Indie #2 - 'Shape' custom natural

Having bought and loved my first Indie this was a straightforward eBay sniping accident. My first of the Indie 'shape' series with their conventional single cutaway. The double cutaway my first Indie came as is far less common in their range.

The spec. is fairly interesting.

• Mahogany body with maple cap
• Mahogany set neck with maple fretboard
• Satin chrome hardware including Grover machine heads
• Twin Indie custom humbuckers with matching satin chrome covers

You don't see many things with a maple fretboard on a mahogany neck and this makes for quite an unusual looking guitar. There is a very strong contrast between the dark mahogany back and maple top/fretboard.

The single cutaway Indie 'Shape' is similar to the set neck, carved top, twin humbucker 'Special Edition' Telecasters that Fender put out. Although by fitting a tune-o-matic bridge and tail this essentially a Les Paul in a Telecaster-esque shape but because it's fairly thin is much lighter.

Being a slightly older Indie this has a 4/2 headstock arrangement, while my first has 3/3. I slightly prefer the 4/2 layout as I reckon they fit with Indies asymmetric headstock shape better. When I see a 3/3 layout of machine heads I always think the headstock should be symmetrical.

Sound wise it was my first fixed bridge twin humbucker guitar in a long time so I was impressed with the sustain and depth. I did have an old Columbus Les Paul as my first guitar but that was so long ago I'd forgotten almost everything about it.

Having picked this up I found that hard cases made to exactly fit 'Shape' Indies were affordable and bought a couple.