Black Mariah

I don't have any photos of the backs, but I can describe them. The brown one has a serious dent on, IIRC, the back of the bass side lower bout. The finish is partially removed where I started sanding it down but ran out of giveadamn. The back of the black one looks just like the front. No major dings or buckle rash or anything. But really... let's be honest here... these aren't good guitars. They'd be great cheapos to practice your binding and fretwork on but they'll never be high grade instruments. I have the important parts (bridges, pickups, neck plates, etc) laying around here but most everything will need to be replaced. I mean... really... $100 for the PAIR. Also, I'll include the busted-ass hardshell case I forgot the black one came in.

Two Bill Lawrence L500XL's. This is the same type of pickup Dimebag used. Great tone. Fairly high output. $30 each. $50 for the pair. Seymour Duncan Jazz neck pickup. White bobbins. Excellent for cleans and bluesy distortion. The lead on this is way short, but it's simple enough to lengthen it (just add more wire). $30. Kent Armstrong HPAN-1. Similar to the Duncan Jazz above. More of a warm midrange sound. $30 here too! Kent Armstrong P-90. Umm... don't know much about it. Sounds like a P90, I guess. $25 takes it. Morley A/B/Y pedal. Run two heads or switch between them. $35 Dunlop Crybaby GCB-95. Beat to hell. I modded it so it sounds better than stock. $50... maybe less. Charvel practice amp. 2x8 combo. Stereo chorus. Sounds good enough for your living room or something. $75 Ross rackmount power strip. Seven plugs. I'm not sure if it's a power conditioner or just a power strip. Either way, you can't beat it for $30. I also have two Les Paul copies. One is a no-name (probably Hondo), the other is an Electra. You could do a bit of work (refrets and neck binding on both) and have a couple of very playable, decent sounding guitars. Pictures available on request. $100 takes the pair. PM me here or catch me on AIM. My screen name's thearmofbarlow.

Here's the deal. I've decided that the Texas portion of my life is over. I've made the decision to nut up and move someplace I've always wanted to live... the northwest. Specifically, Portland, Oregon. Why, you ask? I like cold. I like rain. Portland is cheaper to live in than Fort Worth. Anyway, I need to get rid of all my s*** in order to fund the trip. I'm keeping a couple of guitars but the rest HAS TO GO. Guitars Ibanez RV470. S style body. Purpleburst over flame maple. Basswood body. Vintage trem. Gold hardware. Lawrence L500XL (same style Dime used) in the bridge. $250 Jackson KVX10D. King V style alder body. String thru tune-o-matic bridge. Pickups replaced with Duncan '59 bridge and Jazz neck. If you play 80's style metal or anything else requiring a nice clean distortion then you want this guitar. $275 Amps Sunn Concert Lead. LOUD AS ****. DOOM AS ****. If you're interested in this, you probably know what it's capable of. $200 Charvel practice amp. Sounds decent. Nothing special. Good knockaround amp for the bedroom. $75 Rack gear ADA MP-1 preamp. Killer tone. Enough gain for anything. If you can't get your tone out of this, it doesn't exist. $200 Tubeworks Mosvalve poweramp. Voiced for guitar but works just as well for bass. Simple clean power. $175 Furman power conditioner. I can't remember the model. The lights need to be replaced. $50 ADA Microcab cabinet sim. Excellent direct box for guitar. I've used it to record all the Peasant, romp, and A Decaying Departure stuff. $50 Ross 31-band graphic EQ. It's a graphic EQ. It's 31 bands. Not much to say. $50 Note that I'll take $500 for the whole rack, with case. This setup will go toe to toe with anything you can name and make an admirable showing. I also have a Jackson 4x12 with silver grille. This is the CABINET OF DOOM. Nothing can hurt it. I've used it for guitar, I'm using it for bass in A Decaying Departure... it is the best cabinet you will ever find for this kind of money. I'd like to get $500 for it, but since I'm in a hurry and just want to get s*** moved I'll take $400. I hate to get rid of it but... well... getting my life in order is far more important than any piece of gear ever could be. PM me or catch me on AIM (screen name thearmofbarlow) if you want more details. Pics available on request. This is your 1st warning for Language

I use my floor. It's non-marring, pervasive, and I have more than enough to go around.

'Cause, you know, they're inferior to those jazz guys that say "cat" and "heroin" a lot.

That's the area where they spray the dye. It could be assumed they use water soluble, which shouldn't be toxic or harmful to the best of my knowledge (though I'd still wear a mask because non-green snot weirds me out...).

From what I've read over the years, they're about half a notch below Warmoth but are still quite good.

What Jackson does with the oiled necks is to have a clear delineation line between color coat and oil finish (like the Carvin), but the clear coat continues past that line by about 1/4". It looks and feels pretty good.

Less leverage? Only if you're using a tiny ass piece of wood as a fulcrum. As far as I can tell there's less chance of damage with wire cutters because unless you're a dumbass you're not going to grip the stud hard enough to create any indentations, and when you pull it out there's ZERO chance of it causing any widening of the stud holes. Those Wilkinson trem studs are deceptive. No matter how deep you drill for them it never seems like enough. ESPECIALLY if you want the trem to sit flush with the body. I wanted that on one I pieced together a while back. I ended up having to drill into the damn trem spring cavity to get the studs low enough.

