The stealth machine!
"Just" an early set-neck "cheap" Vintage LP copy with proper colour of the cheaper rosewood being revealed over time!
The pickups here are some humbucker-sized "filtertrons" to resemble That Gretsch Sound", which I had made. It's worn in very well and now stable (I guess the nut has worn down with my over-groinking it!)
The sound is simply stunning: OK, not a chest-puncher for 300 quid but with the wood's strengths and sonic "springiness" improving over age: it has a crisp and smooth neck: in fact, JUST like Yer Actual 1960s neck on a Les Paul Standard back when they were gooduns. Yes, I mean with that same swell and bloom acoustically when you strum it.

The "filtertons" get this cheapo copy sounding just So 1970s Man: warm, fruity(well, not AS rounded as a 1968 or early 80s LP Custom, or my Yamaha)but definitely good. The BRIDGE is the one to die for: it is sooo Gretsch: I mean, it has EXACTLY the quack (minus a few of the shriller highs) you expect when you put a filtertron a Gibson LP Custom: Akkerman, TV Jones, et al...!

I've deliberately left this guitar with a feel of a slightly antiquated "bitser"ed LP Gibbon [shurely shome mishtake:Ed].

The REAL reason I put the chrome knobs on was simply so I could differentiate between pickup controls in my peripheral vision whilst playing. (Honest!: when playing away, my sense of sight gets "buffered" in my creative inner queue as I'm "focussing" via another empirical sense(sound in this case). Short version: I use the guitar's onboard vol and tone controls ALL THE TIME: it's what they're there for, and their purpose is to do the most integral tone-shaping BEFORE it gets to the ear or to the digital recording blank page. ..... Quite honestly,I kept going to the wrong pickup's contols whilst playing, so I needed some visual help as I'm in Heightened Sound Mode when I play.