Haven't posted here in a while, but thought I would share my freshly completed long suffering project.

This is my 1973 Comp-stang Replica project that I completed a couple of weeks ago:

This project started back in 2010 when a friend of mine gave me a reissue CIJ mustang body in competition orange with Fiesta Red racing stripe. They had used the guitar as a prop for an advertising shoot and then the crew dismantled it for their own personal projects. All that was left was the body which nobody wanted. I actually think it was one of the JDM "Beck" editions but I didn't get the neck to find out.

So it turns out that parts for a Japanese market guitar never sold in the states are not easy to come by. By early 2011 I had managed to figure out that the new MG65 1965 reissue necks sold in America actually fit the body really well, but the pick-guards and other parts did not interchange:

So I decided to design my own pickguard shape:

Early cardboard mockups were kind of rough. I was a big fan of 1960's and 70's Japanese guitars like Teisco Del Ray with their huge pick-guards with engraved designs so my early designs were influenced by that.

Unfortunately, this is as far as I got because in 2011 my first child was born and the guitar project went into a box. However For Christmas that year my wife gave me a set of Duncan Antiquity II mustang pickups, 2 spools of 1960's cloth wiring, and 2 potentiometers and an orange drop capacitor. It all went into the box and sat until earlier this year.

Fast forward to January, I am cleaning the garage and I find my box of unfinished guitar projects. I say projects because I some how acquired another jag-stang body and neck (1996 model) for another project as well. Anyway, I realize that I actually have everything but a pickguard to assemble the instrument. I also find out that there is a guy here in columbus, ohio who cuts pickguards. I haul all the crap over to his place and we wine tune my old design:

One of the things I hate about the old mustang design is that it has this seperate steel control plate that never fits well and looks like an afterthought:

If anyone hasn't worked with the pickguardian before, Tony is an awesome dude and was a lot of fun to work with on a project. I highly recommend him. http://www.pickguardian.com/

If someone wants one of these guards for their own guitar he has the template and can cut the design.

with the one piece design I have something that has a more earl 1960's space age shape and it just looks more "organic". Also it recalls some of those Japanese guitars with their massive pickguards:

Anyway: I wired it up, my first from scratch job. While my soldering won't win any awards, the guitar does function exactly as it should with no static or interference.

I used black hardware as much as I could: tuners, covers, switches, and chicken head knobs stictly as a color choice. wanted this to be a really neat and different looking instrument.

So that's it - I still have to set the intonation and make some minor bridge adjustments but it plays well, has a great sound, and I am having a lot of fun with it.

Specs:
Fender Japan 1973 Comp-Stang reissue body in Comp orange
Fender 1965 reissue neck
Pickguardian custom cut pickguard in vintage ivory - my design
Seymour Duncan Antiquity II pickups for fender mustang (wax covered)
NOS 1960's cloth wire
Fender 3 position switchs
250K potentiometers for volume and tone
Orange Drop Capacitor
Grovers tuners
Fender Dynamic Vibrato for reissue guitars (metric)

So....what do you think?