The SM65 takes inspiration from the Southern California offset designs of the 60s, along with their pointier cousins from Japan. The upper a lower horns are meant to echo fins, of both the shark and tail variety. The triangular guard points forward and up, like the rockets that the model is named after. Taking a styling cue from perhaps the best known guitar model with white in the name, I went with a gold guard. And to take it up a notch I utilized a textured material. I love how it catches the light at different angles. My hatred for gold plating led to the selection of nickel TV Jones humbuckers, an Aluminum Armadillo Guitar bridge, and chrome Gotoh 510 tuners. I did use a set of Forney Custom gold anodized speed knobs, they are amazing, and stronger that plated knobs. The TV Jones Magnatron’s are bright and punchy. To me they sound like an over-wound strat pickup. This makes them work well in any context that you might select an f-style guitar for. Should deliver for blues, funk, R&B, and jazz. They also handle overdrive and distortion well. This guitar is constructed from a Poplar body with a three piece cherry neck and a wenge fret board. It is also the first build I’ve completed with my new neck joint. The single 1​/​4x20 bolt is held in by a stainless steel threaded insert and provides plenty of force to hold the neck in place. The bolt’s location at the top of the pocket means that the string force is pushing the heel into the bottom of the pocket and keeping things where we want them. I’ve used three press-fit pins (or actually #8 screw heads, to prevent the neck from rotating in the pocket. I think of this as a poor man’s kinematic joint, where all axes of movement are constrained. I had a few motivations for changing from a more traditional joint. The first is the irrationality bad wrap that three-bolt strats get (If they suck, that’s not why). My friend has a Hoyer solid body where the neck is bolted to a steel plate with a single giant thumb screw, and its perfectly stable. The second is to allow for easy removal of the neck. This means it can be packed and shipped in a suit case. With the pins and threaded inserts it should go back on exactly as it came off with no issues. The third is that you can shim the neck by adding #8 washers to the three screws used as pins. If you remove the neck the shim stays with it. This provides flexibility for the player and future repair techs. Specs: Poplar Body, Cherry Neck, Wenge Board White Pearl Finish 25.5" Scale 8.0lbs Nut Width: 1.5875" Thickness 1st fret: 0.874" Thickness 12th fret: 0.917" TV Jones Magna'Trons Armadillo Guitars Bridge Gotoh 510 Tuners