crafty

Sorry, but that thing just looks like a good piece of firewood. Kill it before it infects and kills all of us!

Like I said, the laws in Ohio are so f'd up that the clubs can't even hire off-duty police officers for security in the clubs. A friend of mine was murdered three years ago by a man with a lawfully-obtained and possessed handgun. I have struggled with the question of whether people should be allowed to bear arms, much less handguns, myself. There's no easy solution because there's always going to be the nutcase out there who decides that they're going to shoot someone for no good reason. My friend died because a man thought he was hitting on his woman at a party. Dime died because some guy was probably pissed about Pantera breaking up. Do either of those situations sound like they're worth a human life? We can take every step possible to protect ourselves, but chaos and insanity will always find a way to come out every once in a while.

Yeah, don't go there. Especially since Dime was a supporter of the people's right to bear arms. Maybe if the laws in Ohio weren't so f'd up and the bouncers were allowed to be armed, this wouldn't have happened. I give the bouncer who rushed an armed gunman and died in the process props for trying to use what he had--nothing but muscle. So there's two sides to the debate, nothing's going to bring Dime back, so let's end it here, now, and remember Dime for how he lived, not how he died.

He passed on with a guitar in his hands, doing what he enjoyed doing. It's still a horrible tragedy for the music and metal community, not to mention his whole family. R.I.P. Dime. You inspired a lot of people to accept nothing less than their own perfection and showed the world that you can do anything if you put everything you have into your work.

End Cove Router bit from Sears ($30), mounted in either a plunge router or drill press.

Well, I suppose that "Limited Lifetime Warranty" is void now... How does that axe play, anyhow? I've been thinking about buying one to butcher up something cheap. I don't live too far from the MF Clearance Center in KC, so I can probably get a beat-up up one for about $50.

You're right. Most of the Kramer stuff is made in the same Korean factory that pumps out the Epis. Everything under $200 is made in a sweatshop in Indonesia, too. Buying a semi-hollow that isn't plywood is tough. Even the Gibsons are really plywood, too. In order to get the arched top, you either have to carve the wood that way or laminate several plies of wood. What I was trying to warn you away from were the cheaper Kramer and Epi solidbodies that ARE plywood. Like everything under $300. If you are thinking of going semi-hollow, check out the Ibanez Artcore series. No semi under $1200 had ever impressed me until I played the $300 Ibanez. The pickups and electronics are good quality and the neck feels much better. Seems like there's less deadspots and superior woods used in the Ibanez. Ibanez makes some damn fine guitars that will absolutely slay any Epiphone, Kramer, or Schecter. For a solidbody, the AX series will burn up anything short of an ESP or Gibson, too. BTW, the last Kramer you posted looks alright, but I'd stay away from the one with the Floyd Rose copy on it. It just doesn't look right... As for your back, I have major scoliosis problems with my back, so guitar weight is an issue for me too. I physically cannot stand to play a Les Paul unless I've properly completed full-body stretching exercises first. You might check into some occupational therapy for stringed musicians. You'd be amazed at what even stretching your legs can do to improve your back stamina before a performance. Even sit-down musicians like cellists have to get therapy for occupational injuries sometimes.

Well, I never said it was a nice looking finish... I think $160 is a little high, though. I thought I heard somewhere it was much less than that.

It really depends on how long you plan on keeping the guitar. If you buy a new guitar and pawn it after six months, yeah, you'll lose maybe a hundred bucks if you sell it to a dealer. If you managed to dicker with the price, something you can't do with musician's friend or musicyo, you may gain some money back if you resell it to a private party. If you keep it for 10-20 years, though, it will either increase in value or stay the same unless you do something that will utterly destroy its value. People like buying vintage guitars and paying good money for them. A Gibson, PRS, or even premium Fender is an investment-grade instrument. Even a limited-production instrument, like the Epi Elite series, will increase in value over time. Look at the guitar blue book sometime and you'll see what I mean. As for the Kramers on MusicYo, if you like guitars made of plywood in Korea, go for it. The one nice thing about the Kramer and ESP Viper is that they have the 24 frets, just like the SG Supreme.

