Hey hey, and welcome to the last installment of Famous Guitars. I’m your host Cassie, glad to have you back. Today’s gonna be a little different than my usual, but it’s the last one of these I’m ever gonna do so might as well switch it up a bit. Today I’m gonna be talking about my own “soon to be famous” guitar, instead of someone else’s already famous guitar. You can research whatever guitar you want on your own, but my custom guitar? That’s an Emerald Press exclusive. So how about I get right to it eh?
My Star
My custom made axe goes by many names. My creature, the beast, “that thing” , my beautiful creation, etc, But most of the time I just refer to it as “my star”. Why is it called that? Because that’s what it is. It’s a Charvel Star body shape, so that’s just its name. Boring I know, but everyone knows what I’m talking about so…
A Random Idea
The original idea for my star came to me randomly one afternoon while I was watching Jeopardy! with my family. I did what any sane person would do and rushed upstairs for my sketchbook and colored pencils to draw up a concept art.
What I came up with was a Charvel Star with a neon pink EKG strip that goes from corner to corner. It was supposed to have two stripes along either side of that as well, but decided against it. I eventually changed the design to neon green instead of pink because “pink just isn’t very metal”
Building My Creation
Soon after my seemingly random concept sketch my dad ordered a template from Potvin Guitars for me to get started on my first solo guitar build. I’d helped him construct a few guitars before, but nothing like this. I’d mostly done finish/stain work before, but this time I was pretty much on my own.
As soon as the template came in the mail, we dug out an extra basswood slab and got to work. We had to slice off a few rectangles from the top right (?) corner and glue them to the bottom because the wing on the template was longer than the wood we had. I situated the best placement for the template and dusted off the router to start cutting everything out
Not All Smooth Sailing
Not all of the guitar build went well, I was staining my fretboard with calligraphy ink and knocked the container off the work table directly onto myself. My boots are permanently stained and I had black splotches all over my arm for a week. This was right after I was trimming my glow-in-the-dark side dots and accidentally sliced my finger open with an Exacto knife. Those things are sharp, man! I’ll probably have the scar on my left index finger for life. I think it’s cool though! Scars are metal, especially when they come from guitar building.
The Finished Product
The finished guitar is exactly what I had in mind when I started the project. The body is made of basswood (as I said) and the paint is a super toxic smelling metallic black. Seriously, my dad had to do the basecoat. I could NOT handle it. The EKG strip is bright punch-you-in-the-face green, as well as the design on the headstock. All the green glows in the dark, as well as my fret inlays and side dots.
The neck is maple with a spoke wheel truss rod and two carbon fiber rods inside of it. That thing isn’t warping any time soon. The fretboard is ebony wood stained black and sanded graphite smooth. There’s 22 extra jumbo stainless steel frets, 21 on strings 3 and 4 because of the truss rod. The headstock is a BC Rich design with my initials painted on the side without tuning pegs.
As for the electronics, I put a set of Seymour Duncan Parallel Axis pickups in the neck and bridge, and wired them up so they can coil split. There’s two volumes and one tone so I can turn the neck pickup off if I want to. The tremolo is a Gotoh 1996-T fitted with two springs instead of the usual three. The tuners are D’Addario self-trimming tuning machines, and they’re the best thing ever.
Wrap-Up
And that’s it from me. I have so much more I could say but the average attention span of a person does not permit me to. I wish I could’ve covered more guitars, but the same old thing tends to get boring after a while. My star is an absolute beast, and there’s almost nothing I’d change about it. Building it was super fun, aside from the “slicing open my finger” part. Oopsies. I love the paint job and the glow-in-the-dark designs are super cool. Truly a worthy weapon of choice.
I had so much fun writing for the Emerald Press this year, and I’m gonna miss my guitar column. I’m glad I got to put out so much content for y’all, and I hope you had as much fun with it as I did. I’ll go ahead and stop talking now. So for the very last time on Famous Guitars, I’m your host Cassie, and I’ll be seein’ ya. Rock on!
Guitar Glossary
Finish work: When you’re working on the paint job of an object.
Router: A power tool that cuts straight down into wood
Fret inlay: The dots on the fretboard that mark certain frets
Truss rod: The stick inside a guitar neck that keeps it straight
Coil split: When a humbucking pickup is wired to function as a single coil pickup
