All Rights Reserved Gecko Guitars 2006
Click the image for a larger shot.

The Story of Daphne

This started as a Fender 57 RI body I found on eBay for about $170.00 It was just stupid shiny, so I took it and buffed it using a buffing wheel and the next to last grit paste before final. Much nicer now. The hardware I stripped from another guitar that I am going to relic much more and I aged to give it a well played, but not beat up flavor. Can't do much to chrome, but nickel ages nicely. The covers on the PUPs were aged using a mixture of tea, coffee and and ground up cigars. The pickguard came off another guitar, so it already had a played look to it. I  had to get a new trem cover for the backside. I also had to drill 3 extra holes for the pickguard, since the body was only drilled for 8.

The neck I'd had for quite a while. I'd originally bought it from USA Custom Guitars web specials on a whim for a Jazzmaster project, then realized the truss rod adjust was in the wrong place. I think it was about $150.00. It's a really super neck, a Super Soft V, chunky, but very comfortable. When I first examined it for this project I noticed some minor flame and thought that was cool. However, when I applied the ReRanch vintage tint stain, I discovered some serious flame all over the neck. Another thing was it had 22 frets, which I didn't want, so I cut off the 22d fret and filled the slot with epoxy mixed with wood dust from the piece I cut off. You have to be looking for the fix to see it.

I wanted a set of pickups to cover some territory I didn't already have covered. My SRV has Fender CS fat 54s in it. My Koa Strat has CS 69s - two completely different ends of the sonic spectrum. The Fender 57/62s, which I bought from Guitar Den at $109.00, have a sound somewhere in between, but are closer to the 54s tonally. The bridge doesn't have that thin sound commonly associated with that position.