After about a month, the pickups with the "Rosewood" covers arrived from China, and they looked pretty good out of the box.
They had a fancy, engraved brass plate and a braided shield, but this doesn't look like wood to me....
Sure enough, the covers were plastic.
They do look like Rosewood with a satin finish, but the more I thought about it, the less I liked the idea of spending $40 for a pair of plastic covers if I didn't like the pickups, and since the seller never mentioned once in any of their listings that these cover were anything other than "Maple", "Rosewood" or "Mahogany", I didn't like the idea of the seller duping anyone else into thinking these were real wood, so I started the return process with Amazon. Amazon refunded my money and let me keep the pickups, which makes sense, since they would have to go back to China, and nobody wants to pay for that shipping.
So I decided to use the covers, and installed the pickups that came in them too, just to hear what they sound like. They sound pretty good, but they are not RWRP, so I'm going to take them out and put the Gibson P90s in there, but here's the completed guitar. I'm pretty jazzed about how it came out:
This build wasn't without its challenging moments. For example; I had to block the trem on this guitar, because when I went to install the claw, one of the screws ran right into one of the bridge pickup's mounting screws. I was able to screw the claw in about as far I would on a regular Strat, but with these heavy-gauge strings, there just wasn't enough tension on the springs. The bridge just kept lifting when I tuned it, and I couldn't reach a point of balance. I think it's just as well, anyway. I was little iffy about trying to set up a floating trem situation on a baritone guitar in the first place.
Also, I'm not sure about the tuners I used. I installed Wikinson E-Z Lock tuners because I had them lying around, but it's a bear trying to thread stiff, heavy strings through both holes in the post, and I had to drill out the holes on the 6th string tuner because the string wouldn't fit. I didn't put that string through both holes. It would have been impossible. Also, the tuners are really stiff, and take some effort to turn with all the tension. As far as I know, there's no such thing as dedicated baritone guitar tuners, so I'm not really sure what to do about that.
Otherwise, the build came together like a breeze, and it was almost instantly playable. Usually, after I get a guitar completely assembled, I have to do a LOT of tweaking to get it right. I used to panic a little bit every time I'd complete the build and think: "Oh my God, I just spent the last few months building an unplayable wall-hanger!". But after I got strings on this, all I had to do was raise the saddles a bit, and tighten the truss just a hair, and everything fell into place.
It took me a while to wrap my head around this guitar, though. It's just a little weird to play familiar chord shapes and not hear the chord you're expecting. I'm also not at all quick about transposing on the fly. It takes me a minute to figure out where I need to put my fingers to get the chord I want. But I'm getting used to it. I've abandoned trying to play songs I know, and I'm in full "exploratory mode" now, coming up with new stuff. That's what playing a different instrument is supposed to do, anyway... Inspire you to come up with stuff that you wouldn't on your regular instrument.
I also can't express how good this guitar feels to play. The entire guitar has a satin finish, and it feels so smooth, and woody, and organic. It's also very resonant and "alive". The WD neck I used fit the neck pocket nice and snug (something I always have to cross my fingers about when matching parts from different makers), and you can feel the whole guitar vibrate when you play it.
The weight tops out right at 9lbs, which is what I was expecting/hoping for. Even though it's a thinline, it's still made of Ash, so the body weighs about as much as a solid Alder body would, and the longer neck adds to the weight as well. I have regular guitars that weigh 9 lbs, so I don't think this is too heavy for a baritone.
). As for the pickup covers, I think black would look fine, the rosewood ones with that finish and pickguard IMHO, might be a bit too much...
Actually, those covers look a lot better in real life than they do in the photos. The rest of the colors are pretty accurate (which was a pleasant surprise for a change), but no matter what I did, those covers always ended up looking kinda greyish and washed out. I think it's just the way that light reflects off of them. They're really a rich, dark brown that closely matches the fretboard, and they do look remarkably like wood. I would be ok with black plastic, though... I might have to be. I don't think those covers are going to fit the Gibson P90s.
Maybe this winter I will manage to hit that bar, but I have a feeling re-flooring my living room and main hall will take the wind out of that sail.