zorrow

The way music gets consumed is driving the way it's produced. In pop, the "album" packaging makes no sense anymore. However, the return of the vinyl means there's a niche for albums too, as well as the now widely common limited packages -which target true fans and collectors. I therefore think albums will survive and coexist with streaming and other distribution media. They will just get produced in limited quantities with premium packaging, just for the fewer people who really care about that. No worries then, as they're also thinking about consumers like us.

Well, a year later and now I'm the proud owner of Kev's 4-digit Standard. That piece of both Hamer and metal history has to be the most expensive axe I own.

Oh! I'm traveling to Florida next Thursday, I'm waiting for the reply from Mike to place my Shishkov CO and I have spent a lot of money lately in house renovations. That's a lovely guitar though. Can anyone please spare me this torture?

Paul Gilbert's new album, "Stone Pushing Uphill Man", just released in Japan -I ordered it from http://cdjapan.co.jp It's a masterclass about phrasing and rocking tone. HIGHLY recommended.

Oh! Can we fake Shishkov announced his new business today? Please, please, please, PLEASE!?

I hope you guys will like at least some of these I just created: When Shishkov is building a guitar, God just shuts up and watches. The only guitar that won't play itself in front of Chuck Norris is a Shishkov. All the dead guitarists in heaven are begging God to rush the Judgement Day, so they can resuscitate ASAP in order to place a Shishkov CO. Guitarists finger better... right after playing a Shishkov!

Shishkov is then the Chuck Norris of guitar builders? Now we can start inventing jokes!

Is any friend of yours travelling to the US or to Canada any time soon? Or maybe an HFC'er who would travel to the UK? Man, that thing is not to be missed!

Man, if it had a sustainblock I would be all over it. At that price that's a capital sin letting it go. Hope this one will end in the hands of one of us here. Good luck, ninja bidders!

I must be stupid or something. Can you believe I hadn't got what ' "Vintage 4-D" Style Headstock' was? I even Googled for it and found nothing. The funniest thing is that now I own Kev's 4-D, so I should've known. In short, I'm definitively dumb!

I had similar thoughts at first, but quickly decided to fill out the form for my own custom order -"screw The Ultimate; this is what I actually want", I said to myself. That's how I placed my inquiry very early, trying to avoid having to wait forever if I waited too much at first. Now it's just Mike who can prove me right... or wrong.

I guess my custom order is one of the first ones. That should make the waiting time shorter for me -thus more bearable. But to be frank, it's really cool having some extra time to make my mind about the finish and the materials. I'm actually almost there!

Just received (or got to read) the email from Mike about being patient about our custom orders. No problem at all, guys. I do understand the 12 first Ultimate go first. I'm not in a hurry anyway -I don't actually need that Shishkov guitar I asked a quote for. I just want it!

Well, it looks I'll have to wait for you all to get your 12 orders going before Mike could reach to my custom order. Hopefully I'll be one of the first in the custom orders row. In the meanwhile I'll be looking for inlays that look close enough to boomers -for example: http://www.ccinlays.com/ccinlays/pearlfx-decal-inlays/V-INLAYS-MOP.htm

I don't think that tightening up your specs or changing a color will be an issue-the quote proposals aren't chiseled in stone. That being said, I'm pretty sure that korina is not something that can be done with the limited run. In order to keep the price down, the decision was made to not use korina (it was considered at one point) because of the expense and difficulty in obtaining useable clean boards. As a result, korina was scratched as a wood for guitars at the special offer price point. As for all-mahogany, Mike would have to decide if that can be done with chambering or not. The whole idea of this run was to offer a highly desirable yet somewhat basic guitar platform with a limited number of options to afford Mike the ability to get production up and running without going in fifty different directions for this design or that (see the ping-pong match that was the 'Workingman's Guitar' thread!). Well, my quote is not for the limited run, as I stated before. I want something else. I do know it has a price and that the 12 Ultimates might even go first, so I'll have to wait forever. Anyhow, do count me in... for my own thing. Sorry-didn't see that. If it's a custom, Mike can and likely will get exactly what people want to the extent it is available and legal! No problem. Now another question, just like that -as that is NOT the shape I ordered. I'm just curious: Is the Phantom shape legal?

