frank falbo

Fantastic! Hey another funny story, the guy that shot the demo video (which is available higher res at the Duncan site) was actually with me when I found those roller saddles! I told him the story and he remembers the whole thing. Anyway yes it's great to work for Seymour Duncan. The P-Rails in a P90 housing is something the Custom Shop can do, but it requires slightly smaller magnets in order to fit everything under there. So it'll be like 95% the same thing, but a little different. But then with the Custom Shop you can pretty much get whatever you want. Did I ever see a picture of that lap steel?

Hey GregP, yeah that's me in the video. I just thought of you tonight because I'm building a lap steel for our purchasing guy. Actually, he bought a set of P-Rails for his PRS SE and is quite pleased with them. Thanks for the kind words. I've actually been working on P-Rails for quite some time, and moved to CA to work for Seymour Duncan in the process. I can tell you the P90 sound was the primary concern. The rest of the pickup design was somewhat dictated by the vision for the P90 tone. Anyway if you get to try a set, be sure to report back to me what you think!

The PRS SE aren't made by Cort. But most/all Korean Fenders and Ibanez are. As I understand it, there are three or four main factories over there that are still accounting for 90% of all Korean product. I can usually pick out everything that came from the Cort factory on sight. The other two are more homogenous. For example the PRS SE's look like they could have come from Samick, but they don't. Also the Schecters aren't from Cort either, but I don't know where they come from. Probably the Schecters, Deans, and ESP LTD's are the same factory from what I've seen, and all are non-Corts. You can't go wrong with a Cort because they ARE the manufacturer. So that means there's no middle man, and no super high advertising budgets to jack up the price of the guitar. So with Cort you're getting a more fair price for all comparable kinds of guitars. I'm not saying they're all awesome guitars or anything, just that they're at least as good and cost less than anything in their comparable price/feature ranges. Anyone with a Cort, especially one after 1992 should be proud to own it.

The Warmoth/Stew Mac/Tom Anderson triangular wire is among my favorite. The crowning file is somewhat irrelevant, because you are still putting a crown onto a surface that has a quick slant. Plus a good refret should mean that you're levelling so little, that crowning is hardly necessary. It plays like it's narrow, but wears and sounds more like jumbos. I can also make the fret ends very comfortable with no more effort than regular frets. I haven't tried the Petillo stuff, but I would venture to say I wouldn't like it. Too much of a pyramid, and you might as well be playing on a knife edge. He claims a more perfect intonation, but my guess is that you're more likely to pull sharp in that scenario if you use any force, like with Dunlop 6105.

They really missed the boat on this one. But then don't they always? Two different colored pickups?! The heel should have been like David Myka's or Xlr8's. It's still got some silly hard angles on there that are completely unnecessary. A LP with a floyd is okay with me. Just don't route an older LP for an aftermarket floyd. But putting one on in the factory, or on a newer Crapaul is fine. Visually they could have totally nailed it, like some of the ESP's or older Aria Pro & Yamaha LP's. But instead, like you guys have said, it looks like a bad mod job. What a waste. If I could compliment them on anything, it would be to have the courage to put two non-Gibson parts on there; the sustainer and the Floyd. That is something you don't usually see from them. They're all selfish and what not, putting their "branding image" ahead of everything else. What, did they buy out Fernandes and Floyd Rose?

You could put charcoal in there and cook a steak on that fretboard. Which would be fitting because that neck needs to be BBQ'd. How much more scalloped could that neck be? None more scalloped. Um, hey were you able to clean all that truss rod out of your files and sandpaper? How did that go? How many vacuum bags did you go through cleaning up the wood shavings? Two? Maybe three? Sorry I can't help it. He's probably a nice guy. I shouldn't be making jok-hey did you build a whole other neck with the shavings?

I've always scalloped first, that way you don't have to worry about hitting the frets when you're doing your scallops. You can even sand across the scallops, allowing the paper to hit the frets and scratch them all up, because you're removing them anyway! It's a little more likely to chip out during fret removal if your scallops are close to the fret slot, and overly deep. Otherwise it's fine. You can also clean up your scallops when the frets are out, too. You pull the frets, level the board, and then clean up the lines where the scallops begin and end. For me that's always been the way I do it. I've done plenty of scallops without refrets, too. So it's not a big deal to do a scallop with frets installed, you just have to be more careful to work AROUND the frets. Since I do a lot of wood removal with the automated tools, there's always a risk of touching the fret.

