zorrow

Can't this be solved? It shouldn't be very complicated refinishing the top of the headstock in black and put a logo on it. Or even better, getting a Hamer decal in black and putting it on there.

You need a big Hamer logo on that one, but that's a cool instrument anyway. Congrats!

Dean are smart guys. There are reasons it is feasible to ship finish work half way around the world and back. Of course! Dean also expends quite a bit in advertisement, so I don't think we're talking here about two things that are 100% comparable. Anyhow, one can see their idea and take it from there to somewhere else, you know? BTW, I posted about the way Dean is doing this because I think it can be used as a source of inspiration, that's all. I never said I wanted Dean headstocks. I shared the link to those guitars because, to me, they can be used as an interesting reference/inspiration for the following three things: 1- The diversity of the designs. 2- The fact those guitars are USA-made. 3- The "working-man friendly" price point.

Dean is offering pretty good "working man" guitars with their 1000 Series, all priced around 1K. Look at them here: http://www.deanguitars.com/usa1000_series.php Do you see the variety of models? I guess that could be used as a source of inspiration. As you can witness, everyone has his/her own tastes about body shapes -single cut, double cut, Strat-ish, Flying V, Explorer, Firebird, Tele-ish, SG-ish and so on... Same thing applies to headstocks -Standard-like fat, Standard-like thin, pointy 3x3, paddle-like 3x3, Cali-like, reverse Cali-like and so on... So, I guess you need to prepare CNC templates for all the possible variants, plus supporting 24 and 22 frets fretboards, 25.5", 25" and 24.75" scales, as well as at least two neck profiles (slim and vintage). For the bridges, you need to support a hardtail (sustainblock preferred), TOM with stop bar, TOM with string-through-body, traditional Strat-ish trem, Kahler trem and Floyd Rose. All that is pretty straightforward to implement using CNC machines. Your added value would be then in the attention to detail when finally assembling and finishing (painting, buffing...) the guitars, as well as in the selection of the materials used to build them -properly aged/dried woods, etc. BTW, the 1000 Series from Dean are CNC-cut and assembled in the USA, then they're shipped to Korea for painting/finishing, then they're shipped back to the US and then they mount the electronics and the hardware this side of the pond. I guess for 200 bucks more in the final price you can save on the shipping back and forth, and focus more on the finish quality, right?

If you make guitars with chunky necks (or at least vintage-carved), sustainblocks, 24.75" scale, set necks, no binding, no fancy stuff and just dot inlays... that would be very close to what I ideally want. Now, if any combination of different body/headstock shapes are available, and if the V 58 body plus a decent-looking 3x3 headstock are offered, I'm a buyer ...provided you remain around 1.2K.

I don't know... I just got me a vintage Hoyer 5069S shipped to Gorch's, so I'll have a guitar of my own when I'll be in Frankfurt next March. The problem is that, after getting this Hoyer, my GAS seems to have calmed down. I just have one "Holy Grail" I'm still hunting around, which would be a Hoyer Super 82. However, those are so rare I have no idea if I'll ever be able to find one. Maybe I'll ask Jay to build me a copy... or maybe I'll just get inspired by the Super 82 and ask him to build me a custom to my specs. We'll see...

Got several presents, all really cool, but just two were music-related: - Nightwish new live album with Floor Jansen - AKG K240 Studio headphones

I don't know, but "Day of the Eagle" is. ...as well as my brother's "Rock in C#" -for computer programming nerds out here, it is indeed related to .NET/C# programming, and the voice over in the middle section is Anders Hersberg's himself: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/8033493/pastelix-csharp.mp3

Bm!? No way! With B, D, E, G and A in the Bm scale, you get pedal-friendly open notes in every string belonging to the key! OK, wait a minute... you're kidding and I didn't get it, right? :-)

Hmmm... This seems to justify why one would need 24 guitars: one tuned per note in the chromatic scale, plus one backup per each. Now I'll let Most Esteemed Brunette know my side, hoping she'll understand.

True, neither do I, though I do use pedal notes on open strings quite often.So, Eb seems to be another key which is not very guitar-friendly. Not that I care that much, but I'm still curious.

In C#, all the chords of its major scale cannot be mapped to open chords in standard tuning. Would it be then the less "guitar-friendly" key of them all?

I'm listening to HELL, their new "Curse and Chapter" album and their "Age of Nefarious" EP. Great stuff, which is in addition made by an HFC'er.

+1 (and sorry if that's political)

PM'ing you on the Vector right away.

I don't dislike it, but I don't like it enough to buy the album.

The vintage German-made Hoyer I own is the one that gets the main spot in my current gig:

Frankly, I wouldn't dare to alter it. But that's exactly why I cannot buy it. I wouldn't keep it!

I like your Blitz a lot. It does have scars, but I don't think they're nasty. Actually, I swear to the metal gods I would have grabbed it immediately if it had a sustainblock -either fixed or trem. Just a question like that for the readers around: how hard/expensive would it be un-kahlering such a guitar? Is the nut too hard to convert into a "normal" nut? I'd put a string-through-body hardtail on that and I'd be the happiest man on Earth.

Me likes. One of those with a sustainblock would be just perfect. In addition, my wife loves that shape, so I guess bringing home an Explorer-like guitar wouldn't imply divorcing.

Great solo from your teacher/friend! Hats off!

Pics will certainly help! Hockeystick head does look interesting to me. White color too. On the other hand, a Kahler inspires me a big "meh". I would have preferred a sustainblock fixed bridge, or even a sustainblock trem.

When I was playing just metal, I was relying on a Digitech RP250 and a treble booster for gigging. Had just two custom tones: clean and dirty, with the treble booster off for rhythm and on for leads. The expression pedal of the RP250 was configured as a whammy, just down to two octaves -and no up. This was enough to cover all the tonal ground our band needed in a live situation. On the other hand, when I began playing in my current (not metal at all) band, I needed more "snap" in the rhythm dept. The tones produced by the RP250 plainly sucked. After some experimentation, I've ended using just one overdrive, one treble booster and a wah. The amp (which in my case is a Tech21 Liverpool pedal plugged into a Tech21 Power Engine 60) provides enough brilliance and attack to play my rhythmic stuff, often peppered with the wah. For soloing I engage either the overdrive or the treble booster -the former to cover the rocking solos; the later to sound more rock'n'roll, funky or reggae. This gear, plus a single-coil equipped guitar (my vintage German-made Hoyer 5069, with its vintage, non-potted, low output singles) is enough to do my current job. The downside is that if that guitar ever smells more gain than what she likes, she will feedback like a banshee -I tried engaging both the treble booster and the overdrive, and there's no way that will work with her without causing a total "microphonic mayhem".

Carcass -"Surgical Steel" (2013) Fates Warning - "Darkness In A Different Light" (2013) Rage & Lingua Mortis Orchestra - "LMO" (2013) Megadeth - "Countdown To Extinction Live" (2013) Yep, very metal stuff, while I wait for Gaga's ARTPOP.

Yeah, that makes it official. Swedes do have bigger balls, (and in this specific case also better tone). Delivered with what we call "Lite djävlar annama": :D Yeah, on that one Slash plays like an amateur while Malmsteen kicks some serious arse -though his version was 30 seconds too long; if Yngwie had felt the reaction of the audience, he would have stopped at the right moment and would have been an even better take.