DividedByJames

The red and white are linked to a push pull for coil tapping.

dude...those inlays are way cool...I like the deep ocean fish on the back and the striped fishy on the fingerboard. Are the sea horses inlays too? It looks like it is above the finish. The others are sweet too. What did you use for the blue water in the sailfish inlay?

I agree...your artwork is spectacular. Can we get pictures of the rest of the guitar...and do you have more inlays to show us?

okay...I must have been inhaling some solder fumes or really coming down with this cold I have...cuz I had it backwards all along...I had the green as the hot originally and the black as ground. So I switched them and it sounded brighter. But I guess my point is still valid...will using the ground as the hot make it less brighter and using the hot as you are supposed to obtain the most brightest sound? I mean in my solder fumed and snot filled head that makes sense but aren't both coils on at the same time?

I was playing guitar a few minutes ago on my Schecter (wiring Hum Hum 3way toggle) and I noticed that my middle position was a bit weak. So I thought to myself...hmm...must be out of phase. So I opened up the pickup cavity housing the wires for the Duncan JB (bridge) and a crappy EMG HZ (neck) (soon to be replaced). I had recently replaced the bridge EMGHZ with the Duncan so I thought I'd just switch the ground (green) and hot (black) wire positions for that pickup than tear apart shrink tubes for the EMG. When I started playing I noticed it a bit brighter and I couldn't figure out why. So I opened the trusty, but recently reformed Guitarelectronics.com webpage and looked at what the black and green really meant. The green wire was from the Screw pole coil (closest to the bridge) and the black was from the slug pole coil (towards the middle). To me that means the closer to the bridge the more trebly the sound becomes. So will reversing the hot and ground wires of your pickups really make them brighter, or am I going tone deaf?

The best thing I can thing of to "correct" hat is to get a longer scale bass. Not the cheapest alternative, but they make longer scale basses--I know Carvin has a 35.25" scale. It's similar to how Les Paul scales 24.75" sounds muddier than the Strat scale 25.5". But I have an alder Jazz bass with maple neck/fingerboard and EMG pickups and when I drop D it doesn't sound muddy. Do you guys use passive electronics in your basses? I recall basses with passive pickups (except the Musicman) sound really muddy tuned down. But back to drop D...I guess it's up to the player. Not everyone needs to drop. I prefer to have bass players match tuning for learning/teaching/writing purposes, but that's just me. But I don't know why you can't hit harmonics as well...thats weird. But have you heard Victor Wooten before? Listen to the "what did he say" album and most definately you will say it's not a backline instrument.

I have the Seymour Duncan Classic Stacks in my strat and they sound pretty clean to me. Although I've never been able to stand actual single coil 60-cycle hum, nor have I ever heard the "bell" sound of a single coil, so my version of clean may be different than yours. But they are clean enough to where the don't distort on the clean tone, hold ther own under Mesa distortion (with no hum), and actually look like the 50s Fender single coils. As far as the works go...humbucker wires are in a figure eight pattern, and stacked or mini humuckers either use thinner magnets in their figure eight (looks compressed) or are rotated 90 degrees in the Z-direction. They use less windings if they are trying to achieve a "clean" tone. With that being said, the smaller ones should sound just like the full size humbuckers, but being that the pole positions aren't in the same place, it'll probably sound a little bit different.

dude...nice rout job on that strat body. NOT! The wangcaster or whatever it is called is kinda funny. I'd play that if I was playing in a goofy punk band. The flame/Garcia sunburst guitar is kinda cool, but I wouldn't want it as my main guitar.

very sweet! So the brightness of the maple helps the clarity? The guys in Korn use mahogany for their custom bodies and I always thought mahogany would muddy up the sound of the low notes. I've been wanted to replace my RG7421 body for a while and now I got a good idea of what could make it sound clearer and look sweet.

I take a breath and hold it...seems to work for a bit and when you exhale you blow towards the solder so the fumes go away from you. But that's the cheap man's fan...I also run a fan or have good ventilation. And yes I've burnt myself grabbing onto pots etc.

yeah...for simple movements, you don't need to tune down a five/six string bass. But if you do stuff like my band where the riff has pull-offs high up on the fretboard (10-12th fret) onto the open d string, then you have to have it tuned to the appropriate string. If you don't tune down and play the actual notes elsewhere on the neck, then you lose the finesse of the riff.

jonray, your links aren't all working..saw the PRS copy. Nice job! But no other pics worked...were there more?

very cool! Any special wiring for the pickups, or just the standard 3way?

