Where to start - chronologically I guess, so do I include past projects of guitars I no longer own (sure, why not) and projects for friends (of course).

(Long gone)  My first guitar was a Gibson ES335(ish) (Guild Starfire IV) guitar I got for my birthday.  I convinced my parents that it would be loud enough to practice (hollow-body) and it was still electric - I don't even remember what I did with it, what brand it was or anything - but I wish I still had it!

(Long gone)  Some-how I ended up with a no-name solid-body Gibson SG (Guild S-100) style guitar.  I don't remember playing it, but i do remember re-finishing it.  Bolt-on neck, so I took it off and removed the electronics, totally stripped it and saw it was basically plywood.  The top edges were beveled, so I painted the back, around the sides and up around the bevels black - to hide the plywood, and stained the top walnut (it did have a nice top top veneer).  Before I gloss coated it, I hand-painted 13 roses around the edge on the black bevel - cool (for the early 70's).  I traded it (and $100) in for my first Guild - and I've been hooked ever since.

(Long gone)  A friend that happened to be a girl had a Silvertone with the Amp-Case.  She wanted it black with sparkles, man, I wish I had that one in good original condition (if we only new then what we know now!).  I think it was an unappealing gold, and this was before spray-can metal-flake too.  When I stripped it down, I was amazed to see it was a "hollow body", pine sides and homosote (you know, that brown, dense pressed paper-board) top and bottom.  Black spray paint, sprinkled on some glitter and top-coated with clear.  It was a bit bumpy because of the glitter, I wasn't really satisfied with it, but she thought it was cool (those early 70's again!).

(Still a project)  I traded that SG looking Jap guitar for an SG looking American Guild.  Although it was officially only an S-90, it  has the dual humbuckers.  The differences in models should be in an upcoming page on 'All the Skinny on "my Guilds"', but the S-100 has 2 volume and 2 tone knobs and a mini phase-reversal switch.  I only had the 3-way selector switch and a single volume and tone.  Out came the drill, and I did very carefully place the new holes - you can't tell that they weren't factory drilled.  I figured out how to wire the phase reversal switch (before there was Internet!!!) and still have volume and tone control over each Pick-up (I remember trying a few different things).  Then I made a big mistake... it was the age of open-bobbin humbuckers - they looked so cool (darn 70's), so on one pickup I cut the top of the cover off (because I wanted to protect the windings), and the other one I ended up unsoldering the whole cover because I think I made a boo-boo (don't remember any more).  That guitar still rocked and followed me half-way around the world!  From Rochester, NY to San Diego, Ca to Norfolk, Va to as far east as the Black Sea, north to Halifax Nova Scotia and south the the Caribbean.  (Tampa, Baltimore, back to Rochester, back to Florida, and now in Wyoming) - while in the Navy I had a chance to use a crazy expensive and sensitive Differential Volt Meter on the output of my S-100(ish) and a Les Paul Custom - and my Pick-ups were hotter!  I replaced the three-on-a-plate cheapies with Schallers.  Since then I was disturbed by a rub-through to the white on my 3-ply black/white/black pickguard.  I removed it and made a perfect replica from plexi, I was going to have it "reverse painted" and installed but my ex never got a "round tuit" so it's still in pieces.  I also found a pair of Bridge NOS pick-ups, I'll either unsolder both covers and keep the original pick-ups, or install the NOS bridge and unsolder the other cover and cover my original neck PU.  Still a project, maybe I'll get some 3-ply blank and cut a new one, then I'll have to decide the Pick-Up issue.

(Still a project)  While still in high school, I came across a Madeira Acoustic Dreadnought.  What an awesome full sound!  When I went to boot-camp, I let the bass player borrow it, he left it on the bed and managed to put his knee into the side - hard enough to crack the wood, but structurally it was fine.  That guitar also followed me all over - coast to coast, across the Atlantic, oh - I forgot to mention Egypt!  It was my go everywhere, knock-around guitar for dozens of years - finally the bridge pulled off the top.   A friend of mine broke his expensive Yamaha Acoustic and gave me the tuning machines to replace the three-on-a-plate cheapies, I cut my own design bridge out of poplar, heavier on the bass side and thinner & narrower on the treble side, I'm waiting to buy a "Bridge Doctor" and to get it out of storage in Florida.

(Needs professional help)  I was checking Music Stores in downtown San Diego during my first stint there, and walked into Freedom Guitars.  I couldn't believe what I saw, the headstock had a Guild Logo, but some-kind-of bird or Phoenix below it - and a weird asymmetrical headstock shape.  I thought for sure that the body was a custom thing by someone who loved Gumby, but one of the Bowen Brothers assured me that it was all original Guild.  So I wrote down the serial number and wrote a letter to Guild to verify what it was.  I actually got a letter back, hand typed on Guild letterhead (how rare is that in this day and age), and they even sent a hang-tag for that model so I would know what all the switches did (there are 4).  Long story-short, I bought it and had the music store replace the old tuners with simulated MOP Schallers to match all the other SMOP (often called Mother of Toilet Seat) on the headstock (why not go overboard - it's still the 70's).  I have played it quite a lot, especially when I wanted to raise eye-brows or get the super-mellow aged vintage humbucker sound.  I remember in one band, I was able to say that my guitar was older than all the other members.  I did also replace the 4 slide switches with mini-toggles to make switching easier, but other than that, I've left this one alone.  I still have the original tuners, but I think I've lost the slide switches - probably would want to replace them anyway since they were cutting out.  It started going microphonic on me, at louder volumes the pickups would start to feedback - so if they were potted, I'd want them re-potted and if they never were, I'd have to see if someone would dip them in wax for me.

(Playable) Shortly before getting my degree in Rochester, NY, I found another odd-shaped Guild.  This one was an A-300D where the D stands for DiMarzio Pickups.  I'm pretty sure it had the crack in the pickup ring when I bought it, but it was too good of a deal to let it bother me - especially since it came with the original HSC.  Later I discovered the MOSELY tremelo was an aftermarket addition.  The split pickup ring got more noticable and I got the idea to replace the black plastic parts with wood - the rings and the pickguard.  I had some exotic wood veneer samples laying around the house - so it wasn't going to be plain "wood".  In order to replace the black/white/black/white laminated pickguard, I wanted to create a similar laminated effect.  I found a piece of ultra thin, 3 piece plywood in a hobby store and added the veneer to it to create a 4 color laminate, and after cutting to size, beveled the edges at about 30 degrees.  I added the screw holes, fine sanded it and sealed it in Polyurethane.  Since the pickup rings are different thicknesses (thin at neck, thicker at bridge) I used simple pine and had to cut out the center for the pickup.  To get a little fancy, I book-matched the veneer at a 45 degree angle pointing up.  Drilled the 4 mounting screw holes and the two holes for the pickup height adjustment screws and springs.  Again sanded and a few coats of Polyurethane.  The original black plastic with the black headstock face looked distinctive, but the wood replacement parts made the guitar look distinguished.  At some point I took off most of the parts to deep clean the guitar