Hammerhead

probably not, (not sure what a welt is)

real gator, not the fake stuff

using up the extra gator skin on some guitar straps

i did the set neck for play-ability and I just didn't want to have a neck plate back there plus the neck and body are chambered, the whole guitar weighs under 7 lbs, tried to keep the weight down because the gator hide added 13oz i used fender original vintage pickup set, '52 upgrade it said on the box, it's wired with a four way switch mod, bridge, neck, bridge/neck in series, bridge/ neck in parallel and the middle knob is a volume for the middle pickup that can be blended into any of the switch positions for a SRV / Hendrix Strat type tone

I took the seat apart by cutting the seams with x-acto knife and using the seats vinyl parts as templates and just put it together just like it came apart, some hand stitching, hand lacing, my Juki sewing machine and a hammer

I used the same templates for the hide that I used to route the body, then did a 3/8" round over on the body to lower the lacing into the corners a little more here's a link to the guitar build thread of the guitar being built from scratch http://www.tdpri.com...-completed.html

no, does not affect the tone at all

just a few pics of a Harley seat I covered with gator skin,

Here's some pics of a guitar I hand built covered with Real Alligator with Kangaroo lace

good stuff the one with the cartoon style drawing is really great

x-acto knife

excellent

yeah i glue it down with some 3M super 77 adhesive, leather not to thick not to thin, i use whatever i have on hand, after it gets wet and dry a few times and hammered on it seems to get stiff enough, sealed with satin sheen and stick a piece of paper on the back to keep any glue left on the back from sticking to the guitar

awesome