Shiningshadow Model I - Inspired by the Garden

Shiningshadow Model I

While it may, at this point, be difficult to remember, I started building this guitar last fall. The body is dyed with beet juice from the garden. The pickguard is a custom job by Rusted Relics with a honeycomb design, and the tone and volume knobs are bees. The final bit, the MusiKraft neck, arrived on Tuesday, and I was able to set it up and make it playable last night.

It's an interesting guitar. I was going for something that was basically loud and bright. It's almost too bright, and it is stupefyingly loud. It's the first guitar I've played with 500k pots (vs. 250k). I'd read that they are brighter. They are definitely that.

I honestly wasn't sure I could pull this off. It was fun to piece together - ordering each of the individual parts and getting them exactly the way I wanted. The neck is a duplicate of my favorite neck (until now), the one on my Charvel San Dimas Style 1 HS, only improved by having the truss rod adjustable from the head rather than the neck. Got to have locking tuners. I was more apprehensive of soldering in the electronics and joining the neck to the body. I was justified about the neck. I ended up having to shim it a bit to get the right angle. But the instrument intonates just fine, and plays beautifully. 

DIY is a big deal around here. While it's more accurate to say that I "assembled" a new guitar rather than "built" it, it was a great way to learn about how these things are constructed and how they work.

So here art the specs:

Body:
  • Body shape: Single cutaway
  • Body type: Solid body
  • Body wood: Alder
  • Body finish: Gloss
  • Orientation: Right Handed
Neck & Fingerboard:

  • Number of Frets: 

    22

  • Scale Length: 22.5" Standard Fender
  • Nut Width: 

    1-11/16" (42.8mm)

  • Nut Slot Style: 

    1/8" Nut Slot (Standard Fender)

  • Heel Width and Type: 

    2-3/16" (55.55mm) Squared Tele

  • Truss Rod Type: 

    Dual Acting w/4mm Hex Adjust @ Head

  • Shaft Wood: 

    Rock Maple

  • Fingerboard Radius: 

    Compound 12" to 16" 

  • Fingerboard Edge Style: 

    Semi Rolled Fingerboard Edges

  • Tuner Hole Size: 

    10mm (Modern Style Keys)

  • Top Inlay Type: 

    1/4" Dots (Black)

  • Side Markers: 

    Black 2mm

  • Side Dot Location: 

    Center of Fingerboard Wood

  • 12th Dot Spacing: 

    Narrow (Modern Style Post 1964)

  • Fret Size and Type: 

    6100 Nickel Silver (Jumbo)

  • Back Profile Shape and Size: 

    D 75 81 (Thin)

Pickups:
  • Configuration: HH
  • Neck: Seymour Duncan Hot Rails Neck
  • Bridge: DiMarzio Super Distortion for Tele
Controls
  • Control layout: Master volume, tone
  • Pickup switch: 3-way
Hardware
  • Bridge type: Fixed
  • Bridge design: 6-saddle string through body
  • Tuning machines: Hipshot locking
  • Color: Silver
Other:
  • Number of strings: 6-string
  • Country of origin: Assembled Steepmeadow, USA
Muffin, top right, approves.





 


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