The stuff I build

[RatDog8o8]

I think I've finally "organized" my build photos. Maybe. But this is where I will share them. I'm not going to claim to be a luthier by any means, but I enjoy what I've built. Some I've given away; most I've kept for myself. Sometimes I use upper-end parts, sometimes I get what I can afford that will give me the "look" I'm after. Be warned - I build strange concepts at times. But it's because I wanted to see if I could get the concept that was rattling around in my "brain" out into the open and make it a reality. So far, so good. These may not be in any particular order of when I built them, either. And, they may veer away from guitar & bass builds.

This is the Warlock BatBass. Very simple, actually. I had the body for a while, just sitting around. The step-daughter of my wife's older son was into Batman, and her then-boyfriend-current-husband played guitar & bass. She was yammering about learning to play, so I found a neck on eBay and some basic hardware to build this. Vinyl decal for the image. I also got her a small practice amp and modified a basic stand to hold the body fairly securely. Seemed to like it...cried a bit when she saw it.

[RatDog8o8]

This one was built for the wife's older grandson. He, at that time, was really into the color green, and loved the shade of green that was on the "retro" (5th generation) Camaro when it came out for the 2010 model year. 3/4-scale Explorer-style, with the closest I could get to the green, with a satin white headstock & neck. A few years after I gave this to him, I built him a case for it. Also got him the amp.

[RatDog8o8]

This one is a Kramer Baretta body mated to a Kramer Focus neck. I had found the body at a local "indoor flea market", and got the neck from eBay. The pickup is a Seymour Duncan Jazz HB, recommended by a friend. Since the body was already routed for an FR-style tremelo, that's what I put in. First time installing one, and first time setting one up (I have two Washburn guitars that have the Washburn Wonderbar system). It was a kind of a metallic purple, but I added the middle black stripe to the body & the headstock is satin black. A little too much sanding led to a sort of "road worn" look in a few spots, but they weren't planned; I just left them as is under the clearcoat. This one has a custom case, with a purple interior.

[RatDog8o8]

This one is based on the two "Hello Kitty" guitars that Fender (Squire) had put out several years ago. The owner of a local guitar shop has both of the electrics; they came in white or black (I think there was an acoustic, also). My version is a 3/4-scale. All satin black, black hardware, black strings. I like the look of the EMG pickups, but this isn't one. I just wanted more blackness. Vinyl HK decals, and a custom case. I gave it to the owner of the shop as a gift; over the years, whether I buy something or not when I drop in, they all know me and take the time to talk. (I have purchased a few guitars & a couple of basses there, though.)
On either side of the neck support in the case, there are what I call "swag boxes"; places for straps, picks, etc. The lids are held in place with color-matched velcro.

[john.w.lawson]

This one is based on the two "Hello Kitty" guitars that Fender (Squire) had put out several years ago. The owner of a local guitar shop has both of the electrics; they came in white or black (I think there was an acoustic, also). My version is a 3/4-scale. All satin black, black hardware, black strings. I like the look of the EMG pickups, but this isn't one. I just wanted more blackness. Vinyl HK decals, and a custom case. I gave it to the owner of the shop as a gift; over the years, whether I buy something or not when I drop in, they all know me and take the time to talk. (I have purchased a few guitars & a couple of basses there, though.)
On either side of the neck support in the case, there are what I call "swag boxes"; places for straps, picks, etc. The lids are held in place with color-matched velcro.

Looks good bro

[RatDog8o8]

Looks good bro

Thank you, sir.

This next one is .... different. I like different.

The body is a 3/4-scale of another full-size that I've built. A friend of mine had seen the full-size, and she liked the shape. But this guitar has some onboard electronics that allow her to play in one of three modes - 1. Normally, through an amp. 2. Through the onboard speaker. 3. Through headphones. Years ago...decades ago...Gretch had a line of guitars under the Synsonics brand. I first saw them at Toys R Us. I started gathering them up years ago off of eBay, because they were interesting (different variations) and inexpensive. So, for this one, which is called "Darkness", I made the body and adapted the Synsonics tech to it so she could play whichever way she chose, using the small switch next to the tone control. The jack on the front of the body is the headphone jack; the amp jack is on the edge of the body. All black, of course (she asked for that). The front of the body & the face of the headstock are finished with Rustoleum "hammer-finish" paint. I was going for a "lava / melted stone" effect (she liked it). Custom case, all black. Swag-box lids held in place with rare-earth magnets & velcro.