I was going to buy stuff from them (A&D) but I never got around to it. They do great work like Jimm says. I've been tracking them for a while, and I would buy any of their products if I was't neck deep in guitars already (I saw a doubleneck Tele that was cool). The guy who was trying to sell the goofy looking Iceman is who we all think is asking too much. I think the general concensus is that people like or have nothing bad to say about A&D. Thumbs up for A&D, thumbs down for "guns girls and guitars" for using a cheap neck and asking too much for a dorky guitar.

the vault : go to vai.com, click on machines, then "steve's guitars". The mirrored 7string is in the 2nd gallery. back to mdf...what would possess the man to do that? I mean if he's already got mahogany, why add particleboard? makes no sense to me. The guitar looks great except the mdf stone backing and headstock. He should have stayed with all gloss mahogany.

Lookin' good. Keep us posted (I'm sure you will)!

I agree with Page, but i still don't like the sound of the Metal Zone. I grew up on Metallica, Anthrax, Megadeth, Pantera, Fear Factory...all the heavy compressed distortion bands. I liked that sound, and back then when I listened to it all the time the metal zone was the ****. Now I don listen to that music anymore, and I play in a band where you fight for tone frequencies and that pedal sounds like **** now. I guess it sucks for blues and rock players, but for shred heads and metal heads (especially those playing by themselves at home), thats the sound they like and want. I still have my DS1 floating around somewhere and it is a good distortion pedal, but mine's O.G. and it has that pause when you switch it, so for that it kinda sucks. For a far worse pedal, check out that DOD death metal pedal. Bad. Very bad.

Thats good to know. I would have replaced the pickups anyway in the electrics, but if the rocksolid stuff like frets and joints were crap then it's a no-no. If their workmanship is questionable, I might pass it up and go for the $99 Epiphone special at Musicians Friend/Guitar Center. At least I'm familiar with Epi's and I can go to GC and try 'em out there. Thanks guys. I have a surplus of electrics but only one acoustic--my rosewood Taylor 420R dreadnought. Love it to death but I wanted one I could beat up and not care about that looked decent.

I see guitars like this or this on ebay all the time, and while I'm tempted by the looks and price, I don't purchase one because I've never heard of the company and don't know what kind of quality goes into it. I went to the website and still, the retail prices are low. There is one cool one for you acoustic builders...a Statue of Liberty guitar with the sound hole shaped like the face. Kinda cool looking, but the guitar doesn't wow me otherwise. Anybody seen these in stores or own one?

eh? icicles? Uh...look closer -- they are supposed to be flames, made of pearl. But good point, if they were icicles that'd be contradictory.

for "normal" I'd look to a Les Paul/SG design. I think the farthest forward pot mimics the farthest forward pickup (neck). Personally I like two pots...one tone one vol. I haven't really found a good use to have separate volumes and tones. You could put a concentric pot in one of the pot locations. That gives you 3 controls then, 2 of them stacked on top of each other.

those are kinda kooky looking. Especially the 14-wire 7 string pickup. Seriously, can you really tell the difference if its wired independantly or in one bar?? Cool concepts, but a bit out there for me.

I think I'd get a set of Duncan designed over those. At least you'd know you'd be getting a Korean version of the JB, Jazz, Invader, or Custom. Same sound, just made under less quality control.

In my band we drop-d tune and my bassist either is tuned BDADG where the 4th string is a whole step down (and he just doesn't use the B string) and ADADG where he drops both. If we ain't ridin the D he's tuned normally and hitting the d on the 3rd fret of the 5th string. He usualy tunes down to what he needs, not necessarily to match the guitar tuning. In my band before that we used 7 strings and dropped-A tuned them (AEADGBE). But here's a brain tickler... if on the bass the 1st string is the G, 2nd = D, 3rd = A, 4th = E, 5th= B, then what is the high C on a six string? Do they reorganize and reshift everything so that the B becomes the 6th and the C the 1st? or is it the 0th string, eh? ...uh...ok...nevermind...I'm just wasting time at work...

eh...can't find it...ask Brian, he'd know. He also sells (or used to sell) thin figured maple tops that could bend over that arm rest area on UniversalJems.com.