Thanks for all the kind words! 😁
I'll try and respond to everyone...
The very first Mercury was just as you see now, except I made the body with a Fender neck pocket, painted it some god-awful green and the body shape wasn't quite as refined. The second Mercury is that red one you see. It was the first to get a Merc neck, and it was built so that I could work out any design flaws. Thankfully, all the things I was concerned about ended up working just fine. The third went to Bassintom over @ ss.org, the fourth to Lamp @ ss.org, the fifth to a little girl in Manhattan, the sixth is the 12-string model and the seventh is the M&R law firm guitar. I do have plans to make a couple more, but that's it.
psmly01: I'm not sure about making a kit, but I'm not opposed to it, either. We'll see.
funtoosh: Yes, I do have the earlier images, but need to scan them in. I'll see about that.
Robbmonster: thanks, man! It was super-duper important for us, and ended up not quite working out. Effing lawyers! Anyway, the charity has decided to bypass the firm and work with us exclusively. I'm really looking forward to that.
nirvana23freak: We are still NoHo Guitars. 😀
Fran: it was my first attempt to neck binding, and I was really worried, as I used Brazilian Rosewood for the fretboard. Personally, I hate the red, but for those first two guitars, we used whatever paint we had. As for the bridge, I agree 100%. If you'll notice, the 12-string uses the *exact* same bridge. I thought it might be an issue, but as it turns out, not at all. As for shopping the design, we haven't even started. I'd like to make the 6-string headstock a bit smaller, and try to either find or design a better system for getting those strings down (string-trees). The only other option is tilt-back necks, but I'm not equipped to make them, so that'll have to wait. However, if someone were to manufacture them, I'd insist on the tilt-back. Oh, and thanks for the compliments! Say hello to Lamp for me, too!
