Greeting from the Great White North... eh!

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digi2t
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Greeting from the Great White North... eh!

Post by digi2t » Fri May 15, 2020 7:01 pm

Hey everybody,

Actually stumbled into this forum by accident, via a couple of threads in the Effects section. Then I realized that I also had an offset to offer. First, the back story...

The year was 1983. I was in my second year of college, and I was also working as a news/sports announcer at our college radio station. We had a lounge that we used to hang out at, and we'd usually bring our instruments along for impromptu jams. I was sporting a late 70's Goya blond Strat at the time, which one of the students was always telling me he loved. One day he proposed a trade; my Goya for a '66 Mustang neck, a Mighty Mite mahogany Strat body, and all the hardware and a couple of pups. Having already built one guitar from scratch when I was 16, I was pretty confident that I could put together something worthwhile. I went for it. It became my main axe, my "#1" for the next 30 years. Here's a shot of it, circa 2013 (on the left)...

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So, 2014 comes around and I find Brian Gipperich and Tomahawk Custom Guitars. Brian was also selling custom bodies at the time. While the Mighty Mite body had delivered faithful service for all those years, I decided that it was perhaps time for an update, and maybe something a bit closer to the Mustang body spirit. That's when I came across this...

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While I wanted to keep the tone warmth of mahogany, the walnut strips and flame maple wings give it a great high end edge. There's no veneer on this body, it's solid mahogany, walnut, and maple. I had the neck pocket and neck pup routered by Brian, and I did the rest. I decided on a pair of Bill Lawrence pickups, an L500XL in the bridge, and an L45-S in the neck position. Controls are volume with push/pull to tap the coil of the 500, and tone with a push/pull switch between regular cap style tone, or Q Filter tone control. A Babicz Full Contact bridge, custom "Moan/Bitch" three way switch, and a tung oil finish completed the build.

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The wide range between the pups offers an overdrive boost like effect at the flick of a switch. I can just ride the L-45 for rhythm, and them throw the L500 on for a screaming lead line or flat out crunch, all without touching the volume or stepping on any pedals. Splitting the coil on the L500, or using the Q-Filter tone also offers an addition range of tones. But, best of all, I still have my beautiful Mustang neck. It had a refret back in the mid '80's, and could probably use another one now, but it doesn't fret out anywhere, and the buzz is really minimal, so guess it'll be fine a good while longer.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find anything recent from Tomahawk. From the looks of it, they seem to have gone out of business not long after I bought the body. Kind of a shame, Brian had some great looking bodies out there for a while. Guess I got lucky I suppose.
https://www.deadendfx.com/

"Turn down amp, strum harder" - PRR

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SignoftheDragon
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Re: Greeting from the Great White North... eh!

Post by SignoftheDragon » Thu May 28, 2020 1:53 pm

Nice looking geet!

Babicz is a name I know from following Steinberger stuff for most of my life- I've lusted after a 'berger 12-string for as long as I've played guitar.

It's quite a cool bridge setup- I'm going to look more into his other offerings just for kicks.

Anyway- Welcome Welcome!

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SignoftheDragon
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Re: Greeting from the Great White North... eh!

Post by SignoftheDragon » Thu May 28, 2020 1:56 pm

I come from old Canadian stock too- a couple generations back. Nice to have you 'aboot!'

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