They should be married first. I have a Schaller here and the axle doesn't move. It's stationary. If that's the case, then it's fine. If that axle rotates with the switch, then you're looking for scratchiness later on. So I'd lubricate it (again, after a proper marriage ceremony) so they don't scrape against eachother, or worse, you turn the one and the other moves with it.

www.justrefrets.com Few people are going to be able to do you justice now that the frets are out. Soapbarstrat is right. Anyone can check your board for level and reinstall frets at this point, but they're at a handicap. You're bound to find someone who says they'll put frets in and level/crown them for a cheap price, you just have to decide what you want to do.

It was probably flat and it cupped over time.

I voted "no" I've seen a lot of dumb questions asked here on pg, that doesn't even come close.

It's just a '93 540RLTD, straight out of the '93 catalog, offered in Jewel Blue. F3=93, and that was the debut and farewell of the AANJ Radius. It's a great guitar.

Yeah, no kidding, you guys need to shut up about it being a Radius. I collect them, and believe me, this is no Radius. It's not even an exact copy of the body shape. This whole debate is a waste of time unless we're discussing what it might be OTHER THAN a Radius and NOT BEING Japanese. The binding alone should have been enough for all of you.

From what you're saying, the Dimarzio Super 2 should be exactly right. The Air Norton will be too wooly and tubby in the bass IF you're already having those kinds of complaints about the PAF Pro. The Duncan Jazz would be good too, as would the Duncan Full Shred neck.

You can't use scissors. You have to have a band/scroll saw, or a router/dremel and pearloid doesn't just melt, it ignites! So please keep that in mind. Slow, cool cuts are recommended. But go too slow, and you'll build up excess heat and ignite the pearloid.

I have some small carbide milling bits that don't melt the plexi. And I put them in my drill press so I'm not going as fast as a router, maybe 3200 RPM's or so. Spraying clear guards from behind makes the coolest looking guards EVER! I've sprayed them with flat black for a super deep black look that is unmatched by anything else I've seen. The satin black just eats up the light, while the gloss top reflects it. It's awesome. And the edges reflect the base color, too. I leave the edges beveled, with a slight satin finish from 400 grit and/or a razor blade. Pretty soon I'll be trying flip flop paint under there. We'll see how that goes. I'll have to paint it in reverse, flip flop first, then the satin black primer. Or maybe I'll do something wierd like do the guitar body with black primer but the guard with dark grey primer.

Sidebar-Do you mean to have three little LED's near the switches somewhere? Because it also would be really cool to have them located under the pickup, so the whole pickup cavity glowed from underneath. It would be like a car with ground effects lighting. The routes would have to be clean, and it should probably be direct mount pickups, but it should look pretty cool. You'd have to use springs to hold the pickups up, otherwise foam would just block out the light. You could even use color changing LED's, or different colored LED's in each pickup cavity. You could also use pickups with clear bobbins, like the acrylic B.C. Rich's but those are probably hard to find.

I highly suggest making an "outboard" switch. Even if you just leave it hanging out the back of the guitar during testing. You're probably going to find that you want one or the other, not both. Also a "live" switch will probably produce a large popping sound. So there's almost no reason to have it switchable during play. I did a battery on/off for a very sophisticated Bartolini system, and it requires the user to wait a second between switching from "battery off" to "full active" so the system can get charged up. If he switches instantly it pops, if he waits a second it doesn't. So it's a 3 position switch and the first is "battery off & mute" middle is "battery on but passive" and the third is "active" So I can't think of a way for you to switch between 9 & 18 volts in stages, or without a pop. You'd almost have to have a mute switch to throw while you were transitioning.

Let's ignore the brand name and country of origin for a minute (although it's still important) and establish a basic premise. The die cast tuners (like the Schallers you've pictured) are enclosed, with lubricant sealed in. They also have screw-on knobs that act as a tension adjust. finally, they don't just sit in place by a set screw from behind like a kluson variant. They are locked down from the top with a nice, big nut and washer. So they're a far superior design. I have klusons, too, but I'm just pointing out the differences between the designs. If you put a locking mechanism on the enclosed tuner you're even better off. I like Idch's Gotoh locking kluson style tuner. That's a great tuner, although the Gotoh die cast locking tuner is my favorite of all time. That combines everything good in the world of tuners IMO. AND it's less expensive than the Schallers you've posted. As for quality variances between countries and brands, I think anything from Germany, Japan, or America will be fine. Taiwan & China have been making most of the factory tuners for a long time now, and even those are okay nowadays. I guess I don't really have "tuner snobbery" unless the tuner is so bad that it doesn't hold tune. But actually, that's what a Kluson design can do, since it's just sitting in the wood, with a little mushroom anchor on top. In case you can't tell, I'm saying if you don't need a vintage look, get the Schallers, Gotoh (locking or otherwise) or Sperzels perhaps.

