G.L.A.M! Girls-Love-Alpha-Males!
Glamorous Rock thru' the decades
The Lightning Bolt Guitar
This is another guitar being made by davemegmusic.co.uk for Trey Patterson.
Please click the website address above to go to his site. I've seen some of his other work up close and some of it is pretty amazing. This is your "go-to" guy for your guitar needs whether it be a set-up, a re-build or a complete custom built guitar or other instrument.
For those who love flash guitars like me I hope you enjoy this page.
I will add photos as I get them detailing the construction of this beast of a guitar!
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Dave produced a blue print for a "strat" sized guitar but I wanted it BIGGER so he has had to add paper to get the size I wanted!
The whole body will be painted black with a white lightning bolt coming from bottom right to top left on the drawing. This will mean a downwards lightning bolt when I am using the guitar. This lightning bolt will be achieved by creating a full size white/black/white acrylic scratchplate that will give excellent contrast and be raised above the body to give definition and be harder wearing than a painted section that would risk chipping during live performances and would have meant even more work from behind and extra covers for electrics on the back of the guitar.
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The Headstock has been a real problem for us because I originally wanted a double lightning bolt effect but because of the shape it would have made the head very weak and almost impossible to string. In the end we decided on a basic style headstock with the lightning bolt in white/black/white acrylic to give strength, definition and a 3D effect!
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After much to-ing and fro-ing the final decisions were made and Dave started work.
As you can see from earlier pictures and text, the pick-up will need to be placed on the scratchplate but the bridge will be have a section of the scratchplate cut out to accomodate it. The bridge is a brilliant piece of engineering: it appears to be a normal 6 string bridge but actually has 6 strings running through it and another 6 running through the body creating 12 in all! It is fully adjustable for a perfect set-up. The volume and control knobs and switch will be wired from behind so no scratchplate is needed behind them therefore maintaining the pristine surface in the black section! The jack socket will be on the edge where it is placed not surface mounted!
The neck is 48mm wide at the nut as opposed to the standard 41mm that most 6 strings have. This is also wider than Dave had expected but is actually the same as the standard acoustic 12 string Fender that I use now. I've got chubby fingers anyway!!
Unfortunately for Dave the pick-up we wanted was no longer available so he has chosen a more expensive unit that does everything apparently.
And he's not charging me the extra!!! What a decent bloke!
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Well there's no turning back now!
The rough cut is done with the 3 pieces all glued together and the basic shaping done. It begins to look like the guitar I ordered but to the reader it just looks like a lump of wood! I know what it's going to look like!!!!!
The picture size is deceptive, this will be a big guitar!
As with my other guitar made by Dave, the design is with a through neck and is made of mahogany for strength down the neck and poplar for as little weight as possible in the finished instrument. This gives the guitar great resonance but is so light weight I can jump around without feeling weighed down by the instrument. A neat trick and a clever one!
Dave is going to have to plane away a lot of wood from the back of the guitar to achieve a playable instrument that will fit into my ever decreasing (yes decreasing) tummy! It will end up having that "strat" shaped back where the wood thins out to the top edges. You know what I mean!
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Just needs a polish, stringing and setting up. Really looking forward to picking it up soon!
