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Neck
The neck was made to my spec by USA Custom Guitars. Originally made for my Hotrod" book partscaster, it's a fine looking piece of master grade flame maple. It's a chunky .87" thick with a soft V profile. It is sealed with tung oit to "pop" the flame, then finished with a thin layer of nitrocellulose lacquer, buffed to a high gloss. I tinted the nitro slightly with amber to take away some of the bright white new maple look.

Fingerboard
The 9.5" radius fingerboard is pao ferro with mother-of-pearl top and side dot position markers. While I like the bright and percussive sound of maple boards, I much prefer the feel and look of rosewood, so I chose pao ferro to get the best of both.

Frets
The 22 frets are stainless steel 6125s - medium width and fairly tall. The stainless is nice, a smooth feel and extremely hard wearing. Stainless frets are not as bright sounding as some would have you believe, but they are a little more demanding to play on as any fret buzz rings through clearer and louder than with nickel-silver frets.

Headstock, nut and tuners
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Body
The body is a made from a single piece of swamp ash and is slightly lightweight, weighing in at around 3lbs 10oz (the "standard" weight for an ash body is usually about 4lbs). It is incredibly resonant and fairly light and comfortable to play on. It has a little bit of a history - being bought from a friend in the US, who gave me the following info:

"Kenny "Blue" Ray is the biggest tone monger I know. Kenny was named in a "Guitar Player" article as one of the "Top 10 Guitarists You Never Heard Of." All he uses are his homebrew Strat and Tele copies, made in conjunction with Rob Collins.

I essentially commissioned this guitar trusting Kenny's judgement. Originally sourced from Warmoth in 2000, this body, as it came from Kenny, used to sport two Gibson P94's and I played it at the IBC competition in Memphis. I'm not sure why I ever dismantled that critter...it really screamed."

The finish is polyurethane, which was a little "orange peeled" - not having been sanded perfectly flat. It was also quite badly dinged around the edges. So I refinished the sides all around and sanded the finish a fair bit thinner and buffed everything up.

I also recessed the jack plate as well as fiting a thick Glendale stainless steel neck plate, which is my preferred model. Thicker neck plates are nice as there is no risk of them bending and digging in to the finish, but thay stand fairly proud of the surface, so I like recessing them flush with the body surface to make the neck join more comfortable. Had I specced the body myself I would probably also have gone for an angled heel for comfort too.

Bridge
The bridge in the pics is a Gotoh vintage Strat-style tremolo fitted with Graph Tech String saver saddles. I've since fitted a sleeker WIlkinson/Gotoh VSV400P with a steel block. I also fitted Graph Tech GHOST piezo saddles, drilling holes throught the bridge for an "invisible" install.

Nut
The nut is a retrofit model Earvana compensating nut, which gets the intonation as near perfect as a guitar can be. I have found it's a little soft, so plan to make and fit an LSR sized compensated nut from Graph Tech's Trem Nut material.

Pickups
Magnetic
The magnetic pickups are a set of Kinman Blues pickups, which are a great noiseless "single-coil" set. Slightly warmer than a traditional "vintage-style" pickup, they suit this application well as I don't have any tone controls, so they end up being a bit brighter than they would be otherwise. Overall, the tone is bright, articulate and with plenty of quack in the 'tween settings - fairly stereotypical Knopfleresque tones.

Piezo
The piezo pickups are a set of Graph Tech GHOST piezo saddles and there is a Graph Tech Acoustaphonic preamp built into the body. One volume control (where the mini-toggle switch is in the pictures) and a separate output on the side of the guitar.

Kitted out with hardware, neck, etc.
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The neck plate has been recessed flush with the surface
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The "oh so exciting" rear and trem cavity
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Flame maple neck Click for larger image

Pao ferro fingerboard Click for larger image