Offset Semi-scratch Thingamajig.

[Trevor Davies]

I agree. Great scratch plate. I love the rustic nature of the wood. Looks great.

[impala59]

Love the look of this one, I think it ticks all the boxes. Now it’s finished, and looking at the whole, the only thing I am surprised with is that you did not put the toggle switch in perfect line with the pots and socket. Not a criticism at all but when you did the deluxter scratch plate, the lines were so right that it really crossed the T’s and dotted the I’s. Still prefer this one though!

[JohnH]

It's come up a treat, Sonic

[Sonic Mountain]

I like the overall aesthetic, but I LOVE the scratch plate.
Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

I agree. Great scratch plate. I love the rustic nature of the wood. Looks great.

Cheers guys, yeah I like the scratch plate as well. I may have a look at getting them laser cut for the next one. At the very least I’m going to have a go at including it in my scratch designs, so I’ll get a template made up when I’m ready to start those guys again.

Looks great Sonic.
Any chance of a sound demo?

Sure, couple of things to sort out so it’s nice to play, but I’ll do one for sure, just so you can all hear how distinctive the different pickups/combos are.

Love the look of this one, I think it ticks all the boxes. Now it’s finished, and looking at the whole, the only thing I am surprised with is that you did not put the toggle switch in perfect line with the pots and socket. Not a criticism at all but when you did the deluxter scratch plate, the lines were so right that it really crossed the T’s and dotted the I’s. Still prefer this one though!

Cheers, remembering of course that this was originally routed to suit the red pearloid scratch guard from the JM kits, so I was somewhat restricted by what I had already done. That said, once you start really looking at a lot of the bigger name guitars, there is a fair bit of weird stuff going on that we just accept because they are so Iconic. To me this one has come out looking a bit like a Teisco in some ways, and I do enjoy how weird they are.

We will see what happens when I throw all these templates into my other designs, there will probably be some scope for refining. I actually hate having the switch there and it was one of the main reasons I changed the guard/layout on my JM, but aesthetically it’s cool. I might try a different form of switch that doesn’t protrude as much, like on a Jazzmaster. And there is also plenty of room on the lower horn. If I stick with this general guard design, I will probably route under there as well for weight reduction and to give control placement flexibility. Next one will likely be another HH as that’s kind of my favourite, so I might have some fun with the wiring and include a bunch of different switching… just to hurt my brain a bit.

It's come up a treat, Sonic

Thanks John, actually wouldn’t look out of place next to your cab with the red material on the front 😊
 

[Sonic Mountain]

OK here is a pretty crappy sound demo for you all. Just though the pathfinder, mic'd directly into the Mac. Middle pickup is a bit quiet, I may have to cut the springs down a little to get it to sit up a bit more. Otherwise is fun to play so far.



EDIT: Apologies for being out of tune as well, fresh strings and too much goofing around trying to get the vid to work.

[king casey]

Excellent. a new guitar that looks vintage.

Apologies for being out of tune as well, fresh strings and too much goofing around trying to get the vid to work.

Been there for sure.

I have that same bridge pickup from my JM-1 installed in the neck of my TL-1R.
Considerably louder than the bridge pickup.
Is that a Pitbull ST neck?


cheers, Mark.

edit: yes it looks better without gold hardware

[Sonic Mountain]

Cheers, yeah it’s a pitbull neck from that black squire I had here for a while. Swapped it off after pulling the squire neck apart.

[JohnH]

Thanks John, actually wouldn’t look out of place next to your cab with the red material on the front 😊

We should make it happen sometime!

[Sonic Mountain]

Well it's been a while since I've had much to share on here. I started a masters degree this year and foolishly joined a second band so time has been at a premium. Doesn't mean building has completely ground to a halt. I'm going tomorrow to have a fresh set of scratch build templates cut for an offset version of the Deluxster and I've been tinkering with this build quite a bit.

While I love playing the Shoegazer, it doesn't really have the flexibility I need for my main band. Being a 'chuck it on the bridge pickup and go for it' guy doesn't work for the eclectic styles we do and despite 3 different bridge pickup changes I can't find one that does everything I want. So I started using this one, the lipstick is so gorgeous clean and feeds back like a monster dirty. The middle is great for general rhythm duties and I get a trusty humbucker for lead stuff. It's taken a while to get used to playing more carefully to avoid hitting switches and knobs, but overall I think that has also helped improve my sound.

The main issue however is that it is heavy as all get out. Easily my heaviest guitar and with the hard edges around the body quite uncomfortable to play for long periods. So I set about a weight loss program, routing out a massive swimming pool, enlarging the belly and forearm curves significantly and even taking a couple of mm out of the neck pocket to bring it deeper into the body and let me wind the bridge and pickups down a bit. Also had a colour change... which I'm not totally sold on. But it's like concrete to sand so I'll probably leave it for a bit. Went black, then decided that was too much so ended up with brown. Next up will be a middle pickup cover and a better ring around the humbucker as I just painted these black with rustoleum and it's wearing thru pretty quickly.

Some pics:








One of the changes I've made to my templates is to make the neck heel standard Fender style to open up a range of options there. So with my next scratch build I will make 2 necks and one of them will end up on this guitar to make it a full scratch build. The Pitbull neck is fine, but I want my headstock and carve.


Finally, just for fun, here's a painting I did for our band room (Sorry about the crappy lighting, I forgot to take a pic before I handed it over)

[Sonic Mountain]

Hey Colin,

Yeah, I'm doing it externally even though I am in Toowoomba just for the flexibility. And yes, it's just mainly keeping up. I had to complete a BGEN in English lit first as I'm aiming for a dual major and the sheer volume of novels I had to power through was eye watering.

Cheers
Phil