cynic

Love the Schecters. I've long been a fan of their import line, they punch well above their pay grade.

My first Hamer of all was a red, non-checkerboard Special exactly like this one and the only one I regret selling. They're real sleepers in that they look pretty boring without any of the fancies, but it had all those redundant gear page words that spill out of peoples mouths to describe the best guitars. Just a fantastic guitar. Mine sold to someone in the Northeast but the pictures aren't good enough to know if it's the one I owned. Mine did have the original case and original bridge pickup when I sold it about a decade ago.

I'm aware of that issue and have seen the repair, but that would be the first repair I recall seeing that was done in a way that didn't do a better job address the crack.

I'll go with the latter. I wouldn't be surprised to learn it was ill fitting dowels hammered into the holes that caused the crack.

I've had pretty good luck buying several custom items on Etsy. There's lots of crap there, but there are also some talented craftspersons. There's a pretty wide variety of options that pop up searching for 'custom guitar strap'.

That's the third time that listing has run its course without getting a single bid. The neck pickup coloring suggests it could be from the right time period but it looks like a Super D.

I have a baritone Nashville tele parts guitar I'm nearly done piecing together. Mine has a mini-hum in the neck, a tele uncovered neck in the middle, and a standard tele bridge pickup. I'd planned to just wire it up on a standard 5-way with typical strat switching but instead decided to go with B, BM, BN, MN, N switching. I'm starting with 325k pots and will try several different cap values to hopefully find something that works equally well between the hum and singles. I'm really curious to see what the tele neck in the middle is going to do since most use a strat pickup. All this to say I have nothing of value to add until the switch I'm lacking arrives, but I've wanted one for a very long time and share your curiosity.

It's like Zakk Wylde joined Styx.

You keep that in your parts drawer?

No matter how many I've done, I'm always pleased as punch when I plug in a cable and go through the switch settings, using an alligator clip or something similar to tap against the pickups, and hearing that tap-tap-tap through the amp confirming everything works as intended.

I'm not always crazy about them either, but the Highwood saddle design keeps the height adjustment screws beneath the surface. Next on the wiring block is another tele project that has its roots in a handful of Rio Grande pickups I tried to sell here a couple years ago. When no one wanted them they went back in the parts drawer. Browsing Warmoth's "screamin' deals" one day I spotted a 28 5/8" scale maple, ebony board, with a black headstock and had a thought. A month later a tele body popped up in the screamin' deals. Swamp ash, forearm and tummy cuts, and finished in a matching black. Hardware is predominantly Gotoh in cosmo black. Wiring will be basic strat 5-way configuration with master volume and tone. Pickups are Vintage Tallboy bridge, Vintage Tallboy Twangbucker neck, and if I remember correctly, a Halfbreed (tele neck size) in the middle.

I wired the pickups and switching for this yesterday. Pickups are Zexcoils (Vintage Single 5's in the neck/middle with a Juicy Bucker in the bridge). I used a Fender S-1 switch for the volume pot and wired it to activate the neck in any position when engaged. Pickguard is matte black thick single ply, body is KNE swamp ash hardtail, neck is Musikraft. I had CHS Guitars spray a matte black (he calls it chalk?) finish with matching headstock that turned out pretty cool. The bare areas of the neck have been sealed but I think I'll do something to make it a little more amber. I'll probably use a shellac to get the color I want followed by tru-oil. Frankenstein strats are cool, but Young Frankenstein is a way better movie. Other than finishing the neck, the only decision left to be made is the bridge. Choices are a traditional hardtail bridge using a Callaham plate with Highwood saddles: or a Callaham w/ tele-style compensated saddles:

That's exactly what it looks like. I'm thinking that "brand-new case" was made for a guitar with a 0º neck angle and it forced the TLE to comply.

Except during those years they were made before Gibson first used humbuckers.