The Frankenstein Guitar Projects page
This page is dedicated to the Frankensteinian reanimation of old guitars and the recycling of used bodies and parts for the creation of something more than the sum of it's parts, given new life through electrification and the dark arts of circuit bending, neck joint steaming, neck alignment, fretting, body bodging, gutting, etc.etc.etc, oft-times using gruesome tools such as the chisel, the sander, the router, the dremel and drills. We thanks the whiling tedium of ebay for it's occasional bounty and access to exotic parts from their far-flung wanderings or origins, the remaining flea-marketeers of musical bent, the tender center, transients, broke locals, op-shops and the holy rubbish dump for inspiration. If only I could leave them alone, seems like there is always something that might work better or hold some elusive dastardly promise for it's labor pains... Thanks also to the wonders of happenstance that bring about new life from the entropy and desolation of consumerism's junk-heap, and thanks for the trees for making all of it (and breath) possible.
This is what happened when the magnum neck and aluminum scratchplate I got from the Lismore Carboot Market met a vintage Samick body from online and got some prodigy humbucking rails and a fender buddy guy bridge pickup stuck in there, it has a really amazing neck and a bright and acoustically amazingly loud sound, real serious resonance. My favorite so far and the cheapest to come about yet, I can't sell it. It has some trick wiring of course, to tempting with all those coils...
This is a lovely birdseye generic chinese maple neck on a vintage samick body with fender pickups, nice result. $375
This is what you get when you graft a fender style eden maple bass neck onto an Ibanez body and add fender usa 07 P pickups, a beauty. $385
This is a mahogany body tele with a nice maple neck and gold hardware that is sweet. Sold for $450
This is a thinline tele with gold bits and a reverse headstock strat neck, grover machine heads and loads of tele twang. Sold for $450
A lovely mahogany and maple through neck tele coming together when I get around to doing the fret dress...
This frankenstrat is a deluxe squier body and a set of jap standard '08 strat pickups with a mahogany neck with abalone inlay, abalone knobs really nice. $375
A nice throughneck sg of bocote, mahogany and maple with a chunky neck that feels acoustic, schecter humbuckers, a rolling bridge and no rout bigsby-like japanese tremolo. $650 and almost sold a few times. Kicks ass; awesome sustain.
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A set neck strat that sounds totally amazing, it has this magic about the harmonics. It has jap fender pups which later became American, Wilkinson deluxe tremolo and I think a squire body from memory. I made a brass nut for it and the customer likes to have all three pickups on at once hence the switches. Scored for $450
I am refinishing this hacked washburn for my mate pete pix
A black Ibanez bass body that had a big scratch on the front is now getting a birdseye maple fender style neck grafted on when I do the frets...
wiring wiring wiring...
35 tones, not yet, just confusion...I traded a nice tele for this guitar and a bunch of musical junk; a cheapy applause with a broken switch, and I am amazed how great it plays and sounds, ply body can work!
This lefty is getting emg actives after the next coat
Need to update this page with more photo's... lots going on.
This is a thruneck strat with maple inlaid scratchplate and jap fender 60's RI pickups, bocote top mahogany body.
This is a usa tele ready for strings, arctic white and cream pearloid scratchplate and fender standard tele pups, rosewood fretboard, brand new 2010 model never been played. Sold for $900 and it was awesome.
I made another tele from parts recently, this time a deluxe and I am impressed with the creamy sound of the Seymour Duncan APTR-1 neck pickup and always loved the sound of the standard USA bridge anyway which is in it. It came out very nice indeed. The body is a custom shop factory special run honey blonde transparent nitrocellulose thin skin finish which is lovely and the neck is a deluxe USA with locking tuners. It is for sale at $2250 or near offer but enquiries through this site will get a much better price, just ask.
I have been making an electric for myself from a leftoverpiece of rosewood from the ashbory projects and a piece of silkwood I got from north Queensland.
The fretboard is ooline and I scored a set of Kinman AVn pickups for only $150 for the set which I couldn't walk past.
I followed his recommendations for tone by making the neck fat and rigid. The body is very thin and light. yet being silkwood it is quite dense.
I am yet to do the fretting and the final coat of finish. Here is a picture of the body ready for the first coat.
I have made an experiment of the wiring harness which has a unique schematic, we'll see if it works...
I have been assembling some USA strats from parts too and have sold two for $900, not much profit but not much work either;
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