zorrow

I cannot believe nobody has mentioned this one: Nothing starts a rock song better than a killer, attention-grabbing riff. And now we'll have dozens of songs from Black Sabbath and Deep Purple comming, right?

Best first 31 seconds: And best first 65 seconds:

Guys, I finally received from Gorch the Mayday-V. I guess you don't need to see more pictures of it, but I took this one in my basement, so I guess it's OK: Firstly, I need to publicly thank Gorch, not only because he recommended me to the builder and supported me all along the construction of my guitar; but also because he shipped the guitar to me, and also sent me with it a personal letter and some other great presents, including postcards and a jar of BBQ sauce. I'm more than touched by his generosity and will eternally feel in debt towards him -thank you a zillion times, man! About the object itself now: The neck is a dream to play. It's a chunky "C" profile which feels really sleek in spite of its massive shape. If there's one thing I LOVE about this guitar, it's its neck. The finish is great, though I did detect a couple of very minor "defects" (a tiny binding crack on the body and two or three un-buffed little drops of varnish). No big deal though. The sound is very different than anything else I own. Unplugged it's vibrating and rich, but it's plugged what will definitively need more experimentation from my part. So far I think I like better the bridge and middle pups "on" together, both in phase. However, I do realize it will take me some time before finding the right tones I will want to obtain from this "weird animal". In spite of that, I already LOVE the way it sounds through my rig with the aforementioned pup combination. What else? Ah! I see I'm no longer used to having a whammy bar. Also, 24 frets feel a bit confusing, as I normally play 22, and I even have just 21 in my two Hoyers. Those extra 2 or 3 frets look in my brain just like "too much", as absurd as this might sound. Besides that, I'm more than happy with my new toy. It even came with a high-quality V-case, a certificate of authenticity and a set of tools to adjust the tremolo, the neck and the bridge. What else can a man need to be happy then? Now you bet I have a true desire to play!

First I have to google who George Lynch is. Nah. You're kidding me, don't you? But nevermind. As gorch says, you just need to get the pickup.

I just found how to buy. You can get it in gold, or uncovered, in trembucker config, etc. Here: http://customshop.seymourduncan.com/george-lynch-super-v/

Me too, I am convinced. Are there Super V's in gold?

OMFG! Great playing, great tone and awesome review and video editing. It does make me wanting to buy the pickup, plus the Hamer and the amp... and it also gives me the desire to play more. U F@%#* ROCK, Geoff!

Lately, I've been exploring other musical genres than metal, which hopefully is making me a better overall musician. I play now with a sax player and with a conga player, whose tastes and default musical reflexes are very different than what I was used to. For example, the sax player (being the sax a melodic instrument) is by nature a soloist, so now I must focus more on chords and rhythm in general. I try to provide a safe canvas for him to paint over -though I still do get some solo spots, but way fewer than before. This implies I need to play more chord inversions and also develop more stamina in order to keep a steady-but-not-so-boring rhythm for very very long periods of time. On the other hand, with the congas I now trade some percussive riffs. This moves away from the typical lead guitar/singer melodic "call-response" clichés. I've been listening to Afro-cuban and Brazilian drumming patterns to get prepared for this, thrashing my way through them and putting them in practice with our conga player. He goes TAM-TAM and I go CHUG-CHUG, and many cool things happen there. It's a true blast! So, while I still practice some licks and metal runs when I have time, I'm also trying to do some different stuff to keep my right brain active. It does pay off, even in the very short term. PS: I must mention Brooks was one of the factors that motivated me to get into this eclectic band. I thank him for the inspiration. And I'll never regret the move because yes, I'm getting better, definitively.

I think all those Deans look truly amazing. As of the design of the Cadillac goes, it has for me a very over-the-top-but-classy look. IMHO, the "Cadillac" branding fits the model very well: That *is* a "sleek black Cadillac", isn't it?

