Ultimate Rhoads

I'm also a huge Scorps fan, so I thought I'd make a "Scorpions Tribute V" to sit alongside my PDV. I incorporated my love of trans black flame maple tops with the signature black/white split scheme the Schenker brothers have long used, as well as the iconic stencil scorpion they use on all their swag. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and how it plays and sounds. It's supposed to be a chrome paint, but looks like metallic grey to me.



The headplate and fingerboard are my most favorite wood, African Blackwood. It looks like Ebony, but it's actually a type of rosewood (Dalbergia melanoxylon -- Dalbergia is the rosewood genus). It's said to be the most expensive wood, but I'd argue that Pink Ivory is. It's really hard to find stock large enough because the tree grows skinny and twisted. It's especially popular among woodwind instrument makers. The "S" is Mother of Pearl, with Paua shell inlay on the fingerboard. It's a tung oil finish on the neck.



The bridge and graphite nut are made by Graph Tech, and the pickup is a Fury ZP-20 humbucker, both are Canadian companies. The bridge is feather light and very comfortable. The pickups are amazing, and are actually made by a now 73 year-old guy in Saskatoon in his home shop!! The impedance on them measures a whopping 20 Kohms!! More info: http://www.furyguitar.com/ The sustain and tonal response is simply amazing.



A close-up shot of my signature one-piece maple neck and binding concept of inlaying the fingerboard and headplate into the neck. I see Grover Jackson does this now with the headplate with his new company, GJ2. I first tried it 20 years ago, and haven't seen anyone else do it until now.

Absolutely LOVE the neck in lays!

did you build the scorpions tribute guitar its really nice i love the feel of the oiled necks i think you have posted about my RR POLKA DOT i am having built i have posted pix i wanted the unfinished nect for my V but changed my mind on but that is a sweet looking guitar about how much to have you build a custom v guitar roughley thanks

that's awesome.....its just a shame you can't see thru the silver/grey to see the flame on that side

Paul Wolfe wrote:Absolutely LOVE the neck in lays!

Thanks Paul! I almost wasn't going to put any inlay at all on the fingerboard, but decided at the last moment to do something really subtle with paua shell. This would be an ideal beginner's inlay if you'd like to do something like this on the guitar you want to build.

the crush wrote:did you build the scorpions tribute guitar its really nice i love the feel of the oiled necks i think you have posted about my RR POLKA DOT i am having built i have posted pix i wanted the unfinished nect for my V but changed my mind on but that is a sweet looking guitar about how much to have you build a custom v guitar roughley thanks

Thank you! And yes, I just finished construction on it last week. I really prefer the feel of an oiled neck too, big time! But I think I"d still want something like a PDV to have the paint job on the neck too. Yours was the blue PDV, right? That thing is so sweet!!

I'm not really setup to go into business with it... my little 8x10 shop is not insulated or heated, and it can get down to as much as -30°C (-22°F) in the winter, and I don't have a spray booth and rented out time in a local sign shop to do that. They're closed after work and weekends, so I have to arrange it during my vacation time. I haven't done any serious number crunching on it, but it would be in the typical range of $2-3K to be worthwhile. Some sort of "production model" would no doubt bring down the cost, especially if I got setup with a CNC machine. My skills would need to be developed more to start demanding such a professional rate too, which I don't feel are there yet. I only had a couple years experience at it 20 years ago, quit the trade, then started up again a year ago for fun. I'd only made a couple electrics with bolt-on necks before, and acoustic, a few dulcimers and a couple dozen flat-top mandolins, as well as some repair work at the time. This is my first set neck construction.

sytharnia wrote:that's awesome.....its just a shame you can't see thru the silver/grey to see the flame on that side

Thanks!! There actually isn't any flame maple on the left side, but just some inexpensive plain maple I scored from a local cabinet maker. I had thought about laminating the whole top with flame maple and doing what you suggested, but thought it would be too small and few areas to bother, and just went for solid paint scheme on that half instead. The flame maple actually looks quite darker and and more black in real life, but the grain does pop out nicely like that when it hits the light on the right angle.

This is my first time doing a trans finish, and it turned out even better than I had hoped. I just rubbed the dye (Stew Mac's ColorTone Liquid Stains, awesome stuff!) mixed with Isopropyl alcohol into the wood, and didn't spray any mixed with the clear coats at all. I think some of the most beautiful sunbursts I've seen were only rubbed into the wood rather than sprayed on.

Whipper wrote:

Paul Wolfe wrote:Absolutely LOVE the neck in lays!

Thanks Paul! I almost wasn't going to put any inlay at all on the fingerboard, but decided at the last moment to do something really subtle with paua shell. This would be an ideal beginner's inlay if you'd like to do something like this on the guitar you want to build.

the crush wrote:did you build the scorpions tribute guitar its really nice i love the feel of the oiled necks i think you have posted about my RR POLKA DOT i am having built i have posted pix i wanted the unfinished nect for my V but changed my mind on but that is a sweet looking guitar about how much to have you build a custom v guitar roughley thanks

Thank you! And yes, I just finished construction on it last week. I really prefer the feel of an oiled neck too, big time! But I think I"d still want something like a PDV to have the paint job on the neck too. Yours was the blue PDV, right? That thing is so sweet!!

I'm not really setup to go into business with it... my little 8x10 shop is not insulated or heated, and it can get down to as much as -30°C (-22°F) in the winter, and I don't have a spray booth and rented out time in a local sign shop to do that. They're closed after work and weekends, so I have to arrange it during my vacation time. I haven't done any serious number crunching on it, but it would be in the typical range of $2-3K to be worthwhile. Some sort of "production model" would no doubt bring down the cost, especially if I got setup with a CNC machine. My skills would need to be developed more to start demanding such a professional rate too, which I don't feel are there yet. I only had a couple years experience at it 20 years ago, quit the trade, then started up again a year ago for fun. I'd only made a couple electrics with bolt-on necks before, and acoustic, a few dulcimers and a couple dozen flat-top mandolins, as well as some repair work at the time. This is my first set neck construction.

sytharnia wrote:that's awesome.....its just a shame you can't see thru the silver/grey to see the flame on that side

Thanks!! There actually isn't any flame maple on the left side, but just some inexpensive plain maple I scored from a local cabinet maker. I had thought about laminating the whole top with flame maple and doing what you suggested, but thought it would be too small and few areas to bother, and just went for solid paint scheme on that half instead. The flame maple actually looks quite darker and and more black in real life, but the grain does pop out nicely like that when it hits the light on the right angle.

This is my first time doing a trans finish, and it turned out even better than I had hoped. I just rubbed the dye (Stew Mac's ColorTone Liquid Stains, awesome stuff!) mixed with Isopropyl alcohol into the wood, and didn't spray any mixed with the clear coats at all. I think some of the most beautiful sunbursts I've seen were only rubbed into the wood rather than sprayed on.

no my pdv is not the blue one its black and white well builder is just getting ready to paint the white dot on now check under my posts or my name and you will see pix thanks alot