Only got a minute or two for a quick post, but did scan this interesting thread. I've been exploring woods and finishes with the solidbodies that were mentioned.
Woods and finishes do matter since the whole instrument is a resonant system with its mass and density affecting both the timbre of the guitar and its sustain.
Energy in the vibrating strings is transferred to the neck and body through the nut, frets and bridge, and is fed back again into the strings.
Relative strength of the harmonics produced by the strings is altered by the characteristics of the neck and body woods, wich in turn affects the envelope and the overtones of the strings, and the resultant waveforms produced by the pickups.
We've used purpleheart, cocobolo, bubinga, maple, bloodwood, mahogany, and ash on our first 4 solidbodies. The ash model is painted a pretty metallic blueburst, but the others with their exotic hardwoods are finished with no stain, since they are already richly colored, and Tru-Oil.
We tried Danish and Tung oils and weren't satisfied. The Tru-Oil is a Birchwood and Casey gunstock finish. It is accumulating and polymerizing, so it builds up like a lacquer finish, but its feel on the neck is incredible.
My nephew, a flash guitarist visiting over the Thanksgiving holiday asked what I had sprayed on the neck to make it so smooth and stick resistant, thinking something like silicone. The answer was nothing but 3 coats of Tru-Oil and a buffing with up to 1200 grit wet/dry.
As SurfPick mentioned, these guitars all have 33 voices, with humbuck, single coil, series, parallel, and out of phase options controlled by two mini-switches and a 5 position lever switch. Concentric volume/tone keeps the control total down to a manageable 4.
The photograph link posted is the prototype, and currently looks quite different. My personal guitar is #2 and is closer to our final design, and #3 and #4 are the two current variations - one more plain, the other more elaborate in body shaping details.
Take a look at the circuits posted on the Seymour-Duncan and http://www.guitarelectronics.com Web sites, and check out the parts at Stew-Mac and Allparts to see what inspired the design of the electronics.
All I'll say is that the acoustic properties of these exotic wood sandwiches and the tonal options of the multi-voice circuit makes these the nicest sounding guitars I've had the opportunity to play. Their timbre and sustain are remarkable.
Couple that to one of SurfPick's lignum vitae creations which I've been using exclusively for months now, and the sound has gained us some local interest.
We're in the process of exploring how we might produce and sell these guitars profitably, but moving slowly at this time.
Problem is that the parts alone for these instruments run over $500, and it takes weeks to produce and finish one, so they would have to sell for thousands to return enough to justify the effort.
Frank