Sundown

As of this writing it is over 103F(40C) here at the home office in Las Cruces and it's just going to get hotter before the day is done. I'm still at work and I have put the final touches on my restomod project I call "Sundown".

Yeah, it's not a cigar box. This is a full on six-string with a wenge wood neck and a basswood body, and considering what I started with I think it has turned out beautifully. I lucked out with the wood underneath the paint - there was minimal bondo and damage, mostly on the points and near the back plate. Most of it I was able to work around. I've rounded the edges, moved the output jack, and reworked the area around the back plate to fix the bondo and splintering I found and cut and engraved a new plate from walnut.

I've stained the whole thing for a darker rustic look to match the new neck, which is much better suited for the aesthetic I was going for. The neck pocket needed to be shimmed and I did it with a bit of walnut. I like the wenge wood and inline headstock with this body much better than the old broken neck this guitar originally came with - which, incidentally, ended up in "Pathfinder", my first six-string cigar box build. The headstock engraving is undercoated with a color-shifting paint - it was an experiment and I'm still not sure how much I like it, but it does blend into the wenge nicely.

I've replaced most of the hardware on "Sundown" with black but kept the original jack plate and also the pickup, which is surprisingly hot and responsive and reminiscent of a bridge pickup on a strat, complete with a touch of "strat quack". Otherwise the electrics are all new and it all has been copper shielded.

It's light. It's bright and resonant. The action is smooth and super low. It may be bit rustic but it's much better than it ever was before. In spite of its flaws I'm not at all mad at it.

Serial number 2405012. handcrafted in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Available June 21st.