NGD - 1992 Custom Shop soloist with holoflake from hell refin

[Ward]

Back in May I found a 92 solid mahogany CS soloist that was in rough shape cosmetically. All kinds of nicks and scratches, an extra pickup route (to make it HSH) and toggle switch added, and a Floyd shoved into a JT590 route that was bottoming out and couldn't be intonated.

Flk-bfr4.JPG

I'm always on the lookout for mahogany soloists, so I grabbed it. I sent it to Dan Lawrence at DRL Graphics to fill in routes and make it a H/S, re-route for the original Floyd, fill in the extra switch hole, re-top it, and clean up all the nicks and dings to prep for paint.

Then I had him paint it holoflake. I wanted something a little different than the other holoflakes I had seen, so I asked Dan if he could cover the whole thing in solid holoflake. I wanted the whole thing to be in motion with color. He did an amazing job. I wish the pics would catch some of the brilliance of the paintjob, but they are awful. In the pics it looks like a silver guitar. In person it looks like it is a flowing sea of every color in the rainbow.

Here are some pics. None of them come close to capturing the amount of color that is always coming off this thing.

[Ward]

Not sure why, but pics are posting strange.

Here are a couple that show some color, but still don't do it any justice:

[Ward]

And here it is, hanging in its new home on the wall of mahogany:

[CowboyFromHell]

Very well done and an excellent addition to the collection. Great score, even if it did require some work to get it the way you want it.

[xenophobe]

Wow, that is the holoflake from hell!

Grats! Nice collection!

I love mahogany too. And Koa... and from the sounds of it, I'll probably like my CS in walnut burl as well!

[Ward]

Never played anything Koa, but I have been told that if I like mahogany I will like koa. And I love mahogany.

That killer Fender of yours is koa, isn't it?

[Ward]

Very well done and an excellent addition to the collection. Great score, even if it did require some work to get it the way you want it.

Thanks. Yeah, reverse head mahogany soloists don't come around often, so I had to jump on it even if it did need some work...

[Trem]

Quite the transformation. I can see the color pretty good to get the jist of it, turned out great, grats.

[xenophobe]

Never played anything Koa, but I have been told that if I like mahogany I will like koa. And I love mahogany.

That killer Fender of yours is koa, isn't it?

Full body Koa is kinda like mahogany, but it sounds a bit different. It has a more woody/organic tone to it. If you like mahogany cause it sounds a bit dark and evil, Koa is like that, but a lot more moody. It's very growly and dark sounding. EDIT: Brooding was one of the adverbs I was looking for.

Yeah, that Fender is koa... I had it in my possession for less than a day and it's been at the luthier's ever since. Shouldn't be there for more than another couple of weeks though... finish guy needs to touch up the fret ends where they were delaminated. He needs to do his magic and most of that time is sitting around curing between treatments or whatever. He's not like an auto paint guy, he's like an old, old-school guitar, gunstock and instrument finish guy for most of his life and does all the finish work/repair/restoration for a luthier shop that has been around since 1923. One of those old-timey dudes who knows their shit. Can't wait to get it back, but I told him to take all the time he needs.

[Hellbat]

Awesome!!! What a rescue. I LOVE the stroke on the logo too. It really helps it from blending in to the finish.

[Ward]

Awesome!!! What a rescue. I LOVE the stroke on the logo too. It really helps it from blending in to the finish.

Thanks!

The paint on the headstock was also coming up in places and needed repair, so I went for a matching head. Luckily the logo was intact, and I asked him to leave some of the original black as a border. I think it worked out great as an accent around the white logo.

[xenophobe]

Yeah, the logo really does stand out that way. I like it.

[neilli]

Looks awesome! Dan does great work..

[Gartron]

Stunning!!..you have some amazing guitars Ward!

[Devotee]

Great rescue! Looks fantastic and i love the black stroke on the headstock logo.