I simply don't understand why some can't grasp that. And we wonder why we can't have nice things. Well, I guess everyone can understand this: Case 1: The Ultimate is a limited run with fixed specs at a friendly price tag in order to get Mike's business going. Color choices and minor hardware changes are tolerated, but those guitars aren't custom orders There are just 12 slots for that one. Case 2: If you want something else, even if it's still Standard-shaped (which by the way is not my case, as you might have already guessed), then you're placing a regular custom order, at Mike's regular price and with all the advantages and disadvantages that kind of order implies. Doesn't look very hard to grasp. PS: My quote is for a guitar of the Case 2-type above.

I don't think that tightening up your specs or changing a color will be an issue-the quote proposals aren't chiseled in stone. That being said, I'm pretty sure that korina is not something that can be done with the limited run. In order to keep the price down, the decision was made to not use korina (it was considered at one point) because of the expense and difficulty in obtaining useable clean boards. As a result, korina was scratched as a wood for guitars at the special offer price point. As for all-mahogany, Mike would have to decide if that can be done with chambering or not. The whole idea of this run was to offer a highly desirable yet somewhat basic guitar platform with a limited number of options to afford Mike the ability to get production up and running without going in fifty different directions for this design or that (see the ping-pong match that was the 'Workingman's Guitar' thread!). Well, my quote is not for the limited run, as I stated before. I want something else. I do know it has a price and that the 12 Ultimates might even go first, so I'll have to wait forever. Anyhow, do count me in... for my own thing.

I got an email from Ted Martin telling us we'll get eventually contacted. I'll be patient, even if I do want this guitar really hard and do have the cash right now. Got a question though: I guess some specs can be changed/adjusted while in the initial process of placing my order, right? For example, I asked for a quote on an all-mahogany guitar, but never was sure about its color -semi-trans? solid? white? reddish? milky? black? However, given boomers cannot be done, I changed my mind and I'm now hesitating between all-korina one side, and mahogany with a goldtop the other side. The model and all the other specs will remain the same, but the inlays, the materials, a maple top with single-ply cream binding (or no top at all)... all that is now not so clear in my mind just because boomers are gone. Gosh! In short, I still have to make some definitive decisions about several details of my first order. Hope Mike will help me with that!

Congrats, Mike. You rule! And while I pass on The Ultimate, I'm more than serious about the quote I did ask for. I wanted BTW boomer inlays, but no big deal if we can't. We'll do something else --I still want a sustainblock though. Cheers again -I'm sooooo excited about this, I feel like a kid!

Gonna reply again to this thread because this is fucking rocking awesome. As I said, I used the form to ask for a quote, but it's not for The Ultimate. So Bubs you might be number 12, if RichRS6 did count me.

Great news! Just asked for a quote.

Ozzy is unique. Say what you want, but the guy is very charismatic and nobody sounds like him. Back to Viv again: for some reason I overlooked the fact he also played in "Sacred Heart". I wonder if I ever listened to that album because I cannot remember a single song from it. Was it bad? Need to do my homework with that one.

Those look really awesome. Congrats!

I liked it. 'nuff said.

Back to Viv: I think he looks cooler without hair. Say what you want, but baldness rules! Now more seriously: is it me, or his solos sound a bit slower now? As far as I remember, I was amazed by Viv's speed when I first listened to his solos back in those days. I even had a video of him (Hot Licks or something) I found impossible to follow at the time -I must have it somewhere. On this new footage what he plays doesn't look too superhuman to me, although of course it's still great. Anyway, is it me who has evolved, or has Viv slowed down... or both? I guess I need to undust the first two Dio albums to check them out by myself.