After building the maple/walnut Tele, I decided I needed another rosewood necked guitar in my life, I troubled GSPBASSES with my idea for a hardtail (same Schaller bridge as on the Tele) Strat style guitar, with a fancy top (once I saw the Koa top, I had to have it!) routed for a P90 and humbucker with a rosewood neck that had a 70’s style large headstock.
This is how it arrived with me
As per the Tele, the plan was to finish with Eze oil and wax for a smooth natural looking finish. Before oiling, the neck was sent off to Rothko and Frost to have my signature CNC’d (abalone again) into the headstock.
With the neck away, I started oiling the body. I sanded the body smooth first then set to work
Once the first coat of oil was dry (Eze oil feels dry / hard quite quick, but I tend to leave 24 hours to be safe) I de-nibbed the finish using 0000 wire wool and set to work on the second coat, with the oil on the koa looks amazing in the light
This is how it looked once the 2nd coat had dried under the light
I de-nibbed again and applied the 3rd coat of oil. I then left the body to harden for a week. Once the oil was fully cured I applied two coats of Briwax, I did this by liberally applying the wax with 0000 wire wool then buff off. The photos make it look shinier than it is, in real life it’s more of a deep finish than the glassy looking one you see in the photos
With the body complete, the neck arrived back from Rothko and Frost, the first job was to glue in the inlay
With the glue set, I then sanded the inlay flat, rolled the fretboard edges and sanded the rest of the neck in preparation for the Eze oil finish
I then applied the Ezeoil
As per the body, once the first coat was dry, I de-nibbed and applied a 2nd and 3rd coat. I then left for a week to harden. This is how the neck looked after two coats of Briwax
I had custom ordered the pickups from Mojo so spent the time I was waiting wisely by performing a fret level. Once complete I put the body and neck together and put some strings on so I could fit the string tree
I then performed a setup on the guitar, getting the action right and getting the nut right, fitting the pots and switches in anticipation of the pickups arriving
The pickups arrived, the soldering iron came out and the guitar was put together
My customary black background shots of the finished article
