Upcoming custom shop order headstock opinion?

[neutralomen]

Hey everyone. Some of you may know, it's been a years-long endeavor to get this special ASAT HH RMC with white cavalier pickups to come to fruition. Good news is, I'm very close! I literally got special pole pieces machined, I got custom magnets made, and I got the cavalier pickup covers scanned and 3d printed in white. I'm just waiting on the pickup builder. The goal was to address engineering problems of the original cav pickups, making them sound a lot better and look exactly the same. But I digress.

As I get closer to the build, I'm thinking about getting the CLF Paddle headstock. On the one hand, I think it's a cleaner design, and it would make this build all the more one of a kind. On the other hand, the skinny headstock is associated with "T style" guitars. I'm a bit torn, leaning towards the paddle headstock. Here are some quick mockups. Thoughts?

Many thanks, guys!

[tomanche]

Cool project! Given the ASAT body, the ASAT headstock looks great. That said, the paddle looks cool, too. That might not be helpful, but I guess the point is that either way looks mighty fine. You can't go wrong.

[neutralomen]

yeah I mean, the espada has the paddle, and it's quasi-asat XD. I'm so torn! Thanks for your input!

[jdetente]

Out of these two choice I would definitely go with the paddle headstock. A nice nod to the past with the angled Cavalier pickups and the paddle headstock.
If it was me, I would throw a third option in there. The reissue SC-2 and Skyhawk headstock. I like the curves on that better and it would match up with the original Cavalier headstock (I think). Can't go wrong with any of the choices though, whatever you choose...

[neutralomen]

Yeah actually the reason I'm leaning towards the paddle is because it doesn't have that little point, which i've never really loved. It's the most tolerable on the ASATs. I think it ruins the legacy's headstock. It's also pretty good on l-2500s and asat basses. Thanks for your input! I'm leaning paddle too.

[jdetente]

I completely agree about the current Legacy and S-500 headstock. I really do not like that design. It seems like they thought that they needed a strat style headstock with a point added. The design is disjointed as if the point is an afterthought. I wish they had stuck with the S-500 headstock from the mid 80s or the ASAT one.