Sitar bridge and pickguard polishing

So I finally installed the sitar bridge on the doppelcaster, though until the last moment I thought that it would not work - the vintage bridge is really smaller, and I was about to give up when I decided to not use the string-through holes - it's not so important since the sitar saddles remove anyway most of the sustain (and I took the occasion to re-polish the pickguards). Anyway the sound is brilliant and I'm convinced now that this was the best move, a guitar + sitar makes more sense than a guitar + baritone, and I have already some songs ideas with this beastie.

I will try to make soon a video demo of it but I need to set precisely the sitar saddles, and it will take a while, then I'll have a pro setting to have the guitar at its best, also I'm curious (and a little bit anxious) to have a pro point of view on this instrument. Ah, and the P90 still doesn't work, if anybody knows where to find a wiring diagram for a P90 in neck position on a telly, it's welcome!

a sitar bridge for the Doppelcaster

Ordered sitar-guitar saddles from Rockinger, and a vintage style telecaster bridge, but I overlooked the fact that the Squier teles I used to build the Doppelcaster had modern bridges... I will see if I can make things fit - and I still have the option of making another telecaster-inspired guitar, I'm on the tracks of an old-school Ikea Butcher Block.

Microfret neck and Sitarcaster

Just bought on eBay this MicroFrets neck - from a 1968 Calibra - at a fair price, but missing its trademark MicroNut. Before I received it, I had planed to use it for my Butcher Block Sitarcaster project, so I wouldn't have to wait until I've saved enough money to buy a baritone neck for the Doppelcaster and recycle one of its necks for the new project (is it clear?) 

But then I found out that the Calibra has a super short scale, and that it doesn't fit at all for a tele - and on top of that, Ikea has discontinued its famous massive birch butcher block of 48x38 cm in which you could cut a tele body, so the project goes back to limbos - not for too long I hope... 

Here you can see a cardboard model of the  Sitarcaster body with its double lower horn - I'm quite proud of it, a classic design with a killer detail (the MicroFrets headstock would have looked terrific with it, with its Starcaster look)... 

Now I have to figure out what to do with this neck, my best idea so far is to make quickly a total junk guitar out of a battered plank I picked up in the street and the left over gear that lays around on my desk for month... But the frets are really micro and this guitar would require super low action, something you don't improvise!

more sketches

Have another project to add to my long list, but like the Doppelcaster, something concrete and not overly difficult to do - it requires just a little bit of money...

After the Doppelcaster I have some leftover gear that allows me to make another telecaster, I always loved the idea of the Ikea Butcher Block Tele created by Zachary, and I discovered recently that Rockinger proposes sitar bridge saddles for teles, so I was almost ready to make a Butcher Block Sitarcaster, but something didn't work: I don't see the point of just copying a tele since I'm mostly interested in guitar design. So I've been playing for a while with tele variations, unsuccessfully until I finally found what I want to do, it's the model H above.

I found this idea of the double lower horn a while ago and it didn't feel promising until now - I'm very slow in my process but it's not a waste of time after all!

more later...