Pushead

suh-weet dood.

What's the story on that blueburst type explorer behind it?

feylya - thanks

Dave, I was looking at the JH-1, and noticed that the 4M ninja star logo they use at the 1st fret does have the fretboard wood in the center.

Yeah, it should be the Fendrix Afro-caster!

hmm.... Sounds like a good project. A big hairy strat! Sort of like ZZ Top.

Here we go. Not great, but hopefully good enough. You can see "grain" in the epoxy around the inlays, but that's probably more from the sanding. Under normal lights you can see it's black.

feylya - yes, but that was a long time ago.

Dave - Yes, I own that guitar. It was a very early release similar to the KH-2. It is NOT a KH-2 however. The headstock says ESP Custom, and it had a EMG 85 at the neck when I bought it. The serial number puts it at a 1993-1994 guitar. I don't believe that the signiture series came out until 95 or so.

I've got other pics, lemme do some digging.

Nope, I.. uh.. borrowed his name.

Yes, it is filled with black epoxy

Yeah Wes, I don't see many harmony parts done exclusively done in 5ths. If you've overlistened to Metallica stuff your whole life (like me), you can see that most of their harmony stuff is done in thirds. The clean harmony part of To Live is to Die (right before the lines are spoken) is actually played in 3 parts (4 if you count the bass) which basically plays the rythm chord progression in single note parts. So they play the 5th of the root note as the lowest note, a 4th up from that (or the octave of the root if you prefer), and another Major or minor 3rd up from THAT (flavor of the 3rd is dictated by the key).

Orion (again the softer part) is played in similar fashion, but the "cooler" (IMO) harmony part is all done in thirds.

very quick Orion example

The one thing I've found about those zoom multi-effect thingies is that they sound good while playing alone, they don't seem to cut the mustard (IMO) when playing with a band. They get lost.

I don't mind the Metal Zone, but I'm not really a pedal person. I'd prefer a nice amp.

... u can play at least one of metallica's solo's blindfolded

Or when you tab every damn song for some crappy website then get sued by the band...

Can't play all of them, but I could probably play a few blindfolded. Now I'll have to try it.

Yep, I've got notebooks full of guitar doodles. None of them are any good, or even realistic to build, but it was way better than actually paying attention.

I thought 25 is vintage.

I wasn't worried about a painting project, I've got a flying V that is waiting for a new fretboard (when I get around to it, lol), inlays and some sort of finish. I think I'm going to do a denim material finish on it. Should be fun to try.

Plus, the yellow is growing on me. It's almost an inverse of the ebony sitting next to it. Gold and black next to black and gold.

I have to go with James Hetfield's diamond plated explorer. It's not a unique shape, but it just looks so awesome. Also the Iceman is a cool looking body. That was a Paul Stanley model I think.

I'd also vote JH, but I'd pick the oil finished Explorer that Ken Lawrence made.

Here is the deal: 1977 Gibson Les Paul Custom. It used to be white (you can still see white at the bottom and in places on the neck where the paint hasn't completely worn away.) I know it will never be a vintage piece, It has a crack in the neck where the fretboard pulled away many moons ago. I'm thinking about re-finishing it, but some people are telling me that it's way too cool this way.

I bought this guitar because it was made on the day I was born!! I'm not worried about restoring it to vintage. I have another 77 LPC in Ebony that is in really nice shape (and made the day before I was born - what are the odds?), and a 78 Standard in Cherryburst thats also in good shape.

whut do you think?

The EMG 81's are nice, but very sterile. If you're looking Metal type heavy, try the Gibson 500T ceramic pickups. People either love them or hate them, but they are the stock pickups in an explorer I own, and they are very good at that metal type sound.

I'm actually looking for something less drastic to replace the ultra-low output ones in a late 70s Gibson Les Paul. I was wondering if people had any experience/preference between the new Gibson Burstbuckers and the PRS Dragon II sets, or if they had another suggestion. The only requirement is they need to have gold covers.

Is it just me, or does anyone else actually perfer volutes?

It doesn't effect my playing or anything, but I've gotten used to having them. Everything but my explorers have them (I'm not positive if you'd consider the Fender having a volute with the non-angled headstock, but is is pretty wide)

I talked with Gibson, they stamp the serial number after the neck is attached to the body.

I just came across a Les Paul Custom which was stamped the day before I was born. (726475xx) I was just wondering when Gibson stamps the necks during their process. Obviously before the paint shop, but I was just interested on where it was when I was born.

Something interesting I never realized to look for until a few months ago. I got a pretty good deal on it. Black, like a LP Custom should be. Too bad it was built in Nashville... at least by 77 Norlin was starting to pull their heads out of their jack-plates.

Heh, I didn't mean denim inlays, I meant inlays that would work for a denim guitar.

I was also thinking of putting a pocket on it for picks and stuff.

I've been working on this flying V project, and looking for ideas. Well I wanted to finish it natural like that explorer, but the wood won't allow for that ('tis ugly). So as I was doing laundry today I noticed I have two pairs of jeans with holes in places where holes shouldn't be. As I was throwing them out, the though occured to me, why not finish the V in denim.

I know Fender did a few Tellys in leather, and I remember reading somewhere (probably here) that those floral Jem guitars are actually a fabric.

Does anyone have any thoughts/info on this? Would it be better to leave the denim untouched, or should I use an epoxy/clearcoat finish on it? I was worried about the denim getting dirty or stretched.

Also, what about neck inlays for something like this. I'm still in the concept stages while I sand the guitar out.

Yeah cool Alex. How do you make yours? I modified this in Photoshop. It's a early-concept version of my Flying-V project. At first I was thinking a Red Baron style with a Ferarri-Red body and Black Iron Cross on the top wing.

I have a set neck on that explorer from last month. I just stripped and sanded it clean and went from there.

I used that stripping "goop" from the infomercials (don't remember the name off hand). It's toxic as hell, but works great.

Oh wow. Yeah, not a heart guy, but where did you get the template drawing? I couldn't find it on the VDL site. That's cool.

Yeah, the 84/85 Gibson guitars that had factory Kahler trems did this.

It's too bad the Kahler doesn't catch on. I perfer the less routing involved, even though you can't bend it up as high. But I don't use whammy bridges often, so...

I'm sorry, I know that this isn't really the place for this. But I keep seeing this topic, and I can't help myself anymore.

This topic sounds like a Fox special: "When good necks go bad"

Sorry.