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wadeaminute wrote:I like #2 and then #1. #3 comes in fifth.
So, hardtail? I hardtailed one of my Super-Sonics with a left-handed tele bridge. Very happy with that.
What neck are you going to order? A Mustang or Jag one? Inverted headstock?

I'm left handed, I play my existing SuperSonic flipped over. This is basically an attempt to keep almost the same body shape but move the controls to true lefty, and hardtail it.

Bridge will be the Musicmaster RI bridge that I had success with on my Musicmaster that I built. Lefty 24" neck from Guitarmill like on my Musicmaster.

Okay, so I'm now beginning to put this together, I still haven't set on either #1 or #2 just yet but I'm starting with the neck order. BAMP for progress.

Nice one. I still think No.1.
He much do those GuitarMill necks set you back?

About $240 after shipping and all that.

I go with mostly standard options except for MOP dots, that raises it a tad. I don't really want all that fancy shit. I did actually wait before placing the order, I am debating whether to go with 1.5" nut width again, or get the standard 1 5/8" width.

Cool. It's on my (long) list of things to get. I'd like to get a decent neck on my Mercury, the one on there is too flat at the back in profile, more like a thin D.

Gonna have to vote for #2 here, looks better balanced to these eyes.

Neck and bridge ordered. Those are the crucial bits to have on hand when getting the body made, so got those first. I actually ordered two of the Musicmaster RI bridges since I dunno how long those are actually going to be available, and I want another on hand when I make the next one.

This time, I went with the 1 5/8" nut width, as I decided I'm doing #2 this time, and I want that to be as close to my Supersonic as possible. Color is going to be white primer with clearcoat over it, white pickguard.

I figure once I have both widths available I can decide easier on which to go with for the next one, which will be #1 from the first post.

Also, once this is done I'm selling my actual Supersonic, one person already has dibs but if that falls through I'll be posting it in the Classifieds.

I need to get to work doing some tracing to have a template to send the body person.

Got the bridge in today, so I was finally able to work on the placement for the control plate and pickguard. This is what I'm thinking, disregard the pencil lines for the guard near the plate, those are going to be extended to get to the plate. I started with a tracing of my Musicmaster guard with my Supersonic guard overlaid, so I could get the proper approximation of the bridge relative to the neck pocket.

This is the working template I'm going to be sending off to have the guard and body made, as soon as I have the neck in hand to send along.

Who is making the body?

Our buddy here cooterfinger was nice enough to agree to do the work, so I'm going with him again. He did an unbelievably fantastic job with my Musicmaster body that I'm going back to him for this one also.

Looks like it is going to be really cool!

You know, after looking at it again and comparing it to the photo's I made in the first post, the tracing I ended up with are closer to #3 than #2. I might need to retrace it while moving the upper horn backwards a bit. The tracing I did was effectively just laying down the Supersonic, marking the center line, tracing, then laying the Musicmaster down and aligning it to the same rear-center line, then tracing the upper. I think I might need to redo it again to get it with a better upper horn alignment. I'll do that also and see how that looks.

It's nice to work with cardboard cuz you can keep trying different designs before getting it cut out of planks.

Revision to the top horn, about 1/2" cut off the horn now. I'm still working out where to place the control plate with cooterfinger but this should be the final design with some expanding as needed to make it fit.
I absolutely cannot find a lefty Jag control plate, nor a spare part for a Supersonic which would also work here. Since the pictured plate belongs to the Supersonic which will be sold, I need to source one for this. I've done the google's, anyone have any other leads for lefty jag or spare Supersonic plates?

I might end up doing what I had to do with the Musicmaster and just buy a righty plate, flip it, and use flat-top screws. I would like to use standard bevel screws if possible, though.

The Supersonic RI thread reminded me of something, when I ordered my neck from Guitarmill I just went with the 1 5/8" nut width without looking it up, I'd forgotten that the Supersonic had a slightly smaller width of 1 9/16" which I confirmed by measuring mine. I emailed back to Guitarmill to see if it wasn't too late to change the order to get the new neck in that size, it wasn't so the neck on this will be the same as my SS neck. I'm really happy about that.

Pens wrote: I absolutely cannot find a lefty Jag control plate, nor a spare part for a Supersonic which would also work here.

Maybe a Mustang Bass plate will suit?



It's a little narrower than a LH Jaguar plate, it curves in the direction you want though.
I'm sure this guitar somebody built (not me, I saved the pic for inspiration) has a Mustang Bass control plate.


Compare with an actual Supersonic;

Adam, you might have just solved my problem. Checking into this, thanks!

BTW, that guitar looks awesome. Where did you find that?


EDIT: I went ahead and ordered two of those bass plates, they look like the perfect solution and I'll need a second one for when I build #1 next year. Thanks for the tip, Adam!

Final design done, now that I have all the parts on hand to lay them out. Those mustang bass plates are a bit smaller which actually helped, it was quite cramped down there with a full size jag plate.

Everything is on hand now, except for the neck. As soon as the neck is in, I'll be shipping all of this off to cooter to make up the body and pickguard.



Still trying to figure out color. The guard will be 3-ply white, but I'm torn between white body, or a darker navy / OLPB. I don't like the medium blue color but I like the darker color that OLPB has. Considering how to shoot a darker blue tint over LPB.

What's with the little bump near the bridge on the low E side? Wouldn't it be better to follow the line down all the way, or better still a gentle curve just outside the straight line.

I did consider that, and my first draft of the pickguard was that way. I just don't like how "straight" that section is, it needed to be broken up. I then used the Mustang guard loop to connect to it and that's the result.

To be honest I'm not 100% satisfied with it that way either but I'm not really sure how else to do it. I don't like the straight version.

I like the straight down way.