I have built 5 guitars this year, all unique but with similarities – the goal was to build guitars that are not commercially available and have something special about them. See below
Daphne Strat
Unique: When building guitars, I try do make something that you cant just purchase. This guitar is unique in several regards and is one of two similar builds [one for me (daphne) and one for my wife (sonic)] – the neck is made of bubinga and plays very fast. The tuners are high quality machine heads that are staggered for the best break angle for each string without a string tree. The body was made by MJT custom guitars out of alder with a golden primer that pops out under the blue. The only actual fender parts are the standard bridge and the fender 57/62 pickups.
Bridge: standard fender strat bridge.
Neck: Fender Strat style WD Music Neck, 25.5″ scale. Bubinga wood with Bubinga Fingerboard. 22 Frets, Dunlop 6105 with a Modern “C” profile and a 12″ radius. Truss rod adjustment is at the headstock. Tuner Hole Size: Modern 25/64″ (10 mm). Nut Width: 1 11/16″. 1st Fret Thickness = 0.83 in. 12th Fret Thickness = 0.88 in.
Body: This is an Alder MJT Custom Vintage style Aged Nitro VTS Guitar Body. The body was cut to vintage style specs by USA Custom Guitars in Carthage, MO USA. The body is topped off with an aged vintage 100% nitro Daphne Blue over metallic Candy Tangerine finish by Mark Jenny of MJT® Aged Guitar Finishes.
Tuners: Hipshot Grip-Lock Open Gear Tuners. Grip-Lock pin and thumb wheel system, 18:1 tuning ratio for super fine adjustment. Compatible with 13/32″ (10mm) pegholes. String post hole fits strings up to 0.060″. Cast housing. Staggered posts have different heights giving each string the ideal break angle over the nut. They reduce buzz at the nut and eliminate the need for a string tree.
Pickups: Fender 57/62 single-coil pickup set: neck, middle, and bridge hand-beveled and staggered Alnico V magnets. High quality 250k pots, cap, and switch. Shielded multi-ply 11-hole pickguard.
Sonic Strat
Unique: This is the sister guitar to the Daphne above. I built this guitar (Sonic) for my wife to compliment my guitar above (Daphne). Both are similar but unique. A different vintage 21 fret neck with larger radius and a tex mex pickup selection set these two guitars uniquely apart, yet equally yoked.
Neck: 25.5″ Scale Fender Licensed WD Music Neck, Rosewood with Rosewood Fingerboard with 21 Dunlop 6105 frets. Profile: Vintage “U” Shape/Chunky profile with a 10″ Radius. The truss rod adjustment is at the heel. Tuner Hole Size is the Vintage 11/32″. The Nut Width is 1 5/8″. 1st Fret Thickness = 0.93 in. 12th Fret Thickness = 0.99 in.
Body: This is an Alder MJT Custom Vintage style Aged Nitro VTS Guitar Body. The body was cut to vintage style specs by USA Custom Guitars in Carthage, MO USA. The body is topped off with an aged vintage 100% nitro Sonic Blue finish by Mark Jenny of MJT Aged Guitar Finishes. This is body weighs in at only 4 lbs 0 oz.
Tuners: Hipshot Chrome Vintage Guitar Tuners. Vintage style tuners retrofit guitars with 21/64″ (8.5mm) headstock holes. Grip-Lock pin and thumb wheel system clamps onto your string, no wraps needed. Schaller M6 Mini footprint. 15:1 tuning ratio.
Pickups: Fender Tex-Mex single-coil Alnico V pickups: neck, middle, and overwound bridge. High quality 250k pots, cap, and switch. Shielded multi-ply 11-hole pickguard.
Bridge: standard fender strat bridge.
Jazz Bass Style
Unique: I had this Jazz Bass body custom routed by Saylor guitars so that I could do a thin line (semi-hollow body) style bass. Because it is both hollow and made of redwood, it is incredibly light. Because the redwood is very soft, I decided that I would let character build over time through nicks and dings and the finish would help reflect this worn look. I cut the pickguard from leftover carbon fiber stock from the XB-1 aircraft build and intentionally left the original inked serial numbers for tracability.
