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Vade

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About Vade

  • Birthday 01/16/1979

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  • Location
    Right now? Western Pennsylvania
  • Interests
    I'm not really that interested in guitars, I'm just here for the free beer. <br /><br />"there IS no free beer."<br /><br />Huh?<br /><br />"I said there isn't any beer."<br /><br />Are you sure? Not even domestic? I'm not picky when it's free.<br /><br />"nope... sorry man."<br /><br />Well shit. Okay. Well since I'm here. I uh, guess I love guitars and I've been, um, playing them for about 12 years now.<br /><br />"okay, we figured that... what else do you like?"<br /><br />Oh, uh. Well, let me see. I like the interweb a lot. Yeah, I'm on here all day and night practically. Big into Heavy Metal, Irish folk and straight-up rock. Oh yeah, I draw a lot. I'm in an illustrators' forum too... and I write. I run an online storytelling group based on. . .<br /><br />"based on what?"<br /><br />I don't wanna say.<br /><br />"why not?"<br /><br />You'll think I'm a total geek. I'm not sayin.<br /><br />"suit yourself, dude."<br /><br />Thanks.

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  1. Lovely! I can't believe that there were no initial responses to these test-fit pics back in November. The upper horn tear-out area does, as you say, look a bit manky but not that bad. Good on ya for soldiering on with your original finish choice. I'm not keen on burst finishes myself regardless if they are done for desired look or for covering up less-than-ideal sidegrain or core woods. If, over time, it really gets to you for some reason, you could consider adding a "guitarist's eyes only" inlay in that area that would cover up/remove the old tear-out. A wee bit of flash in an out of the ordinary area... and none would ever be the wiser. Class work so far; eagerly anticipating the full final stringing!
  2. This is kinda funny actually. A few weeks ago I visited some friends out of state. Due to some scheduling snafu's, I wasn't able to return on Sunday as planned and was "looking forward" to spending a whole monday doing absotively nothing while my amigos were busy at work. I was wondering what to do when the answer practically fell in my lap. One of their neigbor kids, about 7 or 8 years old, had a first act mini acoustic that he got from his cousin a while ago. It was a ganky piece of crap but little more than a toy. But when he saw/heard me playing my guitar outside, he suddenly became very interested in becoming a guitarist. He was upset cause his little guitar only had 3 strings and he thought the flames on black paint looked "dumb." With his mom's permission, I took the guitar saying I'd have it back to them in a couple days with new strings and maybe some modifications to make it play/look better. Then a trip to the local music store and walmart. I gave the POS black-painted-with-cheesy-flames guitar back tuesday evening, sanded, stained cherry & clearcoated, fret burrs filed smooth, tuning machines oiled & bent back to straight, new rosewood pegs with fake MOP dot inlays on them, nut & bridge carefully dressed & a set of bargain-bin elixirs freshly strung on. Oh... and a vinyl guitar strap. AMAZINGLY... the guitar actually sounded pretty good for the little piece of crap that it was. Once it was tuned up, it stayed in better than I would have thought and the intonation was miraculously almost spot on. I printed out directions for his mom and dad on how to tune it & told them to try and teach their son so he wouldn't have to run to them a couple times a day. <lol> I knew that I was just polishing a turd, and I'm sure that it'll be trashed pretty soon if it isn't already but it felt really cool to do it, it was a lot of fun and the expression on the kid's face was priceless enough to make the whole thing totally worth it.
  3. Okay... this may be offtopic but... "wow." After viewing that one guy's strat body auction on eBay I HAD to go check out his entire site. Firstly, he gets his mitts on some jaw-droppingly amazing strats! Secondly... "what a curt, self-righteous, pompous ass." The only thing that overshadowed the awesomeness of his items was the condescending tone of his "my opinion is law" writing. I'd liken him to a used-car dealer or a midway barker but he's WAY past those stereotypes. That guy has the all the social grace of a tornado full of rabid dogs. And the fact that he presents himself and his wares as the be-all-end-all of the Stratocaster Universe is offset by the fact that HE WRITES HIS ALLCAPS DESCRIPTIONS with more "typos" than a bloodbank. The best thing that he could do would be to pay someone to re-write his item descriptions to fix his spellig, punctuatio!n and personality. Not that he needs it of course; obviously he's making enough money to wipe his backside with but I can't be the only person who feels that any guitar that passed through this man's hands would be somehow "dirty." ::shudders:: Again... I realize this isn't on topic for the thread exactly, but after linking thru to that auction & the resulting site from this thread, I just had to say something lest I explode. I can't believe there are people like this out there not just surviving but THRIVING in this world. And now, completely ON-TOPIC: Since I haven't commented on this thread, I just want to say that your aged fenders are "Freakin' Sweet" Alex! I never thought of doing something like that but the result is unbelievably cool. I'll bet it's a LOT of fun distressing an instrument like that, huh? I'm working on my Ibanez mod right now and can't help but wonder how a modern-styled guitar would look carefully distressed to appear as though it had been around since the late 50's
  4. "Hijack?" Dude, are you kidding? This info is awesome! Plus all this talk about trems (all of which I am now going to be looking into for the final version of the project) keeps *bumping my thread! Nope; no complaints here!
