Getting Bits Together

Well in my quest to recreate this guitar (with little or no wood work involved) I have purchased the following things already :-

• A Black and White Strat (Squire body , Fender neck i reckon from the eBay photo's) ,
• Mirror pick guard,
• Chrome telecaster style control knobs
• A 3 way toggle switch that Tom uses as a kill switch.

So far I have the Knobs and the Kill switch , with everything else still to come .

I know anyone who knows about Tom and his guitars will say " He uses a Floyd Rose!!!" .

Unfortunately my answer to that is Grrrrrrr eBay bastards ...

I was bidding on a Fernandes "The Function" that was near enough perfect for the build, however I was outbid by 2 Pounds with 2 seconds to go , and to reroute my body would cost 200quid at my local music shop or 70 if I sent it to london and that doesn't included postage or the fee's to set up the floyd rose . So because of the fact I'm a working stiff with a wife and kids ,it means I have had to let it go and just try to get everything else as accurate as I can.

Maybe the Gods of eBay will let me have a break next time , by making the pickups suddenly appear in my hands......

*Close's eyes really tight , clicks heals 3 times , and then knocks on wood*

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Grrrrr , eBay bastards...

Why I'm gonna do this to myself

I have always wanted to make my own guitar but never been in the position too before, that is until recently....

So then were do you start with something like this ?

I guess the only way you could start it any carry it though is by getting a very clear idea of what the end product is in you head and going for it . With this I thought about why I got into playing guitar in the first place , and this was because of two guitarists .

They happen to be Tom Morello and Wes Borland :-

As soon as I started listening to metal and rock that was available to this impressionable youth at the turn of the century ,two players stood out from the rest and actually made me want to play guitar. I loved the way Wes sounded ,the bizarre tunings , and the way he really stood out among the crown of down tuned metal with his complicated riff not one fingered power chords in drop Z# . And also my self not being the most macho of men i really liked the way he stuck a middle finger up at all the macho bullshit that surrounded the scene playing metal concerts in various animal costumes.

However when I heard Rage Against the Machine I could not believe what I was hearing. Here was a guy who had taken a lump of wood that had become so generic sounding and turned it into an all out aural assault vehicle , making it sound like turn tables and a helicopter among other things . As soon as I heard it , I had to have every CD . The bad thing for me was as soon as I got into them they had already disbanded....

But then came Audioslave with Chris Cornell and I got to hear them crazy sounds again , all be it in a more mainstream way, but none the less still brilliant . And it was with Audioslave I go to see Soul Power...

When I started playing guitar after hearing these guys I started on a strat , in fact I have owned many really . An old black Encore Strat , then a black and white Squire Strat starter kit , then a shoreline gold Squire Strat were my first 3 guitars. So for me the strat because boring and average really , and especially being a metal kid they were no good for anything I was trying to play. So I disregarded them entirely as they were just what everyone else had , until I saw Tom Morellos Soul Power Guitar in cochise video . When I saw it it , it planted a seed as to what a strat could be...

So fast forwarding to today , I have decided to try and recreate my hero guitar from parts , and I'm gonna document the process on here.

Sorry this was so long , but anyone who knows me knows that I'm a context kind of guy.

Ciao