[pianoguyy]

I used the hammered finish on one of my cars.

[RatDog8o8]

I used the hammered finish on one of my cars.

This was the brush-on type. The brush-on and the spraycan versions of the hammer-finish paint are very different. The brush-on has a more "flowing" look to it when it dries, where the spraycan has a more "even" look. Their idea of "black" isn't what I expected. Both types are more of a dark charcoal gray. I used the spraycan finish on our mailbox. Looks really good, but I'm glad I used the brush-on for the guitar. It's an enamel, but it dries extremely hard....almost like a lacquer feels to the touch when fully cured.

While I'm on the Synsonics trip, here's a pair of matched guitar & bass; I call them the Twins. I didn't re-finish them, just updated the electronics & the bass bridge/tailpiece. These are tiny; both of them have a 19" scale. The guitar got a stacked HB & pot, and the bass got a new set of pickups with a stacked pot. But the case is the best part, to me. Since they are so small, I just built a custom case that they both fit into.

[RatDog8o8]

This one has a definite "theme". If anyone has ever seen the TV show "Barnwood Builders" (I think it's on the Magnolia Network), they will see the tie-in. I like the show a lot, even though my local cable retards can't seem to find room among all the various "cooking shows" to keep up with the current season(s). At any rate, after having watched the show for a couple of years, I decided to build the guitar as a gift to everyone connected to the show. I had one piece of 3/4" thick barnwood left over from another project that was just big enough to use as part of the 3/4-scale body. I laminated that onto the same thickness of poplar, and that made up a good 1 1/2" thickness for a body. I left the barnwood "as is", and stained the poplar back with first some red paint (wiped off immediately), and then some brown wood-stain to "age" it. The neck got the same "aging" treatment, along with an inlay of the "BWB" initials for the show. "Aged bronze" hardware & tortoise-shell pickup ring, with a tortoise-shell control cover; the truss-rod cover is actually a piece of leather that had a good shade of brown to complement the guitar. Custom case, black hardware and brown fleece interior. Rare-earth magnets holding both the swag-box lid & a lid for the small amp that I included in the project. I sent it to the show's "HQ" (their retail store) in West Virginia after exchanging emails with one of the people there. From what I've heard, everyone seems to like it. One of the BWB "crew" (Sherman Thompson) has apparently adopted it, even though it "belongs" to all of them.

[RatDog8o8]

I can hear it now - "Does this guy ever build full-size guitars?"

Yes. Yes, I do.

This one was going to be a gift for someone, but they've vanished into the cosmos somewhere. I decided to just keep it, because I think it turned out fairly well. I present "The Beemer". The name comes from the shade of blue on the body. At one point in history, this shade of blue was (maybe still is?) a factory color option on BMWs. I had the neck (BC Rich Beast) already, and made a copy of a body already on hand. I had the color custom-mixed at a local NAPA paint department. As befits the name, it's all blinged out like a BMW might be - plenty of chrome; the control cavity cover is mirrored pickguard material. Eyebrows may be raised as to the color of the case interior, but that is what was requested. And, it doesn't really look too bad. This case did not get any swag boxes.

[RatDog8o8]

I like "matched sets". Matching guitar & bass of a particular bodystyle; another example would be a "set" of what I call "tuxedo Strats", where one is black with a white pickguard & the other would be white with a black pickguard. It's a visual thing for me. My white SG has an all-black Coffin Case; my black EB-3 bass has an all-white one. Yes, I am aware that I'm not quite right in several aspects.

That being said, this is the "Black Skull" set. An SG guitar & an EB-3 bass, all done up in black. The only color on either instrument is the control knobs; purple on the SG & blue on the bass. And, since I had my own Coffin Cases to take measurements from, I wanted to try building my own for these. Purple inside for the SG & blue inside for the bass. Black vinyl decals on each for the skull & crossbones; shiny vinyl on a satin background.

