Hybrid guitar project takes shape

An amazing cross-species mating continues as a day in the life of a guitar records the foreplay between a strat-style neck and a semi-acoustic body.
The body came from a luthier’s garage sale about six or seven years ago; the neck from a cheap fender copy just a few days ago at another moving sale. Yes, it has taken this long for me to come across a suitable mate for the body.

A SIGN, “guitar repairs”, outside a house on busy Bradman Avenue, Maroochydore, Queensland, Australia, waved its message for years before I finally stopped the car to investigate.
This time the sign had a subtitle, “garage sale”.
My brakes went on, the following cars screeched with surprise and shock, and I got in there as quick as an Alvin Lee lick.
A lot of guitar parts were spread on trestle tables under the house. The vendor was preparing to move and liquidating a lot of odds and ends.
A semi-acoustic body with any fittings caught my eye. It had a black and orange sunburst finish, with a lot of scratches.

THE luthier told me the guitar had been US made but he could not remember the brand.
He had taken it to pieces because the wiring had broken down but he ended up using the neck, pick-ups and tremolo set-up in other repairs.
He had started work on the lonely body to get it ready for another neck, using hot glue to patch the tremolo hole with rough ply.
A sanding and spray painting then would have finished the bodywork, ready for attachment to other secondhand parts as they became available.
I asked show much. He said $5.

ALL the years since that Saturday morning near the Maroochy River, the body has been kicking around my garage and workshop. It is well made, with a block right through the top of the guitar to provide a solid foundation for the the neck.
The ply top is extra thick. A substantial block gives support under the bridge. The body is extra wide.
Such a flat-top semi-acoustic says “country and western”. Soon it will be back in action with the neck and pick-ups from the strat copy.
I hope for a 335-style sound. I’ll keep you posted.