crafty

Either a PAF Pro bridge or the FRED. Tone Zone's good if you like '90s EVH. I think you'll hate the Super Distortion through a modeler like the POD.

Throw it up on eBay or just use it for building practice.

Best passive pickup I've ever heard for modeling is the DiMarzio PAF Pro. I use the PAF Classics in my Les Paul and they're just perfect winds for a modeler OR using high-end gear. I use an EMG-SA setup in my MIM Strat for the same reason.

I voted for Taylor, but it's like the whole Gibson v. PRS thing. Taylor has a more modern, trebly sound and Martin has the old school, folksy sound. My favorite acoustic is actually a Santa Cruz because they make 'em in the Martin pre-war style and they sound just as good as a Taylor with the Martin warmth, but they're waaay outta your range. If you want a campfire guitar, get a Taylor Big Baby for about $400 or less. Best acoustic guitar under $1000, and it's also Bob Taylor's second favorite behind the 300 series. Amazing features and hardware for the money and they're quite easy to add a piezo to because the bridge is already routed for one. There's even a spot marked for the hole under the saddle!

Evo's were designed to be used with a low-gain vintage-style tube amp and a distortion box--not high gain modern hybrid solid-state amps. They'll push the front end so hard that they turn to mud if you don't back 'em off. Wanna know the reason why pinch harmonics sound so great on EMGs? Low string pull and low internal resistance. The magnets are so weak that they have almost zero effect on vibration, and the coils aren't wound as high to there's fewer electrons to try to push through all that wire. Look at the specs on the DiMarzio D-Activator and you'll see they're using the same theory on a passive platform.

If you're buying a Marshall AVT amp, I'd stay away from the high-gain pickups and go with something milder like the PAF Pro or Breed pickups. The amp has all the gain you'll ever need and there's no reason to go Fralin unless you're going 100% with everything--like running a Bogner Shiva. Bare Knuckles have received very good reviews on this site from our friends across the pond, but I think unless you're living in Europe, DiMarzio, Duncan, and Bill and Becky Lawrence are a much better deal for the money in the US.

You can either glue or bolt in the neck, just like a PRS.

That's the Famous Torres Customer Service for ya. They're great if you go to their store in person and buy their crap, but I've heard about stuff like this going on when they ship anything out. Technically, they aren't responsible for shipping damage, but they don't seem to care whether they securely pack the product to begin with. Send it back, get your money back for the guitar, and buy a Grizzly Heirloom kit. A lot better guitar than the Saga for about the same price--and Grizzly will actually pack it decently.

Also, unless the Strat has a 7.25 radius on the neck too, you're gonna have to either mod the saddles or use a modified Mustang bridge to compensate for the difference in radius.

Use a 25k blend pot. Connect the EMGs to one side, the Fishman output to the other. You could also ditch the Fishman altogether and use the under-saddle pickup with the EMG APA-2 preamp.

If you do it that way, you'll have to route the channel after you make the joint. You'll have to rig up some kind of routing guide or fence to get the route straight along the middle of the neck if you really want to use the template like that. Also, I just noticed that GBT's neck templates have a routing guide for the truss rod included with the kits. Use that.

[quote name='westhemann' post='330248' date='May 22 2007, 09:22 AM'][quote]what?!?!?!? how could you hate it?!?!? i know some people dont like the amazingly flat necks but they fit my hands perfectly. and they are like amazinly rare O.O there was a month between seeing it and playing it (and falling in love) and me buying it and the price had gone up by £100!! coz they were all selling out. Ha sorry but i love that guitar and i cant stand anyone to put it down![/quote] The necks are nice...the frets are soft though... Main thing is they are tonally dead and overpriced.for the same price there are numerous esp ltd models equipped with the same pups and a better bridge,with mahogany or alder as a body wood. [/quote] I agree. For the price of an Ibanez you can get an LTD or even an ESP with better hardware, wood, and pickups. I'm more of a traditionalist though, so gimme my Strats and LPs!

Why do you want to use the worst designed bridge system Leo Fender ever came up with on the best guitar he ever came up with? Are you some sick masochist or something?

Cut the outline first then cut the scarf and join the headstock.

