MikeB

well, i have been very busy, and i now have a working guitar. it aint finished yet, as Rick has to decide on this wednesday what he wants done with it. i got it wired last night, finished at about 2am ish, then i played it till quarter to 4, trying to record last night, but nothing was working, luckily i got my laptop workin again, and i got a clip recorded. i think its a fantastic guitar, great definition to the low notes, i dont wanna go back to 6 strings hehehe! here is a clip of it, just a butchered drum track i recorded with my drummer mate for one of my songs. you will need to add treble to this recording i reckon, i didnt final EQ it or anything, and excuse the sloppyiness, all parts done in 1 take, no cut ins or outs, nothing added to the rhythm, thats the guitar straight thru my Vamp pro, and the lead is the Van Halen Tapping setting on my Vamp, for your reference (Rick) its patch 6B if you dont have it hooked to the PC and if you havent modified that one! www.allbarkleys.plus.com/7%20string.mp3 thats 2 rhythm tracks, drums, lead, no bass geetar. i dont really wanna post it actually, its a lil poor, but i said to rick id get him a clip. pictures? yeah, i have a few. i will post the links to most of the pics, as i respect dial-uppers this is what held up my building: house caught fire, so upstairs aint great, attic is gutted, my and dans rooms also. i only had smoke damage, which is nice, but it was literally minutes before my room totally went!! http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/rea...m/NeckEarly.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/rea...aham/meneck.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/rea...raham/medad.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/rea...itarnatural.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/rea...guitarfront.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/rea.../guitarback.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/rea...raham/body2.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/rea...Graham/body.jpg http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/rea...am/dimarzio.jpg enjoy the pics, ill answer any questions you may have! Mike angeled trem route isnt an illusion, the way the clamps at the back make this angle on the body, so i routed in line with them, i prefer it this way, you may be able to see what i mean in the pics, unfortunately most of the "most descriptive" pics were soo blurry i wouldnt post them. this isnt the guitar in its finished stage, its a rough stage which i will clean up before i paint it.

i have the rack mount v-amp pro, and its a great bit of kit

not the most fond of the pale binding on maiden's guitar, not to my taste, but overall fantastic result!! beautiful guitar, maiden, have a vote again, great entries this month, Godin you were >< that much away for winning my vote...

i have been improvisingm and i have a similar bolt thing, hard to explain what it is without the names to hand, lol! its lie a cup washer or something, hoping this will do the trick, it did the last time!! Mike

yeah, im gonna opt for 35deg seems what the standard is mike

thx! the simpler the better. im gonna make one tomorrow, im guitarred out today! just spent 3 hours sanding a fretboard! i reckon ill felt mine, dont wanna risk scratching it! Mike

if you get some, drop me a line plz! they are hell to find! i am diminished7@gmail.com thanks!1 Mike

yeah, im on his side of the ocean! if you can hook me up with AANJ neck bolts i would be VERY happy! Mike

i plan to asap, cant really, place is a mess - house fire.

please post it man!

one thing that puts me off a guitar is the way the neck is finished, eg the ibanez 7 string 7321. i hate the neck on it, feels soo fake! im sure a lil lovin would fix it!

thanks alot guys!! i was millimeters from building the PGM Ibanez, but at the last second i built this! i cant say i know what the PG V looks like, i dont think i have seen it, but i will look now! thanks Mike

cool you will do alot in a year, seriously! yeah, building got the better of me for a while, it comes and goes - mainly depending on whether i have supplies or whatever to build!! its great tho Mike

haha, thanks maiden! was really nervous there, playing to 800 ppl. if you check out the site you will find a few more clips. i made a few slip ups, hell i was only 17 but the most technical (i think) bit was just after that bit, i did a root 6 sweep on E but on the top sting instead of going 12 - 15 i went 12 - 24. i would make the whole vid of our song plus guitar and drum solo available, but my server couldnt handle the bandwidth! hehe! thanks again Mike

it depends what it has been routed for. i made everything, so therefore i could use any bridge, i chose to use a hardtail, for improved sustain. you could easily use a floyd rose, or a wilkinson, its up to your preferecnce. remember that the string spacing varies on these, a floyd is 2 1/8" and a wilkinson is 2 1/16" - i prefer the 2 1/16" spacing, it fits me better. the routed for the wilkinson and the floyd are different as well, the floyd has more recesses etc... they are both stud mounted trems, but the post spacing is much different as well! you could use a vintage strat trem, the ones you see on fenders - mounted by 6 screws, probably the easiest route to do would be for one of these! you could try a TOM bridge, but you need to remember the neck angle you will have to build in, or think about recessing the bridge to compensate, its very much up to what you are capable of, how the guitar is supplies, and how you want to play it, ie your playing styles. Mike

hey, i built a rrv inspired guitar - its not 100% faithful though. that shows it off reasonably http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v506/realmofspeed/V.jpg and again! here is a clip of it in action. http://www.fading.audioshot.net/GS.wmv check the media section of www.fading.audioshot.net - my band, Fading Blind. I used this guitar in the clips and the vids, just to let you hear what mine sounds like! if you need to ask anything, feel free. construction isnt much different compared to your normal guitar!! Mike

cant stand people smoking near me, smoking, or smoke - i have asthma and it kills me - just pack up and feel bad. i agree, roll on the smoking ban, its about bloody time.

afaik agathis is a synthesised wood. it would be cool to see such spec on such a cheap guitar, but be realistic, th company would never do this - they pay guys to work out what turns out the highest overall profit, so that means weighing construction techniques against the market. etc...

i think EMG have a good range of available add-ons - check them out, i reckon they would be good!

i have the 89 on my guitar atm, the coil tap is a cool feature - definately handy, especially if trying to simulate acoustic guitars. i have also used the 81 and the 60. let me rant about the 60 some - its a great pickup, and imo the best emg i have used. i used one in neck position for a while, then switched it to bridge, it was sweet - so definately consider this one! its well worth the buck! i wire my guitars with the no - load tone pot switching as standard - just to get that little bit more output and clarity when desired. i must say i usually leave the circuit open - no load another wise. all this is doing is bypassing the tone pots - so reducing the resistance, therefore more output, and more treble. this works on passives and actives alike. i have wired this on several guitars to great success. if you want to PM me about anything to do with the EMG's or the wiring, feel free to do so. Mike

LK gets my vote here

i love playing metal of all sorts, been listening to death metal lots recently. love meshuggah's stuff, generally the heavy stuff - been glues to the 24/7 death metal channel on iTunes. i also love baroque/classical stuff - im weird. Mike

i hate them because the design doesnt appeal to me at all! i think the headstocks suck major! the bodies are poor shapes, and i would never own one.... HOWEVER - the ones i have played, played well. they are as good as any other - the stock pickups 9on a cheap model) actually sounded nice through a mesa. the workmanship was ok for the price - just the pup cavaties were a little amis i thought. but it played well, pity about the bodies. one other thing was that the pup selector switch wasnt good, again a cheap one. guitars i am NOT impressed with atm are the ESP LTD series. i played a LTD explorer the other day, and i was insulted by the quality, please ESP do yourself some justice! Mike

thats the one!!!!

hahaha ^^ [john travolta voice] aint it cool! [/john travolta voice] man i love those old cop type series'. oh that old one with william shatner, forgotten the name, but it was a geg!