FS: "Pain Au Guitar" Homemade superstrat £150

Cirrus

This is... well, there's a story to it which is worth telling.

I'd been looking for a 1970's Gibson "Tarback" humbucker for a while, and while searching I found this on facebook marketplace, which had one in the bridge. Not interested in the guitar, but wanting the pickup, a little negotiation later I got the guitar with pickups and no hardware at all (the seller kept the tuners & the Schaller bridge which I understand is a bit of a collectable, thanks to Tony Iommi).


But curiosity got the better of me, so I got some new hardware to string it up, and a couple of cheap Wilkinson PAF pickups. And it's totally not my thing, but it's kinda cool. Feels like all mahogany, set neck with an interesting profile which is kind of '70s Fender D shape (I think). I've wired it up with a '50s style LP control layout, and the big switch at the bottom engages a coil tap.

I believe it's home made, there's an inscription in the bridge humbucker route;

"John Whitehead + (David?) Whitehead 1st Jan 1981".

The headstock is insane, it's like Jar Jar Binks and a pain au chocolat got involved in a Star Trek transporter accident, I call it the Pain Au Guitar. The thing is, it plays really well. low action, lively sound and long sustain right up and down the neck. With better hardware I think it'd be a killer sounding instrument, but aesthetically it's just not for me.

More pictures

I spent about £90 on hardware to make it playable, I guess if it's worth selling at all I'd say £150 or thereabouts collected from Birmingham.

Here's a picture of it from before I fitted the Wilko humbuckers;

bobacco

There’s more wood on the headstock than the body! 

Cirrus

bobacco said:

There’s more wood on the headstock than the body! 

Yeah it's quite a thing. I mean, check the other photos, perspective is doing a lot in that one. It's does just about balance on a strap, it's not neck heavy...

Cirrus

Behold!