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Jack Wells · December 20th, 2005, 04:38 PM

First I'd like to thank Dave Yeats and sunkidd who attempted to help me in obtaining dimensions for this project. Although that didn't work out, I appreciate their efforts. Thanks also to red57strat who is sending me some slot head neck screws.

I first got interested in this project after seeing one of the Snake Head Prototype reissues for sale on Ebay back in August. I collected all the pictures I could find on the Internet.

The body:
The body is a two piece glue-up of Ponderosa Pine. I used a purchased Telecaster template and flipped the template to cut the jack area .............. I don't think the prototype had the flattened jack area. The bridge is from Warmoth and has steel saddles. I couldn't tell from the pictures whether they should be steel or brass. The original and the Custom Shop reissues have a square bridge plate. Modern three saddle bridge plates are longer in the string direction. That's the major difference I see when I look at the guitar. That also makes the pickguard look a little off.

The control plate was cut from aluminum and polished.

......

The neck:
The neck is the Warmoth "Flat Paddle Pro". See the Warmoth site for further details. This neck has a heel adjustable trussrod and also has the side of the heel adjuster. This feature is good for this guitar because since there is no pickguard at the end of the neck, neck adjustment would otherwise require removing the neck. I ordered the neck with no fretboard markers. I've read that the original had painted fretboard dots ......... I inlaid mine. The neck came with 22 frets and a Strat heel. I had to cut off the fretboard overlay and have attempted to disquise the Strat heel. I had ordered a neck from Warmoth once before. ............. a 12 string neck I used on a Telecaster conversion. I didn't think to ask for straight grain or to order a quarter sawn neck. When I opened the box, I thought "Oh crap"! A nice figured neck like this would ordinarily be desirable for a guitar neck but not for this particular project........... Oh well. The tuners are reissues of the old tuners used on Fender lap steels. They're from Stew-Mac. They're installed without the ferrules.

One good thing about building one of these ............ there's no headstock decal issue.

Here are a few more pictures.

Cutting the head stock with radial saw.

......

......

December 20th, 2005, 04:38 PM	#15 (permalink)
Jack Wells Doctor of Teleocity Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Albuquerque, USA Age: 69 Posts: 18,380 101 Photos	A Few Details ........................ First I'd like to thank Dave Yeats and sunkidd who attempted to help me in obtaining dimensions for this project. Although that didn't work out, I appreciate their efforts. Thanks also to red57strat who is sending me some slot head neck screws. I first got interested in this project after seeing one of the Snake Head Prototype reissues for sale on Ebay back in August. I collected all the pictures I could find on the Internet. The body: The body is a two piece glue-up of Ponderosa Pine. I used a purchased Telecaster template and flipped the template to cut the jack area .............. I don't think the prototype had the flattened jack area. The bridge is from Warmoth and has steel saddles. I couldn't tell from the pictures whether they should be steel or brass. The original and the Custom Shop reissues have a square bridge plate. Modern three saddle bridge plates are longer in the string direction. That's the major difference I see when I look at the guitar. That also makes the pickguard look a little off. The control plate was cut from aluminum and polished. ...... The neck: The neck is the Warmoth "Flat Paddle Pro". See the Warmoth site for further details. This neck has a heel adjustable trussrod and also has the side of the heel adjuster. This feature is good for this guitar because since there is no pickguard at the end of the neck, neck adjustment would otherwise require removing the neck. I ordered the neck with no fretboard markers. I've read that the original had painted fretboard dots ......... I inlaid mine. The neck came with 22 frets and a Strat heel. I had to cut off the fretboard overlay and have attempted to disquise the Strat heel. I had ordered a neck from Warmoth once before. ............. a 12 string neck I used on a Telecaster conversion. I didn't think to ask for straight grain or to order a quarter sawn neck. When I opened the box, I thought "Oh crap"! A nice figured neck like this would ordinarily be desirable for a guitar neck but not for this particular project........... Oh well. The tuners are reissues of the old tuners used on Fender lap steels. They're from Stew-Mac. They're installed without the ferrules. One good thing about building one of these ............ there's no headstock decal issue. Here are a few more pictures. Cutting the head stock with radial saw. ...... ...... ...... __________________ . Disclaimer: When I say something.... always ask yourself ..... "What the hell does he know?" I'm just not cool enough to be a Mac person. I'm a PC and Windows 7 was my idea. Last edited by Jack Wells; August 20th, 2008 at 10:29 AM.