I'm sending you a rails strat sized pickup. It's kind of a P-90 sound when humbucking, and a vintage strat sound when split. Post here, pm me, or e-mail me only if you don't want me to send it. Have fun! Frank

Mighty Mite is generally Korean product. So the necks will be along the same quality and consistency level as Korean Ibanez, Fender, and others. As with most Asian factory product, some are great and some are duds, with most falling in between. But you know, Warmoth doesn't level their frets either, so you're going to have some work regardless. The reason they use Soft Maple is because they have a good supply of it and it's cheap for them. Lots of the Korean factory guitars from there are Soft Maple, too. But they offer Ash too, and some figured tops. The Stew Mac bodies and necks are Mighty Mite now, so they must think they're okay. But I'll bet Stew Mac inspects them, and they're more likely to take the return if you get a bad one, vs. some other online retailers and auctioners.

The neck is still structurally sound either way. 1/8" of wood on top of the adjustment nut isn't doing much anyway. On a Hot Rod, I like to pull the brass collar back so it's directly under the nut. I feel it gives you a much smoother adjustment over the first few frets. So in that case drilling isn't really an option, because it extends all the way into the headstock angle. There'd be no wood to leave. On one guitar, however, I used a flamed maple headstock veneer. On that one I just cut out an opening for adjustment, even though the channel was routed all the way through. Then I don't use a truss rod cover. I just cut a nice, sleek oval hole in the overlay. But you can't really simulate that by drilling if you pull the rod back like I do, since there's no wood on top of the rod where the nut slot is.

You certainly don't have to/want to finish the break. A lot of my Ibanez guitars had the cracks, (or breaks) and I've repaired them with thin superglue. As long as it penetrates your problem will be solved. The reason most of mine have it is because over the years as I've bought, sold, and traded, I've gotten way more money for uncracked necks. So I keep the fixed ones. The truth is, if the CA penetrates right, you have a stronger neck than new. The fault line has now been locked into place. Dare I say I prefer an Ibanez neck that's already cracked and been repaired properly. They've recently gone to top mount nuts and volutes, so that solved the problem, although about 17 years late.

It doesn't look like an Ibanez. If it is, it's one of the SA's or something. It's certainly not a Radius. It's probably not an Ibanez. It's also probably Korean, not Japanese. The AANJ bolt holes are off from a typical Ibanez, too. The front treble bolt is pulled in too far. The pickup routes aren't Japanese Ibanez, and they look a little sloppy. The trem stud anchors look very slim, so it's probably not even a Korean Ibanez. They always used a fatter anchor. It's probably something from Samick, like an off brand. It does look pretty cool, though. Kind of like the BSB JS1000. (which it clearly is not) Are you the one selling it, or are you looking to bid on it?

I might have to hold you to that! You GOTM regulars keep on fighting. Divide and conquer, that's how the little guy wins. Now to offend everyone, and lose any remote chance I might have had for a vote: Idch-when you wrote "run n hide-duck n cover" were you being antagonistic, or just typing your national anthem after Drak typed ours? Drak-The more you spice up a tele, the more it's reveals it's limitations. Welcome to the glass ceiling. And saying anyone STARTED on a tele and then moved to something else when they got better, doesn't help your case either! (but "go USA" and all that!) Jeremy- You've stayed out of all this banter like a good Canadian should. You just stay up there and let the big boys handle this one. Perry-You aussies are always up for a fight and we like that. Sometimes you throw punches first and ask questions later. We like that, too. We just can't have you beating us at anything, so enter your 5 guitars, and split your vote 5 ways. That's how you guys fight anyway, throwing dozens of wild drunken punches hoping something lands. Now I'd like to take this opportunity to say goodbye to my GOTM December chances. But I'll be there anyway.