Through various trading, I picked up a black Blacktop Jazzmaster. The original owner had done a lot of work with it. (Upgraded the tuners and string tree, custom humbucker, TOM install, and coil splitter push pull.) When I got it, it looked like this.
DSC01862 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr
DSC01868 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr
DSC01864 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr
I had some WRHB's sitting around and was inspired by a previous project and decided to give it a Sonic Youth vibe. After taking the loaded pickguard and bridge off, I taped off the guitar and routed the body so the wide range humbuckers would fit. Here are some pictures. (I liked the Apple logo I found under the guard, so I kept it.)
DSC01870 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr
DSC01883 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr
DSC01894 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr
The pickguard I had the pickups in previously was a custom made MIJ size guard so I had to make a new template to get one made that would fit this body. I sent the template off to Tony at Pickguardian.com and here is how it all turned out. 😀
DSC02171 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr
DSC02272 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr
DSC02277 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr
DSC02284 by Hentai No Baka, on Flickr
If you need a custom guard, I pretty much only use pickguardian.com. Tony hasn’t had any problem doing anything I have asked and gets work done in a reasonable time frame. I did some comparison shopping to see prices else ware and he beat them and understood what I was asking for. It is so much nicer to have someone say “send me a drawing of what you want and here are the prices you for different options” than “I could probably do it and it would be $75 and up.” I like a specific price, not a range when I am working on something. At any rate, it sounds great! I love the locking tuners. It was SUPER easy to get strings on it. The TOM intonated very easily and it has great sustain and resonance. The WRHB neck pickup might be my favorite of all time. (And I have tried quite a few guitars.)
