wylde1919

Thanks for your help so far! I am a total dumb@$$ so I appreciate thei assistance. here is a link to a shot of my bridge, it is lo res (camera phone) http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?...74-359ee3e562b3 As you can see the differences is minute and almost impossible to see from this pic.

Mainly because I am a moron! I measured the length with the orginal bridge on it and I got 25 and 3/4, and just to be sure I pulled out my reall tele and measured the distance there and got roughly the same measurements. I do have plenty of adjustment left on the screws so I could get the saddles back taht far without having to redrill, no sweat. do you think that is a problem? The gap itslef is not the problem. It being a little cockeyed is the issue. I am less worried about intonation, an more worried about whether it is going to pull the strings funny across the neck or make it sit funky on the saddles.

So I am trying to finally ease myslef into the project water, and I figured a good way would be to convert an old tele copy into a relic esquire. I ordered a relic'd bridge from a reputable online dealer and got it in the mail yesterday. The bridge is a string thru ( the original is top loading). I stupidly thought they would have the same foootprint, but they don't! So I measured it out so that the center of the saddles were 25 3/4 " away from the nut, marked where I needed to screw, and drilled the pilot holes. The kicker is the bridge must have shifted ever so slightly when I did this, because it is not 100% umm level I guess is the best word. There is a gap that exists between the pickgaurd and the bridge an that gap is maybe a millimeter bigger on one side than the other. Do I have to redrill, or is this gap OK? I would like to figure it out before I start drilling the string thru holes and installing the ferrules. Any help woudl be HUGE guys. Thanks.

You know I was thinking the same thing, even before I saw your post. I am not normally a firebird guy, but this one is lookin sweet!

I had one until recently and loved it, The only reason I sold it was xmas cash. The pickup evaluation above is spot on, they are weeeeeeeak. I traded out the pups in mine and she was awesome sounding. I don't know that I second the yamaha suggestion (as every one I have ever played has not iumpressed me) but the new flame top SE's look great , play well (if you like the PRS feel) and sound pretty decent too. BTW B stock scare sme, epi is not the most consistent in the quality dept. ( though I personally have 3 that are awesome payers ( a zw LP, an SG and a sheraton which is one of my favs ever!)

dude you always have the sweetest frickin top woods.

You need to make you a full size version now! I got my start in playing in kind of a similar way. My dad bought an old beater acoustic and everytime he would go to practice he would have me come practice with him. I would bang away on it mindlessly, and totally fell in love with the instrument in the process!

You know it is funny, I try and check out the scratch and dent at both mf and ams and I so rarely come across a deal, but it seems everyone else around me does! I was on there just yesterday hoping for a blem double cut lp jr. I saw dude from Little Texas (yeah y'all can laugh!) playing one last year and it sounded great! I have been jonesing ever since.

You know I have a talman, and I love the heck out of mine. Shame they never really caught on. friggin awesome when set up for slide!

You got me there maiden69! I forgot to weaigh in on the topic. I am partial to having offsetting sound sin a badn with 2 guitarists. Meaing if my other guitarist is playing a paul or sg or some other similar sounding set neck humbucking guitar I like to play a strat or tele. And Vice Versa. I played a gig this weekend where the other guitarist used his strat the whole time and I played my sheraon II exclusiveley and was REALLY pleased with the resulting sound. Its not just a tonal thing either. Alot of times what I am playing dictates how I play. I tend to get a more "bop" like approach to how I comp when I play my sheraton than I do when I am strumming away on a strat or tele. It also has an effect on how I solo too. Course that could just be becasue I am a poser!

The Destroyer rarely went out, and most of the time was in concert, and also for the LP's now, and this is Adrian Smith, Dave use strat, i would say 95% of the time. I will have to check on my old LP's to see if they say what guitar was used on what songs but I doubt it. Anyway, if you look at the few Maiden concert videos, you will see Fenders on all 3 (and 4 with the new Maiden) players. Yeah Adrian plays an LP and the destroyer still a little. Dave and Janik always use strats. Whose number 4 (has bruce picked up a fiddle too?)

I find the easiest way to stumble across amazing deals is to not have any money. I have come across the most killer steals, when my bank account is drained and can't do a thing about it. I am talking a JCM800 head and 412 cab for a measly 200 bucks. =( A super nice little Gibson SG for 175. I could go on but those are just two I ran across this year. I also had a friend who was selling a great Les Paul standard with a pickup upgrade ( I forget what kind but he was chasing the Allman Bros tone and dropped something like 300 bucks in pickups for his LP) and offered it to me for 800 cuz he needed cash in a hurry.

Jaycee, I would love to hear what you have to say about it when you are done reading it all. I have been toying with buying the books myself.

Wow that is awesome. BTW I too live in the horrible little pit known as durham, been in your shop a half dozen times, the gadow stuff plays as good as it looks for anyone interested!

O one peice of advice I forgot to give is to ignore my horrible typing! The one draw back to the internet community is that we don't have a very good way of sharing our music with one and another in a live setting, I am sitting here thinking how cool it would be to jam with some of you guys, imagaine what we could all share with each other.