I've never liked the Mustang trem, but I love the JM/JG trem, so a version of a Bilindastang seemed like the right way to go. And I had a set of Railhammer Kyle Shutt pickups I got for relatively cheap on Reverb that needed a home. I didn't really know Shutt or The Sword, but I liked the specs and they sounded good in the demos I listened to. I ordered an ash body from Rosser plus an Allparts JGRO neck--the same neck I have on my charcoal gray Jaguar.
I opted for charcoal gray Duplicolor as I did on my Jag. Matching headstock, of course.
Watco clear lacquer over the Duplicolor because, well, that's what they have at Home Depot. Painting is is essentially done, though I'll probably give it a few more coats of clear once it stops raining here in the Midwest. Then just waiting for it to cure fully before the wet sanding begins. I wish I had known before ordering the Rosser body that Fender Mustang pickguards don't fit. I found that out when I ordered one with HH pickup routes. So I had to order one directly from him and, strangely, that one is "off" as well, but not as bad. It's going to require some careful reshaping, particularly around the neck, where it's off by about 1/8", but also around the control plate. Oh well. It was just annoying to order a custom pickguard intended to fit a body made by the same person only to have it be pretty far off. Plus it's somewhat crudely routed on the corners. Again, it will require some cleaning up on my part.
I put set some of the parts on the body today to get a sense of how it will look when finished. I'm excited to see how it all comes together.
Here's the raw body and neck:
Here's the body after grain filling. This almost made me go with an amber natural finish... almost.
And here's the body with the parts:
♀️ But then I guess he'd have a template since I presume he's using a CNC for all his bodies? Anyways, weird. 