last update : 9 Februari 2000
Guitar number Three
Dispite the fact that my old Telecaster had "the best neck in the world" and had
had an extensive update, i still was not happy with it. The sound was mediocre, it was
heavy as hell, and looked simply dull.
It was in the end of 1999, when i had finished recording my CD
Contrasts that i decided to rebuild a guitar around the old neck.
At the same time Allan Naeslund challanged me to build a
PRS guitar as Mike Oldfield uses
frequently. I tried some PRS's and liked there looks, but not their feel. The were again
heavy and had a body form which is not natural.
So i mixed their design, with my JS
design and thus came up with a cunning plan.
The main shape will be the same as with JS, this will allow me to use my old templates
which assure clean and easy bandsawing. Second : i made the height a full centimetre
smaller, thus reducing body weight by 1/4.
Third : Oak will be used for the body.
This wood is strong, stable and easy to work with and much lighter then mahagony, gaining
another few ounces.
The shape of the top of the body (vertically seen) will be in the spirit of PRS. So instead
of rounding the edges, (as in JS) the sides will be made flat and a binding will be put
around them.
Two humbugger places will be routed, but only one will be filled as i never use the tail
pickup. A push/pull pot switches between single coil and humbugger mode. No need for
a tone pot either. (really, i never use those)
The Progress
The body is shaped, and the headstock has been adapted. I'm waiting for the bindings to
arrive. It looks very promissing and i think that this will become my main guitar for
live performances, simply because it fits good and is light.
I'll keep you posted
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