Guitar Fetish Solid Steel Trem Block

I got this purely out of curiosity to see what all the hype was about. I installed a Solid Steel block because the properties and descriptions of the Brass ones weren't to my liking.

Here is the stock block

And here is a comparison shot of the two. Its quite a significant size difference and the stock block weighs less than 1/4 of the weight of the SS one

And finally here are a couple of pictures of the block installed on the trem.

And finally a picture of it installed in the guitar.

This was marketed by Guitar Fetish as:

The result is a total transformation of your guitar for UNDER TWENTY BUCKS!! Come on!! Sustain is increased noticeably, tone is like NIGHT AND DAY, even tuning stability is just a hair better. You can't NOT buy this!!

After installing it and playing for just a few minutes I agree entirely. They missed out a few points though. The low end is punchier and the midrange is a lot snappier with a crisp high end. In general the tone is a lot more full and percussive.

The marketing gumph is slightly incorrect though as the block itself is actually $21.95! But still for the tonal increase you really cant argue and you would be a mentalist to not at least try it at the above price.

Swirley Shirley MkI

Well i've got this knocked together in a temporary state.

The neck is a temporary one that I got on ebay for £18! Complete bargain. It has a great playability and as an added bonus has a brass nut. It has had a repair behind the headstock that has been done very well and also is a 54mm heel rather than the required 55.5mm.

The bridge is also a cheapo from eBay that is surprisingly good and will do the job until the Kahler 2710 arrives.

Back onto the pickups. They are all entwistles being HVX in the bridge. The single coil is the XS62 and the neck is the HVX neck. They are all very nice they are very 80s sounding but are not quite 100% what I want as i prefer more high end presence and and a faster more precise low end.

I do have plans on trying other pickups in this guitar from both Bulldog pickups & The Creamery.

I will get some clips done for the next post regarding this when the guitar is in MKII.

Now here's a few pictures

Here's a quick shot of me playing it. you can see the gaps at the side of the neck.

This photo shows how well the clear coating turned out.

Ignore the twisted B & E strings here I had to take the neck off to adjust the truss rod and didn't realise before taking the photo.

This one shows just how amazingly vibrant the DR neons are and as a bonus they sound and feel amazing too.

Let me introduce you to Swirley Shirley!

Here is a little something that I am going to be putting together over the next few months.

I got the body from Out of this swirled. I looked at it on the website for a good while and then just bought it as I noticed they are closing down and I didn't want to miss out.

This is going to be a more rock oriented guitar as my others are very metal so this will be a nice change.

Its American Red Alder and I am planning to pair it with a Kramer classic replacement neck with the beak style headstock.

The neck will be a single piece of flame maple with black dots for fret markets.

I will probably grab a set of custom Bulldogs for this also as there isn't really much else on the market that appeals to me or is good value for money.

I have also decided to load this with a Kahler trem which is going to be another new experience for me as i've strictly used hardtails & FR type trems in the past.

I am just about to pack the body up to send it off for clear coating and hopefully I will have decided on the neck spec and have it on the way by the time I get the body back.

NGD: Ibanez RGA7

Well this was something of an impulse buy as it was at a fantastic price that I just couldn't refuse.

I thought it would take quite a while to get used to playing a 7 string but it just happened naturally once I got over how much bigger the neck is.

These photos are stock but I have since changed the bridge pickup out to an EMG 81-7 and cut the bottom out of the battery box to accomodate the 9v battery

I shall post some clips of this over the weekend hopefully.

Flying V Stain Test + Pickup Update

Here's the primary test of finishing this guitar. I decided to go for a deep blue as the grain on this thing is terrible!

This is just one coat so far i'm going to let it dry overnight to see how dark it settles before deciding whether to do another coat or not.

Also I have an update regarding the pickups that are going in this.

They are something a bit unique that I have never tried before and I have been given promises they will be ultra tight, hot & extremely clear.

They clock in at 16.5k for the bridge pickup and 9.5k for the neck pickup and both feature Neodymium magnets.

I shall give a full review once I have the pickups in and the guitar back in one piece.

NGD: DIY Flying V

Well this was a heck of a lot easier than I thought it would be. It took about an hour from opening the box to get it together and setup fully.

I am actually pleasantly surprised with this. For £53 its a heck of a lot of guitar, there are no sharp fret edges and the wood is solid and it plays really nice & has a very warm & full acoustic tone.

Now onto the bad parts. The tuners are absolutely junk and these will be the first thing to be changed.
The pickups are also absolute junk but that is exactly what I wanted from them for my pickup experiment which shall be ready once i've got the PCBs fabbed.

Here's the obligatory photo but the lighting is crap so some proper ones along with a "stock" soundclip shall follow tomorrow.

And here is the clip!

DIY Flying V stock test clip by Tony Boyes

New Guitar Incoming....

Well kinda.

I forgot I bid on this a sometime over the last fortnight and completely forgot about it.

Its got the following spec.

Basswood Body
Maple Neck
Rosewood Fretboard
22 Frets
2 x Shit humbuckers

All the hardware will be replaced with something worthwhile and the pickups are part of my grand upcoming experiment which should be of great interest to the metal crowds.

Oh yeah it also cost the grand sum of £53