Very smart indeed, I wish I had your skills. I think the Special neck look mixed with the Custom body look works very well. Sort of like a Special's cooler, darker older cousin.
Thanks guys... it's taken most of the summer. It did start as a 2007-8 three pickup batwing faded special. Here is the drawing showing the changes to the wood work:
And the wood work itself:
The painting was difficult, my first paint project. The forum at reranch.com was very helpful, but I still spent a fortune in paint and ended up sanding it back down to primer twice. Still not totally happy with the pelham blue flake, but it will work... the clear coast went fine. A buffing pad kit from stew mac along with a lot of patience made the polishing process work well...
The controls are a 6/2 rotary which gives the same combinations of a strat, but also a neck/bridge configuration. The switch is splits the mid pickup for a single coil tone.
I do wish it had the bound neck... but it feels and plays great. I'm going to replace the pickup and guard screw with black... it's a tad too blingy for me... but love the blue with the black plastic.
In the next week I'll do a fret level and dressing... and then it will be complete.
lollar low winds in the neck and bridge with a dimarzio super distortion in the middle (actually a dual sound - same thing but with split coil option).