Dom in Somerset

I have seen it, his guitar is actually made in Scotland though and by a scot (I'm only 50% scot and never lived there) I believe the wood is from whisky barrels too.

I went through a phase of being almost crippled by it, I think it had a lot to do with stress I was going through outside of music. I ended up on Prozac for a few months and it went , I'm pleased to say that it broke the cycle and I've been fine since. The nearest I got to serious stage fright since was when I accidentally became lead guitarist after a lifetime of bass or rhythm duties. I took a very systematic approach and worked out solos where I needed them with no improvisation , no stepping into the unknown.Early on I realised that I couldn't fill the previous guitarist's shoes but I could put on my size 12s and do it my way. I borrowed about 20% his stuff and filled in the gaps with what I was comfortable with. The band was well rehearsed and as someone said earlier as soon as I hit the first chord I was off. Not the most relaxed gig I ever played but no silly mistakes and no mistakes caused by worrying about making mistakes. Just before we started one of the best guitarists I know came through the crowd and stood right in front of me....a few seconds later and for the duration of the gig he was dancing with a cheesy grin on his face.

So what does it sound like? In the hands of a bass player who was in the wrong place at the wrong time , like this: 188268471_1082340528960452_8640598449057920688_n.mp4 Sunday afternoon jangliness created by using both pickups. The Duncan Distortion (bridge) and Warman P90 (neck) when played together have the curious effect of cancelling out a lot of bass frequency giving an almost Telecaster sound that I really like. At the end I play a few chords on the bridge pickup , then neck and finally back to both.

Annnnd rest.

Getting close, I can almost feel myself playing it on stage now ...foot on a monitor and a pained expression on my face.

The longest two weeks ever.

Truss rod cover, this was tricky to make , I may try again. It involved sticking the decal transfer the wrong side (glue side )up. It's made from perspex from a shop display stand. How much more yellow could this be?

Holes for controls: Big hole for controls showing the back of the small holes for controls: I filled the truss rod access with blue tac to prevent it filling with resin while I finished the headstock . Today I opened it up with a dremmel Fretboard masked and frets blacked in preparation for some levelling: Run the levelling beam over until all the frets have lost the black from the crown, then recrown:

Fretting in progress... Fretting complete: The neck starting to take shape: The inevitable trail fitting:

Fretboard slotted glued on and radiused. That's my left foot BTW. Dots fitted and I've started staining the fretboard, the dots will show up better once I've snaded and finished the board. The inevitable trial fitting.

Measuring with callipers will tell you the string gauges but not a lot besides, most brands do a 9-42 and a 10-46 set and the gauges are the same. If you guitar is strung with standard 9-42 0r 10-46 it would be hard to tell the brand. You can sometimes identify Ernie Ball strings because they do some hybrid sets , skinny top heavy bottom etc and the mix of gauges is (as far as i know) unique to those sets.

I'm itching to play it, I was hoping to have got the neck finished this week but ongoing issues with the headstock have held me back.

The flower is sometimes called "Scotch broom" which is what decided my exact choice of yellowness. A few things happened today.. The neck joint is quite a complex shape , in order to use reclaimed timber it was necessary to glue two pieces together to for the heal. . To strengthen the joint I've put some dowels through (made from piano hammer shanks.) Routing for neck joint and pickups.> Trial fitting of the neck. I must admit to spending a few minutes posing with this and looking at my reflection in a window.

The gift that keeps on giving....the board I put the body on while spraying has been transformed into this marvellous piece of abstract art. That's the album cover sorted.

Apparently so. I actually prefer Füc£in’ YELLOW!