If you're talking about the LP trem that replaces the stopbar on a Les Paul, save your money and spend it on something else. They work more like a Bigsby, which means if you're a Floyd fan you're not gonna like it. Kahler and Floyd are the only way to fly for tuning stability and performance. People have been fitting Floyds to Les Pauls for years, but they can be tricky enough to install on a flat top guitar, much less a carved top if you don't know what you're doing in the first place. If you're planning on doing this to a decent instrument, I'd take it to a pro or make absolute sure you know what you're getting into. A lot of good Les Pauls were lost to bad trem and humbucker installs over the years.

Or use a Kahler and deal with a simpler route.

All carved top Les Pauls have a mahogany back and either a mahogany or maple top that's separate from the back of the guitar. They do this so they can do the standard routing and weight relief. Non-carved top models just have a big tunnel drilled from the output jack all the way up to the pickup selector.

I personally like the Roland stuff. Jazz Chorus is probably the cleanest and toughest gigging amp ever made. The Cubes have a great sound and no-nonsense controls.

You know, it's funny we're talking about warranties... I was having a conversation with a co-worker today about the fact that she'll never buy an RCA TV or anything from Sears again. Her RCA TV she bought from the store I worked at quit working a month after the year warranty was up. She vowed never to return to Sears because they wouldn't exchange it for a new one. She didn't buy the warranty that would have replaced it, either. So she goes to Wal-Mart and buys the cheapest TV they sell just to spite Sears and RCA. A Sylvania TV. It still works three years later and she feels vindicated. Then I told her the same manufacturer made and distributed the Sylvania that did the old RCA, too. All she did was wind up spending another $300 on a new TV when she could have protected the old one for $30 in the beginning. She told me she shouldn't have to spend $30 on a warranty when Sears should stand by their products like they used to. To which I replied, "Okay, so they can go out of business like Montgomery Ward, Curtis Mathis, and Silo. Great idea." Stuff is made cheaper and cheaper every day. The only thing I'd never worry about buying a warranty on is a Mesa.

There's nothing like demoing an amp yourself before buying it. To me, every amp, pickup, or guitar sounds the same on the interweb. Find a Line6 dealer 'round your area and check it out yourself. If they'll match MF, buy it from them and you'll get a lifetime of support. My two cents. Oh, and when you start getting serious, Go Mesa!

Lookin' good! That's a lot of string between the bridge and the holes, though?

You'll probably just have to use regular pots mounted sideways with some custom knobs. Mouser Electronics has just about anything you'd need to make it work. Also, you don't need to have the aerial outside of the guitar to make the wireless work well. Just make sure it's not stuck in a shielded cavity!

I really like the Mean Green V, something I'd definitely pick as a working guitar, but I just dig the carving on the Mythical Dream Guitar. Just the skill that goes into the hand carving is something I gotta give props to.

Roland Cube series, Fender G-DEC...

In all fairness to the salesperson, they're probably required to maintain a quota of extended warranty sales. I know when I was working retail at Sears, we had to have at least 8% of our gross receipts in warranty sales. That wasn't 8% of sales, that's 8% of the income we generated! If we didn't hit our target, we had to come in at 7:00 AM on Saturdays for a weekly PA meeting, our hours would get severely cut if it happened more than two pay periods in a row (like from 50-60 hours on the floor to maybe 10 hours on the floor, death for a commissioned salesperson), and if it happened for a few months, you were probably going to get fired. The sad thing was they also kept cutting the commission rates on the actual merchandise and kept boosting it on the warranties to give us extra "incentive" (read: you can't make a living otherwise) to sell the PAs. They did this especially on the good stuff that never broke. Normally, we'd sell the good stuff so that we wouldn't have to worry about losing the commission when the crappy stuff came back, but if you're forced to sell the crappy stuff just to hit your PA percentage and make a living, it makes you do some stuff you'd rather not do. Now say what you will about the choice of working commission, but some people are damn good at it. You can make a good living with it, but with the advent of every store pushing extended warranties, the honest salesperson is going to disappear and you're going to see a lot more lizards in there trying to foist the stuff how ever they can.