The painting is done, it’s Alkyd Oils. Hopefully they will stay settled with a clear top coat, or they won’t. This is a experiment in the works.

This came in with a black gloss finish and it really begged for some customization. I was inspired by Jimmy Page’s Telecaster (as used on many Led Zeppelin favorites), and decided to take a cue from the maestro and create my own ‘dragon’ guitar.

I had previously tried a mahogany stain on the sanded top, and found it lackluster because the grain of the wood was pretty plain, which is pretty common for the production guitars from any manufacturer. The solid colors are often multi piece or plainly grained. I care a lot more about tone. And these S270’s where LP/PRS sleeper killers. They feel like guitars meant to play heavy music, technically enhanced with a shallow fretboard radius and a 25″ scale length. You have a PRS/Martin scale length for that certain tonality, a nice thick mahogany body with a belly cut, and a custom, string-through stop tail .

The pickup’s are Ibanez Stock for now, or will be when they’re installed. Seymour Duncan 59’s or a Distortion set would work pretty well, a Hot PAF, maybe a Slash Model with Alino IIs? Maybe something exotix like a active set, or whatever Lace is up to.

I got this one styled with cream pick-up rings, and some vintage style Kluson with greenish yellow buttons. So gross they’re kinda cool. They also shave a few grams off the headstock weight, as this one is a little top heavy for extended sessions with the stock sealed tuners.

Everything else will be stock, But I’ll figure out a little mod for the controls. I’ve grown fond of the DPDT joined humbucker pair to ground for series humbucking trick. A fatter sounding Cap, and double checking the range and curve of the pots will round up the electronics.

This one’s been a little finicky about action height, so I’ll be doing a carful leveling and fret profiling with a new set of precision radius blocks I’ve acquired. Stew Macs got a lot of competition these days.

But first the time consuming process of getting a final finish applied, cured, and polished. And it could always get messed up! We’re having fun, right?

Published by ModGuitar Senior Editor

I have been building and modding guitars for 20+ years. My goal is to share my knowledge with readers, as well as offer affordable learning and do-it-yourself resources.

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