Exactly what has fuelled the offset trend I’m really not sure. What’s for certain, though, is that seemingly every guitar maker is having a go at creating its own spin on the classic Jazzmaster/ Jaguar-inspired style. But we’re not talking copies here. No, the fun stuff invariably mixes up the references: an offset body but with a Telecaster bridge and pickups, or simply go the grunge route with dual humbuckers with or without a vibrato. There are loads of variations out there and some of my favourites come from the inspired imagination of Frank Deimel, a German maker who Nik Huber put me onto. Head over to his website (https://deimelguitarworks.com) and I guarantee he’ll get your creative juices flowing. Fantastic stuff!
But with a quick bump back down to reality, us kitchen-table modders without fully-equipped workshops are a little more limited. The obvious choice is to find a used offset and get pimping, but that might mean we’re stuck with a design, not to mention a finish, that’s a considerable amount of work to restyle.
While Googling around I came across StewMac’s offset guitar kits. One is hardtail with a shorter 624mm (24.56-inch) original