The SG has Dragonfire HBs; the EB-3 has a DiMarzio "Will Power" pickup in the neck spot, and a Bartolini pickup by the Hipshot tailpiece (my favorite for EB builds). These each also have their own DR 500BK straps, which are very nice leather.

[RatDog8o8]

Tiny bit of a "back story" here, to start off. I own a 2011 Gibson SG, one of the Sam Ash limited editions. They were limited to 400 instruments, in two colors. The one I have is Bullion Gold; they also came in Pelham Blue.



Several years ago (2016), I built a "custom" 12-string for an acquaintance back east who also has one of the Sam Ash editions. I had an Epiphone 12-string neck, and an SG body, so it was fairly easy. I had to relocate the bridge for proper scale length, and relocate the bridge pickup. A custom pickguard was necessary, as well. I hadn't started building custom cases yet, but I still had the case that my white SG came in after moving it to a black Coffin Case. So I sent that case with the 12-string.




This is the 12-string next to her SG on stage wherever she was playing that night. Yes, the pickguard looks odd when shown alongside a standard 11-hole SG pickguard (the style I prefer over the smaller one). The pickups are farther apart due to the relocation of the bridge to keep proper scale length. But she seems to like it.



I had also built her boyfriend-of-the-moment a matching EB-0 bass and sent it at the same time.



His bass went into the case for my own black EB-0 bass, which will be destined for a custom case before long.

This is the three instruments in a "family photo" before I shipped them out.


The gold paint I used was VHT High Temp Engine Metallic, "Gold Flake". It's a good quality paint, and dries very hard. It's as identical to Gibson's "Bullion Gold" that I found, and since I had my own SG as an example I could compare a lot of shades (my wife thinks I bought one of every shade of gold on the planet).

[RatDog8o8]

This one isn't really a "build", but more like an "upgrade". My son bought a BC Rich Bronze Warlock off of FB Marketplace, and since he helps me out quite a bit with things I can't do as well as I used to, I figured I'd do a little work on the guitar. It was a total mess. Whoever had put the strings on before he got it had wound all the slack onto the tuner posts.....balled-up mess on each one. And the fretboard was just nasty dirty, almost black with grime. So, after a good disassembly and thorough cleaning of pretty much everything, I started on the upgrades. Swapped over to all black hardware, and EMG-x pickups. DR Black Beauty strings & DR strap. And of course, the custom case for it.

[JJ119]

Great work!!

[RatDog8o8]

Great work!!

Thank you very much. As I've mentioned, I'm no trained luthier by any stretch of the imagination, but I enjoy what I am able to do.

This next one, which is not an instrument build, has a convoluted back-story. Long ago, there once was a magical store in the area called "Music-Go-Round", long before the invasion of the troll clan at Guitar Center. Here, in this magnificent but small store, one could find all manner of gently used gear alongside some new items. One day, while visiting this long-vanished realm, I saw the guitar that I just knew my daughter needed. A Yamaha RGX 1203s in "Mellow Pink" (what I'd call "Pepto pink"). I traded an acoustic 12-string (forget the brand) towards it, and eventually brought it home. She loved it.

Several years pass, and she parts ways with one of her "theoretical boyfriends" of the time. This did not go well, because he ended up stealing the guitar & a KaBar knife from her apartment...he had stayed behind one morning after she left for work. So, tears ensued.

Then, on a whim / hunch / what-the-hell moment, I looked on FB Marketplace for "pink Yamaha guitar".....and POOF there it was (I knew it was hers because I had put a strap on it that used those click-type buckles that nylon strap uses)! I called the detective that was handling the case, and let him know. I had already provided him with the serial number of the guitar, as I still had the sales receipt from the purchase. So off he went, and learned that the guitar was at a local pawn shop. It was confiscated, and after the proper amount of time it was returned to my daughter with no damage. Score one for good old dad!

And, while it was here, I cleaned it up and also built a case for it. She picked the purple interior. Yes, I put pink strings on it.