Axe pix

[kawai2g4b]

Very nice Stagemaster!  :thumb-up: And I second the Lexicon, killer FX.

[rnolan]

Hey El very nice  :thumb-up:

[rabidgerry]

here are a few of my cheapo guitars that I love dearly

I have a few more now, great guitars in my opinion and not one of them over £500  (mind you the Westone Dimension IV is probably going to be worth a lot more than that in the future)

[rnolan]

Hey RG, nice collection  :thumb-up: , the water bottles are an interesting inclusion LOL

[rabidgerry]

Hey RG, nice collection  :thumb-up: , the water bottles are an interesting inclusion LOL

it's the cheapest gin and tonic of all time, but I'm sure it got me drunk hahaha

Normally its vodka, musta fancied a change that week lol

why did I include them in that photo?  Comedic effect  :facepalm:

[Dante]

Hey Gerry - love the Tokai V

[rabidgerry]

Hey Gerry - love the Tokai V

Thanks Dante.

I have only upgraded it a little with a new tone pros bridge a bone nut and higher frets.  One of the saddles started to corrode though (what a waste of cash that was then eh!!) so I now have some titanium saddles that I need to get my luthier to cut notches in and then I can install them.
I have also toyed with the idea with putting in a DP100 in the bridge.  I may still do that but I have so many guitars to do and so many other upgrades its finding the time!!

I could never pay 800quid for a Gibson, so I figured getting a Tokai V would suffice.  It's a good guitar in my opinion.

[rnolan]

Tokai make some nice guitars.  Also the some of the Epiphones aren't too shabby, but the hardware generally needs changing out, my SG came up well but it also got a neck shave and all new HW.  I know what you mean re finding time to do them, my tele upgrade project is on semi hold LOL, it's got a SD hot tele in the bridge, I want to put in my spare Ultrasonic Ref 6 but is twin coil size so will require routing (a bit messy in the lounge room LOL). So the DP100 is an Ibenez PU ? IIRC you mentioned before you liked them allot.

[Dante]

I have an Epiphone Vee that is absolutely FANTASTIC!!

$350 for the guitar, $200 in upgrades. Plays like a dream, sounds like a monster, looks like a beauty queen in biker's clothing.

[Dante]

The only true Gibson I have is my Explorer  :bow:

[rnolan]

Hey Dante, nice  :thumb-up: , is there a reason your neck PU in the Gibi is upside down ??, normally the (main) pole pieces are at the neck end.. ?? Just wondering

[Dante]

You are very perceptive! I like them that way on that guitar (that's a lie) Here's the big story:

When I was younger and absolutely dumb, I enjoyed throwing the Explorer over my shoulder and spinning it around. Great fun....until the strap anchor pulled right outta the bottom of the guitar one day, sending the Explorer head first into a dance floor at high velocity - snapping the headstock in two. The only thing holding it on was the strings in the last four posts, and the plastic covering on the headstock that contains the Gibson inlay.

That guitar sat in it's case for 2.5 years until I had the balls to fix it myself. First, I don't recommend you do this if you've never worked with wood before. I had a little bit of experience and thought I could easily glue a couple pieces of wood together, right? I did fix it, and I can personally guarantee it will NEVER break there again. I ran four dowels of hardwood through the break to be sure of that, the fit was so tight that glue was squirting out as I tapped them into the holes. That said, I'm not much of a craftsman sometimes, and I can see a little bow in the hockey-stick headstock....nobody else sees it, but it haunts me sometimes.

Then, with absolutely no experience whatsoever, thinking the value was already gone from this axe anyway....I refinished the guitar. This was an absolute mistake - in hindsight, I should have fixed the headstock and left it at that. I had no idea what I was in for, and I made tons of errors along the way. I stripped off the Gibson Custom Shop (candy-apple-red) paint job and got it down to bare wood. I tried staining the solid Korina (yes, this is a Korina Explorer) but, no colors would stick evenly...I ended up with a blotchy looking guitar. So, I ended up painting it instead. I have to say, the paint job came out pretty nice, but I may still add some more coats of clear to make it look even 'thicker' and wet.

Back to the pickup - About a year and a half later, I was done with the paint job and rewired the guitar, according to the notes I took when I disassembled it. I had no idea I put the pickup in upside down until much later. When I was hooking it up, the wire had somehow become too short to turn it around without lengthening it  :facepalm: so, I tried it this way and it sounded awesome, so I left it. I gotta say, the clean tones in that thing, on that pickup, sound like a hollowbody blues box. It's pretty amazing. I'll post a clip in here.

[rnolan]

Hey Dante, I have some similar memories LOL, back when I kenw nothing I put a humbucker into my Anson strat usesing a screw driver to expand the cavity. It worked and is still there. Hey spinning it around is a valid idea (though you had little choice with lead length) and often works !!

[MarshallJMP]

Now that's a nice story about PU haha  :lol:

Did it came stock with the tremolo?

[Dante]

It was on it when I got it - I was told that Wayne Charvel put it on, which is believable, I bought it in Southern CA in the 80s