Neck: Mighty Mite Maple Neck. Hard rock maple finished in clear satin polyurethane, with an inlaid “skunk stripe” down the back.
Body: Custom routed, Saylor guitars thinline (hollow body) made of redwood in Jazz Bass style.
Tuners: Schaller Bass Machines
Pickups: Golden Age Pickups for Jazz Bass
Bridge: Fender HiMass bass bridge with .75” string spacing, Brass machined saddles and baseplate and 5-screw mounting.
N184BA – Jaguar Style
Unique: This is the final electric guitar in this series, and is the most complex build. Wired for a sustaining pickup in the neck as well as a bridge humbucker with selectable single coil on/off toggle. Fitted with a bigsby bridge and staggered machine heads to eliminate the string tree. This guitar is incredibly light weight and is finished with many coats of tru-oil. The pickguard is TC-350 scrap from the XB-1 airplane build.
Neck: Mighty Mite Vintage Amber Neck for Strat. No Shims needed.
Body: Custom routed, Saylor guitars Jazzmaster style, thinline (hollow body) made of redwood. It is pretty extremely soft, so I am embracing the idea that nicks and dings are character and you can see in the photos that it is building character quick. I also didn’t quite get the pockets right, so had to drill some additional clearance pockets that look pretty sloppy but hidden under the pick guard.
Tuners: Sperzel Trim-Lok 6-In-Line Guitar Machines, staggered.
Pickups: Neck pickup is the sustaniac string driving pickup and the bridge pickup is a split Seymour Duncan hot Rodded humbucker SH-4 JB. All the active electronics fit pretty easily in the large hollow body.
Bridge: Bigsby B50 Vibrato with tune-o-matic bridge. With the hollow body, the strings between the bridge and the tail ring out like crazy (sounds terrible), so I added some felt dampers to keep them from resonating.
N990XB – Tele Style
Unique: This was the first custom build that started them all. I sold my original fender telecaster because I hated the neck but couldn’t forget how simple the guitar actually was. I decided to build my own so that I could control every detail. The neck is super fast mighty might maple neck. The pickguard and control panel is made of left over carbon fiber stock from the supersonic aircraft build. I was able to retain the original ink serial numbers of the material for tracability. Because of the tie to the aircraft, I also painted the XB-1 loft and tail number on the guitar. Another unique feature – the neck pickup is a sustaining pickup – rather than pick up the string vibration, it induces string resonance for infinite sustain and self playing feedback. In order to reduce total feedback due to the sustainer, I had to select a humbucker for the bridge. Another unique feature is Bigsby B5 bridge. All combined, this is a very unique guitar that is easy to play and is definitely one of a kind.
Neck: Mighty Mite maple neck. All have a single-action truss rod. The string nut is slotted and shaped from PPS plastic with a flat bottom. Thin polyurethane finish with 22 frets. Peghead-adjustable truss rod (for 4mm Allen wrench). 10mm diameter pegholes.
Body: Fender Alder body crafted at Fender’s Ensenada, Mexico, manufacturing facility, this genuine Fender Telecaster guitar body is routed for a traditional two single coil pickup configuration is pre-drilled with four screw holes for vintage-style bridge mounting. It’s topped with a gloss polyester finish in Olympic White.
Tuners: 205 series Grover Rotomatics. They feature compact removable metal knobs with adjustable tension, die-cast gear housings, lifetime sealed lubrication, and 14:1 gear ratio. 10mm (13/32″) diameter pegholes.
Pickups: Sustainiac sustaining active pickup in the neck position. Seymour Duncan ST59-1 Little ’59 Humbucker. Because this pickup is tapped, I may add a switch to go single coil on demand in the future.
Bridge: Bigsby B5 with F logo along with a Vibramate V5-TEV Stainless Steel ashtray bridge that allows adjustment of the intonation from the both sides of the saddle.