The master has spoken! My side, I've found that the C neck on Schenkers and Czechs fit me better than the skinny vintage and US Masters era V-necks. I do like the V-necks, but I still like them chunkier than that. Some Tampa-made Series 1000 feel better in my hands because of that.

Can you give me the low down on these? How do they differ from the other imports and where do they fall quality wise from the usa stuff? Are they still sold new? Having a hard time understanding that. As murkat said, they are almost up there with their American counterparts, and are even better than many.They were built in the early 90's. If I remember well, this was while Dean was moving to Tampa. They did so in order to keep a higher-end offer active. This lasted just a couple of years, or even less. Gene would be more precise than me on this subject. The fact is, build quality-wise, those guitars are just awesome. The electronic components are so-so though, but that's easily fixable. As of the rings, I've been using MIK pup rings on them without any problem. A couple of details now: their necks are C-shaped (forget about the famous Dean V profile), they usually have no binding and they have dot inlays on the first fret. You should be able to find one below 600, although they're becoming more rare these days.

All the Deans I have owned, but one, came from the Dean forum. Some good deals can be made there, now and then. However, at the HFC we seem to have a higher average income that theirs. That's why you see less vintage stuff FS there than here, I suppose. But Deans are great, as well as the players in that forum. And while I also dislike the Dime/Razor stuff and have mixed feelings about the V-necks (sometimes they're just too thin for my tastes), the MSG Vees and the Czech models do satisfy my needs big time. You know, I even plan to make them build me a goldtop V with P-90's someday, as well as a 7-string korina V.

I've been well into Devin Townsend lately. Have three albums of him in the car, spinning in turns: "Epicloud", "Deconstruction" and "Ziltoid The Omniscient" At job I listen to different stuff every day. Last week I listened to -M- and Paul Personne, two singers/players from France. Also played some Bob Marley, Bonney M, Santana and Jim Murple Memorial. Ah! Last Megadeth album got some playing time, but it got me bored quickly. Looking forward to the new Queensryche now -Toddryche, as Dave says.

Just ordered mine.

Got some timeouts and SQL errors a copule of days ago.

Those are Wilkinson locking roller bridges. I had one on an Explorer I once had. They are "locking" bridges, like the Tonepros, so the sustain is supposed to improve. Ronny Scheithauer prefers using those instead of replicating the original RS bridge. Some info here: http://www.guitarfetish.com/Wilkinson-Brass-Roller-Bridge-Locking-Studs-Chrome_p_866.html

Yeah man, that looks really great. Now you need to make a hard print of that picture and sign it, dedicated to me with something like: "Ionel, You owe me this V, there's no way you can thank me for helping you to reach Ronny and in addition you bug me now by asking me to ship it to you. Treat it well then, or else I'll kick your ass when you'll come to Germany next year. Best regards, Dirk" Only upon confirmation of the existence of such a printed picture, I'll give you my address.

I went to the soapbox site and sent a message to the contact email there. No idea if they will ever reply though. Gorch also told me that some people close to May go to that RS site I subscribed to a while ago. Will post some pics there too, as soon as I can.

Feynman, I bet if I lent that thing to you, you would do like Prince and smash it to little pieces, right?

Man, that's just AWESOME. I almost have tears in my eyes... and I haven't played it yet!

^Now THAT is COOL! What a look!

Well guys, Gorch just told me he got it and that he loved the sound of it. Now I'm posting this here to put some pressure on him. Pics, pics, pics, pics!

It's not that short to me, but it's a great one anyway.

You did notice that, didn't you? He bends those notes from below, and then on the third bend he comes right after the strong beat. Masterful! And the legato lines are great too -the man does have chops as well, no BS. He never ceases to amaze me! In fact, many of his solos are quite short and still the most of them are classics. Some few more examples, for your enjoyment: I Want It All (from 0:21 to 0:31): Dead On Two Legs (from 0:54 to 1:05): Friends Will Be Friends (from 0:00 to 0:12):

I don't see why you'd exclude yourself. I've seen you playing and singing. You are good. It would be very boring if we were all a bunch of shredders, you know?