Something Completely Different

I mentioned the pine tele body I'd picked up, you know the one I fancy turning into something vaguely Esquire like, although with a second pickup hidden under the blank scratchplate? Yep, that one to the left with the plain black scratchplate on it..

Anyway, I was away for a few days and spent them thinking a lot about it, and I've come to the conclusion, that maybe this is the baby where I should try something that I was saving for my first custom designed body shape thingie. Another proof-of-concept, if you like, as I have no patience.

Well, the Esquire approach is definitely the way I'm going. I've got a quite beautiful Bare Knuckle Brown Sugar pickup for the bridge, and am yet to decide on the neck pickup, but am thinking of a P90 of some kind, if that will prove powerful enough.

As for the finish, I was initially thinking of a deep brown stain - I have a hang-up about rosewood teles, and was thinking that that might be a nice idea, to try and get somewhere close to the colour. However, it struck me that it might be the time to try the copper-top I have been thinking about, and as it happens I think I will. I think I mentioned before that I've always liked the idea of the Zematis and Trussart guitars, with their different takes on metal bodied guitars, and whilst I don't really want to go the whole hog, I am thinking that a copper top for the body would be particularly lovely looking.

Not that I'd want to leave it all Duracell-a-like, no.

What I've been investigating over the last couple of months are some of the finishes sculptors and roofers use to artificially age metal. I mean, if you have a brand new tin roof on your cottage, why wait decades for it to go a lovely shade of weathered when you can help nature along a wee bit?

Another idea is maybe that I could have a go at enamelling (?) though I think I need a furnace or a blowtorch to do that properly as it involves, err, melting glass powder. Might try both of course...

Anyway, that is what I'm thinking - either a bit of enamel or an artificially and artfully aged copper top for the guitar, with the remainder of the body having some other finish. Maybe even the rosewood look, who knows.

So that is the plan, I'm going to get some copper and see what I can do from there (though I don't think I'll be using the traditional roofer method of a few pints of cider and then taking a leak over it...)

Naturally, this could well become The Weathered One...or perhaps the Teacher's Jewelry One. Who can say?