this past July I picked up a Chris Locke body and neck to do me a 6 screw, B/W frank build. The question I have is it's obviously all bare bones right now... Raw wood.
I would prefer that, even more so, than putting stripes and such on it. If I would stay the bare wood route, would it:
A. Hinder a "proper" (for lack of better description-) VH tone, being that it doesn't have the paint on the body? If so- what kind of paint should I go with? Schwinn- or like a nitro base?
B. What about treating the neck with an oil or wax?
And lastly I suppose-
Pick guard?-
I have both a half pick guard like the red white and black- and a full black, like the '78 original.
For those who have bare bones replicas or the painted up models- are there obvious tonal nuances that you can tell?
I don't need to replicate it in all its perfection of the original- but I am interested in what will naturally sound the best- if in fact paint and pick guards alter the tone that much.
Thank you in advance!
, but, a good vintage style Fender strat (tweaked or stock) is tops for me. I still have a KNE, but Musikraft, Locke, etc are just fine. Honestly though, the 'Azusa' body template was 'Supposed' to be a clone of a Fender, so it's uniqueness is by accident. Also the sharper profile edges on the body could be deemed as a lazy short cut by Wayne C. Even '70's era Fender body' s didnt have the softer edge contours of the previous decades. Production short cuts. 
