John McGee's Dragon - a one-off guitar built by one of our readers

guitarz.blogspot.com:

Here's one for ya! I call it "The Dragon."

The idea was to make a guitar into a stylized dragon. The body of the guitar is the wings spread with talons on the ends of the wings, hence the points. The headstock becomes the head of the beast and reflects the body horns (talons).

This is almost a semi-acoustic. The entire body is chambered except for the area under the pickups and bridge. The sides are about 3/8" thick - WAY thicker than a true semi-acoustic. By design, it has to be classified as a chambered solid body, but it's about as close as you can get without actually being there. I put a 1/8" cap on the back and front, which is more akin to a semi's thickness.

Continuing the dragon theme are the f-holes and 12th fret inlay. I was looking for something special to really set this one off and pronounce the theme visually while still at least trying to appear reserved and classy like a traditional semi-acoustic. I don't think it went too overboard, but I suppose that's all a matter of taste.

The body is poplar, the top, headstock faceplate, and inlays are bloodwood. The pickups are Airline reproductions of the P-35 "Kleenex box" pickups.

John McGee

[Note: John actually sent us this email and photos last October, and for some reason the blog post never made it further than the draft stage. Sorry about the delay, John! - G L Wilson]

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

John McGee's Mockingbird

guitarz.blogspot.com:
We've seen a couple of John McGee's self-built guitars before. Today we see what happened when he turned his attention to one of BC Rich's most iconic designs. I'll let John talk you through it:

Here's a Mockingbird I finished up earlier this year. I'm a fan of the more unusual body shapes, and the Mockingbird has long been one of my favorites.

This one has a mahogany body. I don't know what strain of mahogany it is, but it's dang heavy. In hindsight, I really should have thinned it down a lot more than it is, but oh well. If it bugs me too much down the road I can always just make another body for it. :)

The flat top of the BC Rich version never looked right to me, so I gave all of the edges a soft bevel. Except for the "axe" - it had to stay sharp. You rarely see a guitar painted a really in-your-face yellow, so that was the way to go for this one.

The neck was a bit of an experiment. I glued up purpleheart and lightly flamed maple with the intention of dropping the truss rod in from the back, like on some Fenders. After wrestling with how to fill in the trench in the back, it was suggested to just slice off a piece of the neck blank, use it for the fretboard, and drop the truss rod in the front. As it was from not only the same piece of wood but the same place IN the board, the purpleheart glued back almost seamlessly.

For anyone who might be concerned about the strength of a pinstriped fretboard, you shouldn't be. 99.99% of the time, a properly glued joint will be stronger than the surrounding wood. Fender has been putting a walnut skunk stripe in the back of their necks for decades without issue.

The pickups are a story unto themselves. A friend of mine winds pickups for me in exchange for bodies. He made these with purpleheart bobbins to match the neck. Using wood bobbins isn't too uncommon in the high-end custom shops that wind their own pickups, but they don't come cheap. I'm extremely fortunate to have this friend. These are wound pretty close to PAFs, but a touch brighter.

Chrome hardware and a Kahler finish off the guitar. The electronics are as simple as I get: a 3-way switch, 1 volume, and 1 tone.

John

Thanks for showing us this fine looking guitar, John. I particularly like the multi-lam neck, and the sculpted contours of the body (it's very yellow isn't it?).

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

John McGee's Corvus

guitarz.blogspot.com:
We recently looked at a Danelectro-inspired guitar built by Guitarz reader John McGee. He hinted that there was more where that came from, and as good as his word, has sent us photos and details of a guitar he based on one of the lesser-known models from one of the guitar giants, the Gibson Corvus. I'll let John explain in his own words:

Here's a Corvus I made last year. I know the Corvus is something Gibson would rather forget, but I loved them then and I love them now.

The original was unbalanced (there's a shocker - a poorly balanced Gibson!), so I lopped off the headstock. That cleared everything right up. Steinberger tuners made it all possible. I also modified the contouring to suit my tastes. It now balances very nicely and is REALLY light and comfortable. It's one of my favorite guitars to play.

The body is poplar, the neck is maple/rosewood. The pickup is a Kramer quad-rail, coming in at around 15K.

The only regret I have is the color. It kinda looks like an upside-down whale with teeth, or a Goldfish cracker. Then again, that only adds to the silliness of the whole thing.

Thanks again for that, John! We always enjoy seeing one-offs and self-builds here at Guitarz. It's interesting to see a lesser-known guitar like the Gibson Corvus used as inspiration. The shape of the body could have been originally designed to have the tuners located where you put them!

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!

The Retrotron by John McGee

guitarz.blogspot.com:
John McGee writes:

I've been reading the Guitarz blog for a little while now. I build guitars that are slightly off kilter, and I thought you night like this one.

It's a scaled down Danelectro Bowtie shape. The neck is from a modern Dano re-issue, as are the tuners. The pickups are Gretsch mini-HBs. The body is ash, covered with countertop Formica and bound in white. I call it the Retrotron.

John

Nice guitar! I like the Formica top and the pickguard shape. We are always happy to receive photos of your self-builds, so please keep them coming, folks!

G L Wilson

Guitarz - The Original Guitar Blog - now in its 9th year!