Pushead

That's sweet. It makes me want to play checkers... KING ME!!!

Cleveland, OH. Home of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (that I've never been to, it's expensive), snow, bad basketball, and the least sandy beaches in the world!

I liked the natural look. I already have a black gibson explorer, and was looking for something different. After I got the guitar I didn't think I'd be able to get it back to natural. I was actually planning on cutting out a chrome diamond plate top for it. I tried a bit of stripper (that really heavy stuff from the infomercials!) and it pulled the primer coats right off, so I did the entire guitar. The natural wood looked good to me (minus the big cut down the middle), so I was just going to clear coat the guitar. Then I read a few things, and saw a few guitars with a similar finish. And since I really don't have a place to do much laquer painting (I'd send it to a paint shop to have it done), I though I'd give it a whirl. I'm going to finish the Flying V I'm working on now the same way (twins! er... sort of). I'm planning on building an entire explorer from scratch (instead of a restoration) for the next axe, which will have some sort of clear-over graphic envolved. That probably won't happen until fall or so.

How do you add the black lines? Is it in the abalone patterns, or like a filler?

Heh, I had a guy believing that Fender made Jimi Hendrix custom strats and they called them "Afrocasters"! You should make a logo for that! I crack myself up. rock

Ahhh hah. Well that makes sense. I never knew what those pyramid inlays were supposed to be before coming to this site. Yeah, I dig fancy type finishes too. I've always wanted to buy a Jackson with the setting sun type graphic overlay. They're just too expensive, even on ebay. Most ESP guys only put EMG pickups in, not many worry about inlay changes or anything. Plus ESP is putting those Skull-and-crossbone inlays on tons of guitars lately. And really, the KH-2 isn't that big a deal. If you want a good sounding ESP, get one of the Hetfield signitures. The EMGs sound better in the mohogany than the alder bodies. You wouldn't think so, but it's true.

It seems everything I've read about lately is about Ibanez Jem type guitars. What's the big deal about them? How are they different than any other higher line "Super-strat" type guitar? I've had bad experiences with Ibanez (mid line RG series). Other than being a "Steve Vai Signiture" (I know not really) why are they worth so much? Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking them. I know many people think the same thing about my selections too. I just don't understand the big difference between a $1600 Ibanez Jem, and a $1300 neck-through ESP or Jackson.

That's disgusting! You shouldn't talk about that in public. OHHHHHHHH sorry, I was thinking of something else.

Ok, I've seen flame jobs on cars and motorcycles. I even have an ESP signiture guitar with flames painted on it. I've watched the Discovery Channel documentaries about motorcycle building that shows paint shop guys painting flames, so I understand the basics of the process. The thing I can't figure out is how to do the outline of the flame in a different color. Anyone have an idea? (if you can see the blue outline around the flame)

Yeah, the purple is pretty lame. It's not very thick. I sanded through half of the back in about 10 minutes. I found this inlay on the ESP custom site. I dig the barbed wire. Where is the tutorial on doing sterling silver inlays!!

Pushead's Gear and stuff

I've got a TriAxis (before the fat mod). It's got tons of amp sounds in it, but it doesn't get quite as nasty as my Single Rectifier. IMO it's probably not worth what you'd pay new. You can find them under $900 on ebay.

Thanks guys. As I said, it was the first time I tried any of the "real" work. Mostly just pickup and other type upgrades (fender style to floyd-non-routed types). The guitar sounds pretty chunky. I have a 95 Gibson Explorer with the 496 and the 500 pickups in it, and it is a bit fuller in the mid ranges. I'm not positive if it's the EMG pickups, or the difference between Mohogany and Korina. I had the guitar unfinished for almost a year. The biggest problem with this guitar was working up the guts to try fretting for the first time! Once I got that going, I got more motivated, and finished in a couple weeks. I just bought the next project, a flying V body (I like set-necks). Again, painted by a roller! Not exactally sure what I'm going to do with it just yet, but I'm guessing to make a brother to the explorer. I want to replace the fretboard (it's too flat and chipped) and do a cool inlay. Any suggestions?