This guitar was specially built for my brother, Pete. He plays in several bands, and needed a guitar that was capable of playing Texan- style blues, and Judas Priest covers (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 me to fit the pickups suspended from the guitar top as if it was a pickguard, allowing a much neater appearance than if I'd routed a cavity the size of the pickup baseplate, as is the convention. As you can see, I have finally added a picture which shows off the grain of the top. It's still not the best picture in the world, but you get the idea. I had not realised how difficult it is to photograph a shiny guitar! I do think my living room curtains make a nice background though.

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. The humbucker can be tapped using a small toggle switch below the volume control.

I am really pleased with the tone of this guitar. 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.

In all, this is one of my best guitars to date. It combines the best features of the Les Paul and the Strat., and puts them into a guitar that, in my opinion, looks good and sounds even better.