so, this guitar is now mine. i've got it in being cleaned up so that, hopefully, the output gets back to something somewhat normal. i find it playable, but am not really that concerned about it. it's just cool. with sliders and switches for each pickup the tonal possibilities are endless. that is, as long as it cleans up fine. if it doesn't then, well, it still looks cool.
interestingly enough, the case i have for this guitar is an Acoustic Black Widow case, it's got some plates on it identifying it as such!