This guitar was specially built for my brother, Pete. He plays in '80s metal band "Motorpriest" as well as doing session work, and needed a guitar that was capable of playing Motorhead and Judas Priest covers, and also Texan style blues (although not usually in the same gig!).

The body is English ash, with a 5A-grade quilt maple top. The body was routed out before the top was fitted to produce a 'tone chamber' on the bass side. The area under the pickups was also routed out. This allowed the pickups to be suspended from the guitar top as if it was a pickguard, allowing a much neater appearance than the conventional method of routing a cavity the size of the pickup baseplate. Although successful from an asthetic point of view, the labour involved in this method of fitment means it will not be offered as an option on customer guitars.

Although not apparent in this picture, the guitar is actually a dark turquoise, and looks quite restrained under normal light. Under stage lights, however, the grain really stands out.

The neck is maple, with a scarf jointed headstock and a large, round profile. The striped ebony fingerboard is home to 22 heavy gauge frets and has only side dot markers. The scale length is 25.5 inches to allow good string tension when tuned to Eb, and the neck is glued for sustain.

The bridge is a simple 6-saddle fixed unit, with through-body stringing.

The pickups comprise a pair of 'Kent Specials' and a 'Rocker' wired through master volume & master tone controls. Switching is done with a 5-way rotary switch and offers the same selections as a more conventional 5-way slider (note- production guitars will have a conventional 5-way). The humbucker can be tapped using a small toggle switch below the volume control.

The tone of this guitar is incredible. The bridge pickup offers a whole range of full, powerful sounds without becoming muddy, or losing clarity. The single coils offer all the best sounds of a good Strat, allowing convincing Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan impersonations.

Different versions of this guitar are planned, and will include a twin-humbucker variant with tune-o-matic bridge, and a vibrato variant.

Here is a closeup, which shows a little of the quilted grain pattern.