Next Project - Advice Needed

Rox

So, my addiction to projects shows no sign of abating.  After completing my 70's inspired Raven* Strat build, I'm now cogitating my next project... but this will be considerably more difficult to source parts, I suspect.

Again, starting from scratch with literally no parts whatsoever this is going to be difficult to piece together.

Like my strat project, I'd like something "inspired by", another guitar (or guitars) and similarly I'm not too hung up over accuracy other than the broad brushstrokes.

Many years ago I bought a Gibson Les Paul Studio - a mid nineties model with an ebony fretboard.  It had a neck break, and I stripped it down and refinished it using spirit stain and oil, putting whatever parts I had in my parts box onto it:



It wasn't until a few weeks later I realised that I'd accidentally managed to make a Marc Bolan-ish guitar!

http://inspireyourdog.com/misc/Bolan01.jpg

So this is where my inspiration starts.

Rox

I love ebony fretboards.  I love the block inlays and split diamond of the Customs - BUT I also have an appreciation of the plaintop.

So I'm not a Bolan aficionado, but his guitar is accidentally became something that appeals to me - (before I'd even noticed it!)

For years I had a plaintop and would lust after flamed maple.  Now my no.1 guitar is flamed maple, I'm loving the simple beauty of a plaintop. 

So, it's reasonably easy to find LP kits, but not Custom style necks.  And will be impossible to find a custom neck with a standard plaintop body.  All kits seem to be flamed these days.

(Now come routing for block inlays is more expensive than trapezoid?  I'd have thought the block inlays would be cheaper?)

So, scratching my head I don't know where to start.

The main ingredients are:

Custom style neck - MUST be ebony fretboard
Standard body with plaintop

From there, everything else is pretty straightforward - Grovers, One zebra pickup, one black, and usual LP hardware (although some hardware was gold and some nickel it seems on photos)

Finish-wise, I'll definitely go for the yellowy-orange transparent on the top, but I'll probably do the neck and the back the same - not have a black neck and natural back.  I prefer a more natural neck.

Your input very much welcome, dear modding and making Fretboarders...

WezV

Ebony has always cost a little more than rosewood, but I think the big cost difference will be the raw materials and additional labour if you are paying for real MOP instead of plastic.  Although the price of that is probably comparable to some of the historic trapeze inlays

Rox

What I mean, @WezV is that when there's an option between trapezoid or block inlays (where the board material and inlay materials are the same - I absolutely get that materials vary in price ), block inlays are more expensive.  Rightly or wrongly, I just figured trapezoids would be more difficult than a block.

WezV

Yeah, I would agree with that.  Must be the extra block at the 1st fret

Rox

WezV said:

Yeah, I would agree with that.  Must be the extra block at the 1st fret

That must be it!!