Putting monkey grips on that guitar would look like crap, IMHO. Not to mention the fact that you'll be completely destroying the value of the instrument. You said that you were concerned about the value of the instrument, in fact, and doing that to a real Gibson SG should be a crime. You might as well give someone a $1000 for a bottle of piss and just dump it down your own toilet. Another thing is the fact that the SG is already neck-heavy because of the already thin and light mahogany body. If you remove even more mass from the body you will lose sustain and make your fretting hand work harder to keep the neck from wanting to point downhill. Putting a monkey grip on the guitar will not change the weight that much, and if you plan on "routing out" even more wood it's going to look and sound like crap. I hate to sound like a dick, but what you're expecting and what you plan on doing are completely bass-ackwards. Throwing over a grand at any guitar and then destroying it is crazy. I can see screwing with an LTD Viper or maybe the cheapest Epi SG, but doing that to a Gibson or Epi Elite that will increase in value over time is sheer lunacy. As for the pickups, the Gibson '57 will probably sound very similar to a SD Seth Lover. If you bought a cheaper Epi or the LTD, I'd use the SD pickups because they're a lot less expensive than the Gibsons.

That's not even funny... If you want a decent axe and you're thinking about EMGs, check out the LTD Viper. It has a deeper lower cutaway and it'll cost you less than a real Gibson. It's not a bad player, either. Either that or buy an Epiphone and throw a set of Gibson '57s or Seymour Duncan Seth Lovers in it. Both pickups are designed with Alnico II magnets for the vintage output and tone. The Seymour Duncan JB has an Alnico V magnet that allows it to produce more power but tends to muddy the chords and attack a little. The JB and Seth Lover are completely different-sounding pickups, but both are stellar designs. My fave is the Seymour Duncan Alnico II Pro. I originally tried 'em out because I heard Slash uses them and I think he has probably one of the best all-around rock tones out there. I have found that it is a very versatile pickup for just about anything and I use it in my Strat as a bridge pickup with a coil-split switch for single-coil operation. Very clean clean tone and crisp "brown" overdrive. Some people don't like how it has a scoop in the midrange but I really like the crisp balance between the highs and lows. I think this thread may either be better suited in Electronics or Player's Corner.

I own a GT-3 and have played around with the GT-6 that a friend of mine's owns. Solid unit, good for gigging and recording since it also has a digital output. Well worth the money--and I really do think it sounds better than Line 6 or Behringer. Stay away from DigiTech, though. They don't take the punishment of being a footpedal very well. Roland makes all of the Boss processors with metal chassis and quality sealed footswitches, so it'll last you a long time. Try to find either a GT-3, 5, or 6 used--the 6 has been out for about 3 years now, so it should be easy to find too.

The link to the Stew-Mac site didn't work, but it appears you want to put a non-string through, hardtail bridge on the guitar. This will be very difficult to do if you want to keep the trem cavity open for installing the MicroVibe guts inside the guitar. Most people fill the whole cavity with wood to facilitate installation of the hardtail bridge. I also think that non-string through Strat or Tele bridges tend to have less sustain. Also, the trem cavity itself probably does not have enough room for the MicroVibe components. One thing you might want to think about is purchasing a replacement body routed without a trem cavity. This way you can use a string-through hardtail and simply rout a cavity custom for the MicroVibe, maybe on the back of the guitar behind the bridge where there's lots of wood real estate. You could just cut a piece of wood to fill the part of the cavity where the tremelo block use to be and leave the rest for the MV, but you're still going to want to make sure those electronics will fit first. I really would hate to see you do all those electronics mods and have your tone sucked by an inefficient bridge setup, though.

Do you already have the pickups? If not, just buy the EMGs that are sized for a P-90 rout. They don't require rings or ugly routes for mounting ears.

