[Drew68]

Richie's scalloped fretboard.

In the early 1980s MTV used to play regularly an hour long "Rainbow Live" program back when Joe Lynn Turner was Rainbow's lead singer. Blackmore's guitar acrobatics at that concert inspired me greatly to pick up the instrument.

For Christmas in 1984 I opened up a large rectangular gift from my parents and was speechless as the wrapping gave way to the "Fender" logo on a guitar case.

I had in my possesion an Olympic White Stratocaster with a large headstock and a rosewood fretboard pretty much identical to this one:

Needless to say, it wasn't long before my buddy and I broke out a file and proceeded to scallop the fretboard (much to my parents' dismay). It was a great guitar. Unfortunately, I did not have the skill to tame those single-coil pickups at the volume I wanted to play at. After a while I had become discouraged so I routed out the wood and dropped a humbucker into the lead position.

[lormand]

Wow, you are/were at least as big a Blackmore fan as I am/were.

My first axe was a Black Custom Les Paul (August 77') which I drilled two phase switches for the DiMarzio "Dual Sound" pickups, ala Al DiMeola. (Wish I had never done it now).

My next guitar was to become my favorite till this day, the Stratocastor. One of my Strats is a 70's Strat with the large headstock, like the ones Richie used to play.

[Blue Highway]

More importantly do you still have it and where are the pictures. How did the scallop job come out?