  5. Zounds! That's a nice bit of information in that ranking and the info leading up to it! I will almost certainly be accessing this thread again when the project is more or less completed in terms of the initial physical rework. Budget restraints force me to maintain the original hardware for the time being. Beyond that, I want to make sure that the RG is in full playing condition after I've had my way with it before I go sinking three figures into a better trem. I have a good deal of confidence that I won't be making any glaring & irreversible errors with the recarve but one never knows, after all. I don't have a second guitar that would benefit from a higher-end FRT if this one winds up in no condition for the upgrade, so I first need to be 100% positive that if I sock out the bucks, it will be used. This is the one area where the mod will have multiple stages of "completion." Major hardware improvement will be an upgrade after the initial project is successfully finished, but it's really good to have this kind of clear info so I know what to look for on the 'Bay! Thanks GBT. And, of course Westhemann, I hope there's some feedback on your ZR inquiry as I myself am now curious about that!
  6. THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT! Thanks, both you guys for correcting me! I was hoping to get criticism on stuff I mess up, whether it's the project itself or the stuff that I write about it. (( and "guilty as charged" on the heavy-handed writing... When I start, it's hard to stop and I tend to go off on tangents. I realize though that seeing such a ridiculously long Blog can be kind of intimidating when it comes to someone's internet surfing time... I'll try to keep that in mind and truncate future posts. )) I appreciate the info on Cosmo Black Finishes... I'm off to remove the offending statements right now! ~~Vade
  7. Hey Tom! Love the post-title. Funny enough to make me not not read your "hello my name is" paste. Looks like you and I have the same basic approach to introductions: USE HUMOUR or, alternatively, HUMOR You're gonna love this place... it rocks the trailer. I've already gotten so much good advice and ideas I can't even begin to tell you. These guys really know their stuff and are ready, willing and able to share what they know to help ya!
  8. Just a thought... I appreciate that I've had like 100 views in 2 and a half days and I'm sure that a good number of those have been people who wound up saying to themselves "oh... it's a link to another site. I'm not gonna go there." But of those of you who have checked it out, do any of the rest of you have any thoughts so far? Feedback is a good thing.
  9. Hey GBT! Well, to answer your 2nd question first: This is a complete headstock-to-strapbutton mod. The only thing that won't really change much is the fretboard & fretmarkers (save for the scalloping on the high 5 frets) and so since all finish is being removed and redone (including headstock painting, staining the neck and possibly some carving or other re-shaping) everything attached to wood had to go! As for question 1: WHY DID I LOOSEN THE TRUSS ROD? It wasn't to loosen the strings before removal... I have a half a dozen string winders laying about in guitar cases, bookshelves, the floor, etc... it was so that when I undid the strings, the back tension on the neck caused by the trussrod wouldn't have a detrimental effect on the neck itself while sitting for godknowshowlong without the reverse tension created by the strings. I haven't the foggiest clue if this was A) a clever and logical move on my part, possibly harmful, or C) completely pointless. When I got the RG, it required a considerable amount of truss-tweaking to get the action right but I felt that the additional tension might be a little much for a neck without the forward pull of the strings. Just a guess! Good to have a line on Ibby parts if I need them, thanks!
