It’s Finally Coming Together!

I was not-so-recently perusing Amelia Island Fine Guitars’ website and saw this:



I was struck with the combination of White Blonde, a mint guard, parchment plastics and a rosewood board. The roasted neck color looked great too. But that $3,300 price tag could be beaten. So I embarked on a partscaster build. I figured I’d try to make this “the one”—use the best parts I could source and see how far under that $3,300 it would end up. Turns out, it was about $1,000 cheaper. So $2,300 certainly isn’t cheap by any stretch, but I’m still extremely happy with the results thus far. That said, it’s not assembled so I’m just hoping it sounds great at this point! Here’s what I chose:

-Warmoth 1 pc swamp ash body
-USACG roasted quartersawn 5A flame maple neck with a Brazilian rosewood slab board
-Callaham hardware
-CreamTone harness with 50s Gibson wiring
-Callaham plastics (secondhand but no signs of wear)
-ex-Lashing mint celluloid nitrate pickguard
-Kluson Supreme staggered tuners
-NOS nitro finish in White Blonde by CF Restorations in Indiana
-Tru Oil finish for neck
-Nitro over Tru-Oil finish for headstock (to allow for my custom waterslide decals)
-Lollar Blonde pickups
-custom cut bone nut, final assembly and setup by my local magician of a tech

The nitro finish took entirely longer than expected, which has been my biggest disappointment during the process, but I finally received it yesterday. It turned out great and now I can get on with the build. Here’s the mock-up photos for the neck and body:

 

Nice one! Great minds think alike! I’ve got the Dirty Blondes in a Mario Martin S. It’s a great set.

 

Thank you all for the compliments! Like I said, when I saw that Mario guitar, the color combination just floored me. Had to make one up for myself. Since this one is getting the extra care of assembly and set-up from Rick Cremer, and the finish was over time, I missed my appointment on his calendar and have to wait now until January to get this one buttoned up. I was so bummed!!