George Brown

(cue tumbleweed) may have been funny on april fools

this should save you some time link the middle positon of the john petrucci model has the two inner coils selected of the two humbuckers and it does sound really good for the middle position make sure the coils are reverse polarity both electricaly and magneticly at least i think thats right

if you're just going to buy cheapo pick-ups dont bother. if you want emg's go for them, just keep the epiphone pick-ups electronics (emgs need 25k pots) then when you get a better guitar put the old electronics back in the epiphone and the emg's in the new one.

the way i like to string m guitars (a strat) is to line the post hole with the nut slot then with the high e pull it through keeping it pulled fairly tight then pull the sting around (the side where there are no tuners) under itself and firmly upright. then as i wind the peg the string locks itself. after i have tuned to pitch i stretch the string by placing my finger at the first fret and pulling at the twelth (dont be too afraid to yank it) then retune. repat this for the g and b strings for the e a and d strings i dont pull the strings as much as i can through the post i actualy leave a little slack. this is because you wont be able to turn to post enough to lock the sting in before reaching pitch. the instuctions above apply to all of your stings as your headstock is 3+3 lastly im pretty sure that lots of winds around the post makes for bad tunning stability so the fewer the better, you may want to check out the kinman website he has some tips on stringing up.

looking good, one question why didnt you use the 4+2 headstock, no string tees unless your using tuners with stagered height posts as for finish id recomend using some of that crome illusion paint or whater its called, if youve seen a tvr you'll know what i mean, you should be able to get something simialar if not the same as the mystic dream finish

unfortunatly you are correct, you cannot split the coils if there are only two wires. you may want to replace the pickups with ones that have four conductor wirring this will enable you to split the coils as well as many other things, i mod i like is by where one of the tone controlls are replaced with a pot the fades one of the coils out to ground, so on 10 you have full humbucker and 0 full single coil and everything inbetween here is a schematic for you guitar as it should be stock

locking tuners may help but before you rush out and buy any you may want to try the following; either melt some candle wax or rub some graphite from a pencil (hb or softer) into the nuct slots. if this temporaly solves the problem the nut slots have been cut bad (eg they have a "v" profile), if this is the case you could re-file the nut slots or try something like a slipstone nut from stew mac. edit j.pierce we posted at the same time kl

Paul Reed Smith custom, good looking original design

oops, sorry my mistake i didnt really think about it should have of check it out before posting

the maple in the body laminate goes really well with the maple laminate in the neck kinda looks like it just flows through

a serial number may prove usefull, jemsite may be able to help

im strongly agreeing with robert here, i suggest you block your existing trem off as it is the floyd would be a lot of hassel just for looks

in contrast to what many of you have said i belive it may slightly increase sustain as the presure on the tom would be increased due to the greater break angle of the strings comming through the body rather than a stop tail peice, but for looks a tom just has to go with a stop tail peice then again i dont like toms that much. hope all goes well with the project

i think what robert said about the neck being attatched to the body more and the bridge connected to the top wood more would cancel out in comparision to that of the usual method of maple top mahogany bottom that is the bridge being connected to the maple more on a les paul for example would be canceled out by the neck of your guitar being conected to the maple more and the same with the mahogany, i hope that makes sence and you understand what im trying to say

robert makes a good point but im guessing you have one installed or have routed fro one. the answer is no, however if you desire you can still use it as you still have fine tuners. my recomendation would be for a "normal" nut, iv lost the floyd rose alen key on many an ocassion and its not a very fun game trying to find it

i dont think your desired wirring is the same as found on standard jems heres the steve vai switching set up and here's a diagram

connecting the ground to the coductive paint/ copper tape is how you make a shield if not then its just a conductive material around the pickups edit: whilst your pick-ups may be wirred correctly you might want to check for ground loops

" tung or danish oil would both work, i think "raw.unfinished oiled neck" is an oxymoron" totaly agree, just marketing trying to shove as many words in there ad possible woods such as Wendge and Padouk are sutible to be left raw, that is no finish whatsoever. as for oiled necks tung and danish oil works, but id also like to suggest gunstock oil music man use it on there necks and after playing my friends petrucci model i can tell you first hand its the best way of finishing a neck, even satin finishes build up sweat from my hands, its well worth oiling a neck and doing a litle reular matinance.

i also have a line six spider II its a 120watt monster way too loud for my bedroom but stick a pair of headphones in and i can jam all night and use the same thing for a gig the next day. however if you want an amp just to practise on i suggest a pod, get one of the older ones if you cant affored the XT, even more versitle than the spider and way more portable.

thanks for the responce, the idea works in theroy and practise (as you have shown) perfectly and dose elimintate the need for those tall (and ugly IMO) pick-up rings but any ideas about "angling the body face" ?

another question for those in the know, ill be blunt and get to the point, its about neck angle. now in a interview with paul reed smith (guitarist issue 262 (april 2005)) he said that the ody face was angled with the stings so the pick-up height rings were the same. however surely the bridge height is raised with this effectivly "canceling out" if you will the neck angle. is the brigde (talking about wraparoud here) resessed into the body or something?, iv never really looked at a prs from the side and cant seem to find any pics. what are your thoughts on the subject? p.s. i know he uses warparound or trems which have lower neck angles than say a tom

my geuss would be that it uses digital ic's (intergrated circuits) like logic gates so when r=250 effect=phaser or whatever, thats just a guess though

its a tone pros warparound, it has two adjustable srews to angle it at the posts and the saddles have plenty of travel, take a look at a prs wraparound it also has two overall adustable srews at the studs but the studs are parralell

first off very clever with the p/u mouting you get the look of it being direct mounted with the adjustability of standard mounting rings will you be replacing the bridge humbucker? if you leave it as it is there may be some differnce in volume from string to string but, i doubt it will be audioable.

kornia aka limba (it comes in 2 forms white and black) is descirbed as similar to mahogany with a sweeter midrange whatever that means but i think its an exotic wood you might want to get one of these sorry to hear about the alergy development