  10. Well, I've been several stages into this project for awhile but only recently have begun taking the photo documentation and resizing it for the interweb. After that there's been a lot of typing. (( carpel tunnel setting in )) Any-the-who. . . Since when I first brainstormed this thing I couldn't find any detailed DIY's on the web for a similar project, I decided I would blog the whole process so that other potential modders have something that will come up on a Google search to reference. "COOL! Thanks to this guy, I know what mistakes to avoid!" Already Project Guitar has been a wealth of valuable knowledge for me so I wanted to make sure that I shared a link to my "guitar modding with vade" blog with all of you guys! Here ya go: http://vadeking.blogspot.com/ it also exists on livejournal http://vadeking.livejournal.com/ but I like the look and feel of the blogspot version better. However, for anyone who are users of LJ and prefer that layout. . . there ya go. I was considering whether or not to post pics and simplified progress stats here as well, but I'm proving to be quite image-intensive and I know there are a lot of rules & limitations on number and size of images posted here. I might sit down, confirm all the forum specifics & figure out how best to post while conforming to all of them eventually, but for now you can see where I'm at and the mess I'm making at those links above. Not that there is much to comment on at this point, but to anyone who has any questions, thoughts, corrections or ideas, I'd be thrilled if you shared them either in this thread or as comments on the Blogsites! Wish me luck... "This guitar is SO in for it." ~~Vade
  11. Err... yeah, Matt. ***? Sometimes ya gotta break a few eggs, right? I totally agree with Verhoevenc! The tear-out might be a bit ganky, but seriously, I'm looking at carving a body INTO the shape you're so upset about to emulate Warwick in a guitar... believe me, that's not a problem, that's what Bob Ross would call "A Happy Accident." I'd shrug off the tear-out and add a few more to create an uber-distressed beast thats full of holes. When it's finished, you can call it "BATTLE DAMAGE" howzzat? And seriously, if you're just gonna chuck the whole thing, for gods' sakes, send it to Verhoevenc and let him see what he can do with it!
  12. Hmmm.. BOTH good ideas, Godin & Jens! I'm diggin the string-thru idea from the LTD, for schwah! And I've never seen a grain-fill finish like that before. How exactly would one go about doing that? Is there a how-to somewhere on the forum for that finish? Though a trans-red would look really sweet since the walnut already had a very reddish natural hue. I've been thinking on this project thru the whole cabin weekend I just returned from and I think I'm definitely gonna go with a guitar over a bass. I'm pretty happy with the basses in my collection already and don't really need or even want another right now unless it's an acoustic. A seven would be pretty interesting to play with! I'm thinking few if any fret markings on a jet black ebony board. Possibly a single central inlay and that's it. Double humbuckers though, no doubt about it!
  13. Sorry, RG. this question temporarily slipped my notice I guess! It's Walnut, actually. I found it underneath an old broken bandsaw in the storage area of my high school woodshop. It was at least 10 or 15 years old back then and had a lot of worm damage so my teacher just let me have it. Fortunately, I was able to work around the worm holes and squeak a body out of it! The new question is going to be "what the living hell am I going to MAKE with it?" Back then I was an aspiring young bassist and I had intended on making a bassguitar out of this thing eventually. But now that I'm more of a lead & rhythm player, mayhaps I should turn it into a solidbody electric 6?
  14. Hmmm... Good point, Tommy. ::ROUTES OUT NECK WITH PHOTOSHOP & REPLACES PICTURE WITH MANIPULATED VERSION:: (( if only I was as good at woodworking as I was with photomanipulation )) How does that look to ya? Wholly Carp, that DOES look similar, doesn't it? Cool & neat/Neat & cool! I've definitely never seen that LTD before, so I know for certain I couldn't have thought the butt end up from that axe! I've never been big on stabtacular guitars for my personal instruments, though I do appreciate a lot of the design and like looking at them! Don't misunderstand me, Kiem... I'm not really worried per se but curious as to where the heck the shape idea came from way back when. I remembered that I had that old body over at my dad's house but having not seen it for a good 8 years, I remembered it quite differently. When I dug it out i was like "is THAT what I made? I thought it was just an ordinary looking strat/ibanez kinda hybrid deal but that wedge at the bottom definitely doesn't qualify as that!" It's really only curiosity to see what my old inspirado was, though now that I'm getting into this whole modding/building thing, I think it's high time that this little bod was put to good use and given a voice!
  15. Errrr... the first one seems to have posted the title and description, but no actual post. Is there a way to delete that? Anyway. I just dusted off a guitar body I made when I was like 14 or 15, blowing time in the woodshop after an assigned project. What I'm wondering is if I got the idea for the heel from a guitar I'd seen somewhere or if I came up with it as a result of my not liking the flat-BUTTED* syndrome most gweeters seem to have. (( "nothing new under the sun," right? chances are SOMEONE'S made this exact shape. )) * *photo manipulated & edited for claritiy So does this look like something you've seen, especially a mass-production instrument? *self-edit to conform to the rules I'm reading right now before I get slapped
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