why do none of my guitars turn out looking "normal"?

[appar111]

I've been putting together partscasters for probably a few years now, usually have 2 in the stable at a time, and pieces and parts either being bought or sold to mod one of them or build a 3rd at any given time.

I've noticed one thing-- none of my guitars look "normal", i.e. like a stock tele or a blackguard, or a 60's tele w/ rosewood board, etc. They all end up as some form of mongrel. Here's what I'm talking about:



Whether it's the pickup config (dual humbuckers vs. regular tele setup) to neck choice (strat neck on a tele), to finish choice (old stained barnwood look w/ duct tape around the pickups, or "brownburst" enamel relic paint job), they all look, well, ugly. But for some reason, that just seems more visually interesting to me. I guess I've seen a million blackguards, etc. and while some of the originals or CS relic jobs still look awesome to me (I'd LOVE a heavy relic nocaster), mine never turn out even close to a "classic" looking tele.

I wonder why that is-- is it more of a subconscious effort to make something more personal? I've done a couple that looked fairly normal (a white blonde esquire w/ a white pickguard, a black tele with a whiteguard (sort of tuxedo looking), but those have never stayed in the pack.

[jrich99]

I don't know, but I LOVE both of those! Especially the barnwood looking one!

[kidmo]

You are a victim of McGyver syndrome. You use what's on hand to fabricate what you need at the time. You never carry to completion the beautification stage because you know that your needs will change and there's no point in prettifying something that's just gonna morph into something else.
Just my opinion, I'm kinda the same way. All the control panels are off my guitars, amps and pedals cause I'm constantly changing caps or wiring.

[Randypttt]

That's the beauty of creativity. You have no restraints like Fender has so you're able to put together what you feel is different or beautiful or...whatever. It's a good thing as Martha would say.

http://www.myspace.com/proazza

[jkingma]

Your guitars look great. I've built a lot of Teles from scratch and the ones I liked the best were the mutts. There is just something more interesting about them. Don't stop doing what you are doing.

[Colt W. Knight]

Why build one you can go out and buy inexpensively?

Customization, that is where it is at!

[appar111]

I suppose there is a bit of McGyver-ism in what I do. There are just so many good parts you can buy as one off's when they become available, and they can be cobbled together into some pretty interesting looking guitars.

Sure, they're mismatched, but as long as the neck is good quality your hands don't know the difference on the body finish. The barncaster in the pic is sporting a warmoth compound radius strat neck that has 11's on it and is still a breeze to play.

I still like the traditional tele and strat shapes, but there's a world of stuff you can do with the finish. Wood distressing, atypical finish choices-- enamel paint, camoflage paint, car paint, stickers, shellacs, stains, or even all of the above on the same guitar.

Here's another one I did a while back (ended up stripping it and refinishing in a more normal finish before I sold it):

[voodoostation]

I've always been partial to mongrels myself...

[Hollmanp90]

Love em' my man.........
love the broadcaster and all that too......
but,normal is over-rated.......its "easy" to be normal.Its tuff to walk alone or not follow the crowd.

Be yourself and as long as your not hurting anyone......Keep on trucking.

[boris bubbanov]

I think the closer we get to the products already coming out of the factories and shops, the less satisfying it is. For the most part we're not gonna be making piles of money but instead spending more than we might if we just went Craigslist.

Here's that 1 piece USACG poly superlight ash body I just received:



I am taken aback by how uncomfortable I am with feeling like I am just completing someone else's guitar and that the result won't be mine. Evidence of my impact on the final result will be much smaller than normal; or equivalent to reworking a Highway One. That takes a lot of the fun out of it even though at $ 199 this body is a steal.

[fendorst]

six strings, six tuners, body, neck, bridge, pickup or two, knob or two, switch...
heck, they look normal to me.

[appar111]

Originally Posted by boris bubbanov

I think the closer we get to the products already coming out of the factories and shops, the less satisfying it is. For the most part we're not gonna be making piles of money but instead spending more than we might if we just went Craigslist.


I am taken aback by how uncomfortable I am with feeling like I am just completing someone else's guitar and that the result won't be mine. Evidence of my impact on the final result will be much smaller than normal; or equivalent to reworking a Highway One. That takes a lot of the fun out of it even though at $ 199 this body is a steal.

Yeah, feeling like you're just completing someone else's idea/project is no fun. Most of the time, I legitimately try to make something fairly traditional looking, then, perhaps subconsciously, something goes wrong along the way that forces the project to start looking more unique.

My next project, an oly white pine tele with a black bakelite guard and rosewood fretboard & modern tele bridge might get shelved or cannibalized in some fashion for something more interesting-- a Neil Young inspired tele (the concept of rust, weld, arc, etc.)

I've got a beat-to-crap refinned HW1 tele body that's achin' to be stripped down and reworked.