Handmade Michael Dolan Frankencaster
with P-90 and Strat Tremolo
I bought this to refinish and sell, basically.

When I nabbed this axe for cheap from my local guitar store I could tell it was an undervalued diamond-in-the-rough. It was painted Ferarri red and black two-tone (UGH!) with no pickguard. Too ugly for words. But I knew the name on the headstock: Michael Dolan handcrafts custom guitars out of his workshop in Santa Rosa, CA and does not make shitty guitars. Sure enough, the action and feel were fantastic. Also it was heavy as fuck and I knew there was some magic wood under there...

So I stripped it and sure enough there was a gorgeous 2-piece northern ash body under there. Refinished it in hand-rubbed nitrocellulose lacquer, vintage amber tint. Added the pearloid pickguard as well. I am no master luthier, and as you may be able to see in the picture, the amber coat got rubbed a tiny bit thin just below the bridge yielding an unintentional "worn look" there. Also my pickguard cuttting is a bit dodgy around the top of the pickup hole which I think you can also make out. BFD. The finish is extremely smooth and high-gloss, though...looks gorgous overall!

The neck actually has a light flame to the maple which is cool (I kept the natural oil finish as some people dig that, though a gloss lacquer would emphasize the flame better) and the inlays are real mother-of-pearl.

The original pickup was an actual 1958 P-90, and though they're worth a good deal on the vintage market, I found it to be rather honky and midrangy...especially in combonation with that ash body. I switched it out for a modern GFS P-90 which sounds great to my ears. The original pickup is for sale separately as well, FYI.