Well, here it is all finished. Its been a journey in more ways than one.
Ultimately I replaced the pickups I originally installed as they did not give me the tone I was really wanting here. I replaced the bridge with a Seymour DuncanJB (TB-4) trembucker. Its a loud, full-on, unapologetic pickup thats perfect for almost any style of music from blues to the hardest rock and metal. The neck pickup I started with just sounded sterile and flat to me, so I replaced that with a Seymour Duncan Pearly Gates (SH-PG1n). Its a P.A.F. style pickup with more mids and sparkly highs.
These changes really dialed in the tone I wanted with this guitar.
I was honored that this guitar won the “Guitar of the Year” contest for 2017 on projectguitar.com.
If you made it this far through the thread, congratulations for your perseverance! I hope you enjoyed watching. If you live in my area (Southeast PA, USA) you could see and hear this guitar in person by coming to see my band, SplitStream. I’m also working on a couple studio projects that will feature this guitar and will post some media files once they are finished.