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Sheez, I just wrote a whole big thing on this, did a Quick Reply, and now it's not here. Great ...

The short version: My "Shredcaster" Tele is not done by Keith yet. About 2 weeks out. He has all the parts, and he's doing one last "customization" for me: It's a Warmoth body and neck where they did the finishing. But the inside of the F hole is unfinished. So Keith is going to mask around the outside of the F hole, paint the inside black, so when he's done, there will be a "bound" effect. A subtle outline around the F hole. With the black hardware I'm getting, should look really nice. Mahogany semi-hollow body, mahogany neck, belly and arm contours like a Strat, ebony fretboard, dual active EMG humbuckers, bright Graffiti Yellow color. *Not* your typical Telecaster. ;-)

And I know Mike Kundracik, and he's done some very quality work for me too. He modified a stock PRS CE 22 from the 1 vol, 1 tone, 5-way rotary switch setup to 2 vols, and a toggle switch, with push pull vol pots so I can coil tap the humbuckers, individually. The guitar is so much more flexible now, it's not even funny. (PRS, IMO, is stupid. They give you these cool in-phase, out-of-phase dual pickup selections for the middle 3 of the 5 way switch, but then no way to change the individual volumes of the p'ups. Stupid.) Mike also installed Lollar High Wind humbuckers in my '79 Les Paul KM. That's a more subtle improvement, but it gave that guitar the additional bite and impact I was looking for.

Mike also checked out a '71 Gibson SG Special with me at the Starving Musician near where I live. Each guitar has a story, right? I can look at one, and see the state of the guitar today. Mike, man, he looked at that thing, and he figured out a whole bunch of stuff I would have never seen. He saw that the toggle switch had been changed, it had had a fret job when the guy at the store swore that it didn't, and it had a crack at the neck/body joint that was the most bothersome thing. The dude has a real gift when it comes to guitars. Sizing them up, listening to them (he rightfully talked me out of two other mods I wanted to do because he didn't seem to think they'd buy me anything at all), and building them.

I also played a Telecaster he built for himself. That guitar plays really nicely. Really nice.

To be honest, I don't think you could wrong with either Keith H. or Mike. But I can post back too when I get my "Shredcaster" from Keith.