Grateful Dead Music Forum

Hey now, y'all...

A few of you know that I'm getting a custom guitar built by Master Luthier, SB MacDonald (out of Huntington, Long Island, NY). I just got the LATEST pix of this bad boy...I'm 2-3 weeks away now!

Go to www.theCAUSEjams.com/photos and scroll all the way down to the last gallery, entitled "Pappy's New Guitar"....sickleberry!!

SB MacDonald's website: www.customguitars.com

Amazing luthier and check out some of his clients (Robert Hunter, for example!).

beautiful! congratulations pappy that thing is gonna be sweeeeet

hope the one im building turns out that good

Love the tiger stripes...

What kind of woods?

Wow she looks great! What pickups are you going to load her up with?

Thanks, fellas!

First off - I'm picking her up on Sunday, March 2nd (barring any unforseen setbacks)!!

Here's the specs: The top layer is Tiger Maple. It came from a piece I was given over 10 years ago from one of my best friends, who happens to be a large purveyor of the stuff. He was selling pieces of Tiger Maple to Gibson at the time for their Historical Series....this wood could have possibly eneded up at the Smithsonian! The back is Mahogany. There will be a piece of Tiger Maple on the back to act as the plate cover for the electronics.

The fretboard is ebony and will be unmarked, other than the frets - no dots on the frets...only markings will be on the side of the neck, so I can still see where I'm at! It's a maple neck - also built by SB - but from a more sturdy piece of Maple. Headstock is an inline 6.

Gold set bridge (string through the back), gold Sperzel locking tuners.

The pickups are CUSTOM MADE, as well (sah-weeeet!) by pickup artist, Lindy Fralin ( www.fralinpickups.com ). There will be 2 High-Output Humbuckers. One custom wound for the bridge, one custom wound for the neck. 3 position Les-Paulesque black switch and one smaller toggle switch for in & out of phase. There will also be 2 black knobs. One for volume & one to blend from one pickup to another.

That's it! SUPER STOKED!!!! I will most certainly post pics when it's done, as well as pics from the first gig with the new axe!

Super SickleBerry is more like it...
You lucky dog....

ONE CORRECTION...

The backplate to cover the electronics is actually made of the Mahogany.

There are TWO more updated pictures of the final, wet-sanded & buffed body on the site and you can see the Mahogany back plate.....

SWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEET!!!

Thanks again, fellas!

IT'S ALMOST DONE!!! A few more pictures recently posted on www.theCAUSEjams.com/photos (scroll all the way down to the bottom) - most recently, WITH the pickups and knobs/switches...he used these chicken knobs that just look KILLER, IMO.

I'm hoping that the black PUs don't detract too much from the wood....what do you guys think?

That is one sweet slab o' wood. wow!

I personally would have gone with white pups/brass surrounds and brass knobs... but, man, it's whatever floats your boat. As long as YOU are happy with it!

Very nice piece of work!

I've gotta admit the black pups took me a bit at first but IMO no other color looks 'right' for duals. Just like, IMO white is the only normal looking color single on non-black Strats.

Love the chickenhead knobs! When I had Fargen making my new amp that was a top requirement. Never thought about popping them on a guitar but man I love it!!!

Congrats, Pappy! I am very happy for you!!!

well I gotta say I like the black pickups and don't like the knobs..but then again I do love my tiger maple bass with the round controls and black pickup, so go figure
here is a close up of my girlfriend Clara


http://www.landingbass.com/additional%2 ... 0L532.html

and a couple more pics at our site
http://www.theCAUSEjams.com

I'm liking the black pickups now. Just needed a night to relax...there was a TON of progress made yesterday, and I was getting a bit overwhelmed, I guess!

Anyways, David's "Clara" is a gorgeous bass - if you guys haven't seen her yet!!

I totally dig the chickenhead knobs and I'm all about the pickups now! Can't wait to pick her up!! I imagine the completed pics will be popping up shortly!!!

Thanks for all the kindness, fellas!!!

Another update....it seems that SB is going to replace the black plastic bindings around the pickups with MAPLE bindings. This will cut down the amount of black, which is cool. I LIKE the black now. It's more ME, as are the chickenhead knobs (noted as a "feh" from my bassist, but I've received more "sweet"s than "feh"s on those knobs)!!

FYI...if you didn't catch it on the other topic...

She's done! All she's waiting for is strings. Check out the new MAPLE rings around the PUs!

www.theCAUSEjams.com/photos (scroll all the way down)

ONE MORE WEEK!!!!

AND - if you are ANYWHERE near Pittsburgh, come on out for the Stratocaster's last full show (I'll still put it on every now & again for MIDI tunes) at MOONDOGS (www.moondogs.us) in Blawnox THIS SATURDAY NIGHT!!!

Freakin' sweet! Good choice on the rings!

The cut of maple seems to nicely transition from the light and bright body to the black pups!

I played a show this weekend and as usual brought 2 gits:
1 - new parker
2 - my longtime fav my jackson

3 songs into the second set my high e goes flat. I give it a quick ear tune mid song and it keeps getting worse. I then check the locking tuning peg, it's tight. Finally I realize it is unwinding from the bridge.

Well I swap guitars mid song and it was really nice to have my old baby back on...