I really hope so. Astroturfing is bad enough on the software forums I subscribe to, I don't really want to see anything like that here. Welcome to the forum. Just keep in mind Drak loves picking on newbies and just about everyone else, but we all know he has a heart of gold. BUT--if you really are astroturfing for Dean--the mods here are pretty good, so watch your step, my friend.

Okay, read what you just wrote... Anyone care to know what the highest tax rate ever in America was? 88%, right before WW2 started, right when America was in the middle of the Great Depression. Tax hikes and communism really spurred that great American economy right out of the depression, didn't it? The Democrat's plan for taxes: Congratulations! You just spent years studying the guitar, how it works, and you've finally built a fine guitar manufacturing business that employs 30 people with salaries of $30,000 a year! What are we going to give you? The opportunity to pay higher taxes! Yay! Sure, you're employing 30 people and contributing to the economy with their salaries and your own, but we think that we need to reward your success by making you subsidize the people who won't take the extra step and get whatever they need to get a real job. Thanks again for your support. Fact: Most people affected by Bush's tax cuts were not especially wealthy people. They were people who owned their own businesses and paid taxes at the individual rate. Whatever they don't put back into the business is what they use to put food on the table. Lower taxes=More money to put back into the business=More employees=More people contributing to the economy. One last thing: Yngwie kicks a$$. Especially for the incident in Brazil three weeks after 9/11.

I'm just curious, it looks like you first layed out the design in pencil, then turned the body 180 degrees and redid the layout. How come? Funny how the holes for the strings ended up where you originally drew the neck pockets. As for freehanding the pickup routs, meh, who cares? Having 'em a little rough gives it a little character. It certainly doesn't seem to hurt anyone if it's under a pickguard. But I do suppose we should all be striving for quality and perfection, so I won't say perfection is bad either. Should be a nice axe with a good meaty tone.

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Just use whatever you've got lying around. I like solid wire for jumpers like that, but if you just have some leftover stranded wire lying around, that should work fine too. Just make sure everything is insulated and watch out for shorts and solder bridges.

Me either. I was just trying to point out some information on the Speedloader and strings. ER just happened to have some nice pix of it and the strings, so I thought I'd point 'em out. I should have phrased it "he has the strings available too". As far as ER bashing goes, I think it's because he's generally full of um, hot air, we'll call it on this PG-rated forum. His shop has produced some impressive looking stuff and he does feature some good boutique builders, but his constant harping about how everyone in the guitar business sucks except him gets a little old. Case in point: check out his Steinberger and LSR webpages. He acts as if the new Steinbergers are crap and he's the only expert on headless guitars. Sorry Ed, but you're getting your new composite necks from Moses just like Steinberger and Ned Steinberger continues to consult with and endorse the new Gibson Steinberger models. ER actually recommends the Hohner copies over real Steinies because they "use real Steinberger parts, unlike the new MusicYo Steinbergers". What a bunch of crap. Where's the TransTrem and S-Trem on the Hohner, pal? He treats customers like crap, sells second-rate crap, acts like he invented the custom guitar, and professes to be an expert engineer of composites, physics, and electronics, even though he's a high-school dropout. In short, he's an a$$talker.

Carvin can finish the body and neck in whatever finish you would like. I think it costs an extra $40-$60 dollars and adds about a week or two to the delivery schedule.

Yeah, he also has scalloped fretboards as well. A higher action would be nice so you don't stretch the string out of tune into the scallop. But the neck radius is probably the real reason for the high action.

Yeah, but you do have to keep in mind that it includes the price of the special nut and the fact that the system is probably a lot more complicated than a standard hardtail bridge. Besides, it's Floyd Rose. It's gotta be more expensive!

<beavis> FIRE! FIRE! FIIIIIIIIIIIIRE! Burn! Burn! Buuuuurn! </beavis> In the famous words of Mick Jagger: Paint It Black

Here's a link to the website that everyone loves to hate, but he has some decent up-close shots of the system. http://www.edromanguitars.com/tech/speedloader.htm and you can buy the system and strings from him as well: http://www.edromanguitars.com/parts/tremfrt.htm