Possible new build? Odd idea

So I had this silly idea last night after a few beers... :idea:

I have always had a crush on the Gretsch Billy Bo and I am also looking into Danelectros at the moment so why not build a Billy Bo with lipsticks AND mini humbuckers?

The layout would be SH / SH and I would run it like this:

- circuit 1: H / HH parallel / H
- circuit 2: S / SS series / S (like a Dano)

There should be enough space to insert a lipstick between the bridge and bridge HB - the Danos have their treble pickups very close to the bridge...

Both circuits are to be controlled by their own 3 way toggle and you can jump from one to the other with a blend control pot. Imagine the possibilities of blending the 2 sides of the guitar!

The blend pot will be placed after the stacked tone and volume controls - 1M/100k for the Dano side and 500k/500k for the mini humbucker side.

Hardware wise I would go for a custom Billy Bo Ash body and a reverse telecaster neck. I think the fretboard should be rosewood to tame the lipstick pickups as they can get quite trebly. I am not set on the body wood, maybe mahogany would work better with this configuration being warmer. I am not going for TV Jones pickups as I built a Cabronita tribute guitar last year.

For the finish I am thinking about silver grain filler and a black dye, then tru-oil.

How does this sound to you?

Was I touched in the head by the beer fairy?

Was I touched in the head by the beer fairy?

Probably :lol:, but it sounds like a cool idea :smile:.


Just a thought though, Gretsch's have a 24.75 scale length, so if you stay with that, your asking, Warmoth let's say, to make you a custom tele, reversed, conversion neck. Your probably talking 300$+, with that in mind, I'd make my own body. I'd start with a poplar blank (cheaper, not too hard, not too soft, and it's going to be painted anyway,right?). This lets you draw your own templates, and position your own hardware the way you want it. Once that's done and sanded, you could farm out the paint job to get the kind you want. This all pre-supposes you were going the partscaster route, if you were planning on building it all yourself, nevermind :lol:


Dave

I was going partscaster indeed - I am in talks for the body with a local company as a mate of mine has a 2 piece walnut blank I could use - the weight should about equal the mass of saturn once finished but I may give it a go.

The only bits I will make myself will be the grounding terminal (I star ground my guitars) and the custom pickup rings that will allow 2 pickups.

$300 for the neck is out of question, some electromatics go for pennies so I may buy one for the neck and pickups. The TV Jones cost me a bomb in my last build!