Better than a hammer is a pair of wire cutters. Grab the area where the knife edge of the trem goes, use a piece of wood as a fulcrum, and pry the stud out.

Rip that bastard off and replace it. I'm partial to graphite, mainly because it doesn't stink to holy hell when you're filing it. I've never done a direct tone comparison.

The neck is on. After the hockey game (GO STARS!) the bridge will be placed and strings will be strung. No pickup or electronics. Just acoustic noise and a fretless neck. Pulled it off my Harmony. Should be interesting sounding. Not necessarily GOOD interesting, but interesting nonetheless. I'll try to have pics up later tonight as well, although this thing is so damned ugly I'm almost ashamed to lay claim to it.

Yeah, I just got all this stuff in a trade. Carvin X100B head for a Furman power conditioner, MP-1, ADA Microcab, and power amp. Good deal as far as I'm concerned.

If you can pull it in tight with some tape, drop some superglue in there and tape it up. If it won't budge... just fill the thing with some colored epoxy. Nobody will noticed. Most likely that area just didn't get enough epoxy coverage.

What I'm saying is that tuners are tuners. Whether the expense of LSR's is worth it is up to you.

Yeah, poplar can eat me. I've dealt with some stanky woods over the years, but this poplar crap is the first to send me from 0 to rough lungs in about 20 seconds on the belt sander. This stuff is NASTY. The top's on now. I just have to trim the excess. I'll do that with the router tomorrow. I cut a vaguely "cat's eye" soundhole in the top. Scroll saws SUCK, I don't care what anyone says. This thing is UGLY. So very, very ugly. I'm definitely going with this same hollow construction style for the real one though. I'm thinking a mahogany back with a swamp ash top. I likes me some swamp ash.

That's my current rig. ADA MP-1 into a Tube Works Mosvalve power amp. Sounds excellent. I don't have what I'd consider a noise problem with it. I mentioned the ProGAP because they're cheaper (the one I bought a while back was $85) and have, god help us all, the most gain of anything I've ever heard... EVER.

It's been done. I'm not sure what the reasoning behind not doing that all the time is. I GUESS it's purely aesthetic.

Pseudo-progress is being made. I haven't been able to get to the hardware store to pick up some wood, but I got incredibly bored and started building with whatever scraps I had laying around. This thing is going to be UGLY. But it's still just a proto, so no problem. The back is 1" pine, and the sides are a solid piece of 1" pine I cut the center out of. The top is made out of three pieces of 1/4" poplar a friend bought at an arts and crafts store for a couple of bucks. So. Damned. Ugly. I'm going to rig up some kind of classical style headstock to cram some tuners on. The weight worries me, but I'll deal with that later. It's moving along, slowly.

Rocktron ProGAP. It's not tube, but it'll get the tone you want. Trust me.

I'd second rosewood of some kind.

Yes.

That amp is nothing more than the power section from a Concert Lead. It's a power amp. It will amplify whatever you put in front of it. Put a distortion box in front of it and see what it sounds like. "Input sensitivity" is just a weirdly named VOLUME. It has nothing to do with tone.

Then replace "Radio Shack" with "Bob's House of Discount and Crappy Tube Amp Parts". The 'most ludicrous' thing is also the thing that has the absolute least to do with ANYTHING WHATSOEVER. The point is that Radio Shack is known for crappy components. Anyone capable of comprehending English should be able to figure out what I meant. The only instance of a Dual Rectifier showing up in a Metallica rig is in Hammet's current setup. http://www.encycmet.com/equipment/equipm.shtml In other words... St. Anger tone. That's why I said "Give me a Mark". As in "A Mesa/Boogie guitar amplifier of the Mark I-IV series". What kind of tube sockets? Good ceramic ones. Has nothing to do with tone, but I've seen too many melted plastic ones to take that chance. Difference in caps? If they're the same Xicon, then nothing. If you're comparing good Xicon caps to the cheapass "400 for $6" grab bags then you're more likely talking about a completely different construction which will undoubtedly lead to different tone (maybe better, maybe worse... who knows?). You're acting as if caps and resistors are the only components in an amp. They're not. You have to deal with transformers, potentiometers, wire, solder, the quality of your PCB/turrets/eyelets... I'm not one of those "silver mica caps, silver solder, and oxygen free stranded wire" weirdos, but I'm also not a "Screw it, it'll work" kind of guy. Amp construction is no different than guitar construction. Yeah you can get good sounds from lesser quality, but by spending a bit extra and carefully planning what components you're going to use then you will end up with a better sound. I have a Concert Lead head. I know how loud those little bastards can get. You should post over on the http://www.diypedals.com/ forum and see what they recommend. You should be able to get away with building a high gain pedal, following it with an EQ, then shoving it all in one package with the power amp.

HA! I didn't even catch that. Asslod. Sounds like the brother of Thor. Asslod... Guardian of Toilet Brushes! Typo. Derp.