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09/06/2009 @ 08:39 AM: Here's a slightly-overdue post on one of my recently completely custom guitars. The AT Custom Purple Quilt Tele-Strat was originally completed on August 9th. This guitar project started in June when I bought an alder/quilt maple top single-pickup Floyd Rose-routed Tele-style body from A&D, a builder I've used for some of my most favorite projects to date (the Natural Quilt Thinline Strat, the Walnut Flame Jazz Bass, and the Walnut Alder Strat). Again on this project I intended to finish the guitar with Tru-Oil (gunstock oil), but I wanted to do a bold color. Calling on my small collection of wood dyes, I mixed equal parts red and blue to create the "grape" purple of this guitar. I paired the body with an amazing quarter-sawn flame maple Strat neck from Musikraft that had been sitting and waiting for the right project, and in relative short order this guitar came together. A frustrating and major setback occurred, however, when I discovered--during final assembly--the Floyd Rose mounting posts, and entire routes for the tremolo and pickup, were not properly aligned with the neck pocket route. My bad for assuming all was done correctly by the maker of the body and not verifying everything in the first place; disappointing to find such a significant flaw from someone whose work I'd previously been very fond of. So the remedy took a couple of weeks to compensate for. I drilled out the original trem post routes and plugged them with poplar dowels. I expanded one side of the trem cavity to allow for arm bolt access. I redrilled for new trem posts and installed the bushings. Finally, I restained parts of the top and applied new coats of Tru-Oil in the repaired areas and then one final coat throughout. The setback was quite upsetting, but pulling this one back spun the negative to a positive, and the thing now looks awesome--but sounds even better. Pictures of this guitar in progress, along with my other guitar projects, can be found in the photos section of my MySpace page: www.myspace.com/andrewthomassolomusic. The parts list and photos are below! A&D Solid Alder/Quilt Maple Top Tele Body--Tru-Oil/Wax Finish, Purple Stain
Musikraft Flame Maple Neck--22 Frets, 1 5/8" Floyd Rose Chrome Locking Nut, Slender C-Shape Profile, 12" Radius, 6100 Jumbo Frets, Black Inlays, Tru-Oil/Wax Finish
GFS VEH Humbucker Bridge Pickup w/ Chrome Pickup Ring
Floyd Rose Special Chrome Tremolo Bridge w/ EVH D-Tuna & Oversized Brass Sustain Block
Bourns 500K Volume Potentiometer w/ Cream Knob
Black Tremolo Cover
Switchcraft Jack w/ Chrome Jack Plate
Gotoh Mini Chrome Tuners
Chrome Floyd Rose String Retainer Bar
Chrome Neck Plate w/ Black Plastic Gasket
Chrome Strap Buttons  
Live w/ AT/DT @ Eagles Club in St. Paul - September 4, 2009
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