STEVE VAI, THOMAS NORDEGG, THE AXE FX & SOME LABELS - A BEHIND THE SCENES STORY!

Great thread!

Loved the initial posts and the antecdote from Matt.

That was a better read than a lot of guitar magazine articles out there... weil done chaps!
 
Yep, enjoyed that
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That was one of the best ever reads i've had on a forum. Amazing both of you!

Being a big Steve Vai nerd i love this stuff especially. I've heard the reports of high action on evo many times now, whereas mr satriani likes to attempt to defy physics with his- gotta say I cant cope with super low. When I got on the evo experience once, it unfortunately turned into a nitemare. The band rolled into england late as believe it or not, they didnt have a work permit! After that, that meant we only had time for a Q/A after the show and no time for even a sound check or to pass evo around (the bit i was most looking forward to!). For some reason, I was so knackered I asked him about his ice cream van instead of trying to gain anything fruitfull-still it was pretty funny. Actually that night got even worse as I got home at 4am after driving back and had to catch a plane to work at 6!

I swear if I ever go again, i'm taking my feeler gauges :D

P.S Will be grabbing some kick tags soon! Are the production models fully waterproofed? Are they not just just laminated?
 
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Sukh and Matt, I can't thank you enough for two wonderfully insightful posts. Both of them were better than a magazine article and having worked with both of you personally in the past it made it all the better a read. Great job and what a cool experience!
 
It is so VERY cool to read these stories. Thank you so much for sharing and please..... PLEASE don't hesitate to share more in the future. :mrgreen

Also M@... If it's at all possible, it would be awesome to read just a few of the details regarding trimming 40 presets down to 4 using scenes. Just for the purpose of learning how to effectively apply and get the most out of this powerful feature.
 
Matt - I HAVE that picture of the MFC with the tape and scrawled writing! Will post it here later. Thanks for the story - I got some of it from Thomas and he holds you in the very highest of regards. Very cool to hear the full tale from you!

Sukh
 
themaidenmaniac said:
P.S Will be grabbing some kick tags soon! Are the production models fully waterproofed? Are they not just just laminated?
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The surface is coated with a light layer (in fact, 4 light layers) of liquid laminate. I tried all sorts, but this worked best as it made them water resistant (don't take them in the bath, but a spill or a wipe down wont affect them) and also prevented them from becoming overly glossy. While glossy surfaces look pretty, when stage lights hit them, they reflect too much and get hard to see so that was a major consideration when working these out.

in fact, Matt will recall, we were chatting quite some months back when I was getting the first prototypes made (I was using a printing plant to test out getting glossy tops manufactured) and was trying to get some ready to send him for an event, but when I got the test tops back from the printers, I reallly didn't like the result (too reflective) - so I decided to go back to the drawing board and rethink how to make these. The end result works well and looks great :)
 
(And, btw - see the second switch labelled "Normal"? THAT's what happens if the surface is too glossy!)
 
themaidenmaniac said:
That was one of the best ever reads i've had on a forum. Amazing both of you!

Being a big Steve Vai nerd i love this stuff especially. I've heard the reports of high action on evo many times now, whereas mr satriani likes to attempt to defy physics with his- gotta say I cant cope with super low.
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I'm a big-time Satch nerd and actually have an Ibanez JS guitar set up to Joe's crazy low spec for action by Gary Brawer, who sets up Joes guitars. It's freakish low but plays easier than anything I've ever tried!
 
M@tt almost completely stole Sukh's thunder here... :mrgreen

I propose a new rule, courtesy of a great old Listserv... ;)

Funny stuff. Happening thread :D
 
Toadfish said:
I'm a big-time Satch nerd and actually have an Ibanez JS guitar set up to Joe's crazy low spec for action by Gary Brawer, who sets up Joes guitars. It's freakish low but plays easier than anything I've ever tried!
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Haha same here dude! I picked up an old 1000 recently and had it setup as close as possible to the brawer spec on the site. Im not 100% about it though! For me my jem neck just seems to work for my hands a little better.

I am tempted to send all my guitars for a damn good pleking! Thanks for the response on the waterproofing too btw
 
themaidenmaniac said:
Haha same here dude! I picked up an old 1000 recently and had it setup as close as possible to the brawer spec on the site. Im not 100% about it though! For me my jem neck just seems to work for my hands a little better.

I am tempted to send all my guitars for a damn good pleking! Thanks for the response on the waterproofing too btw
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No problem! I used to live in the states and spoke to Gary Brawer quite a bit about the setup (he actually did the setup on my guitar himself). Really cool guy who also takes the time to talk to you. They had to re-glue several frets before plekking them (he said that even the high-end JS's rarely have perfectly seated frets and if they aren't, the setup just won't work).

They put a compound radius in the frets that allows me to get an action of just under 1mm at the 12th fret (top E) and it bends effortlessly across the neck. The odd thing I noticed with this setup is that nothing buzzes, it just seems to 'compress' when you wack the strings. Really good fun to play, but takes a little getting used to as it looks as if it shouldn't work!
 
Thanks Toad and Matt for sharing your wonderful experiences with one of my all time guitar heroes. So well written, it should be made into a short story audiobook. :)

One question:
Steve obviously has his signature Legacy III amps along with his trusty Legacy IIs. How do those integrate with his AXE setup? Is his tone still from the amps or is he using them as power amps only?
 
Toadfish said:
Let's just say it definitely wasn't what you'd call 'low', but I'd say it was high *for me*. But then I'm a bit of an action wuss :)

He was using 9-42s on the regular tuned guitars (only know that as I saw the old string packets) - I'd imagine a heavier gauge on the low-tuned ones.
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As well as having shook your hand at Axe Fest UK, I was at an Evo experience a few years ago and got to hold Evo, this was something I noticed was that the action was quite high and a large crack in the body near the neck joint. It was strung with 9s at that time. So it is definitely a workhorse guitar.
 
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