The challenge begins in earnest.

It's on.  It's very much on.  The past few days have seen me sourcing the final bits and bobs I need to get going on the project.  So, I've bought a 3-ply black scratchplate from the excellent Axetec for £12.  I've also bought a 5-way double pole superswitch from Allparts for £10.37.  This takes my total so far to £77.37.

Guitar - £30.  Doubleyou tee eff?

Bridge pickup - £25 (It's a Swineshead Runaway I had going spare.)

Scratchplate - £12

5-way switch - £10.37

I've got £22.63 left to use, if I need to use it.  I might just spend it on 2263 penny sweets.

However, sourcing is not the only thing I've been doing; to turn the guitar from the creamy slice of yawn you've seen into the stripped down versatility machine I needed to do some sanding!  It is sanding that I have most certainly done.  I hired one of these from HSS Hire:

I also put the safety gear on:

I set to work with the sander and got the guitar body looking like this!

I'm pretty darn tootin' pleased with the result!  This evening I went to work on the inside of the horns by hand and have nearly got it all stripped.  Even though the body is made from four wildly different bits of wood I still think it looks cool.  I think ugly wood is still a very nice thing to look at!

I'll tell you some more stuff later.

The challenge! It begins.

Guitars. So many guitars. Big ones, little ones, cheap ones, expensive ones, solid ones, hollow ones. Sometimes I think there are too many guitars in the world. Nevertheless, I intend to add to their numbers with extreme prejudice.

The musicradar.com forum folk have a thing called the £100 Challenge. The idea of the task is to make or modify a guitar using parts that add up to £100 or less. Back in the day, cheap guitars were rubbish. These days, cheap guitars are surprisingly good if you know where to look. It stands to reason, therefore, that enlightened forumites with their extensive knowledge of guitars and bits of guitars, should be able to make a usable instrument on a limited budget.

This year, I have decided to join in. Inspired by the look of another forumite's (very expensive) guitar I intend to modify a whole guitar to look a little bit like it.

This is the wood that's up for the chop:

It's made by a company called Worship. I paid the princely sum of £30 and £14 postage from eBay. There was a risk that the guitar would be a big pile of uselessness but luckily it's playable! Yes, the neck is attached wonkily but beggars can't be choosers, and I ain't doing no choosing.

I want to sand the body down to bare wood, add a humbucker and a black scratchplate and some new switching options. It's nothing major in terms of construction but I think it'll be a nice way to start.

I want it to look like this:

Here's hoping!