grey and rainy here, so I haven't had the change to get outdoor pictures in some good light. She's done, though! Man does she play good.  :turtle: Got a picture showing the curlyness of the black korina as best I could with indoor lighting. Aaaand one showing the full neck with headstock etc. Once the weather allows, I will update with some (hopefully) better pictures.