AliExpress floral neck, scalloped from 12th to 24th fret (finally ended building a new guitar from parts)

It is curious how certain gear and tone evokes you to play something new and unexpected. The first day I connected this recently built guitar with the P90 neck pickup to the Axe-FX, using a preset with the FAS LEAD 1 amp, I unintentionally started playing this Vai melody, even though I have never played or tried to play it before, and I didn't heard it for ages. Not even when I had the JEM7V this melody came to my mind.

So, now I am starting to learn it.


First time I tried my friend Marty's Ricky 660/12, I played American Girl by Tom Petty pretty much the same way. Never even attempted the song before, but the sound just connected a handful of unrelated neurons and out it came.

Keep us posted in the progress with choosing a middle pickup!
 
Keep us posted in the progress with choosing a middle pickup!

After several swaps, I am keeping a Chinese Handmade Boutique Pickup: Oripure Vintage Staggered Alnico 5 from AliExpress. I am not joking. It is a nice discovery for $32 only.

I am so in love with this guitar and the unique tone of the Harmonic Design Z-90 neck that I have just ordered a Z-90 bridge to complement. The Gravity Storm bridge is great, but not an ideal match because it has very different character. I want to go full P90ish. It is worth the noise.

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BTW, I've sold the Suhr pictured at previous posts. I am not happy keeping an expensive guitar with annoying dead notes.

This Custom Orange Beast has better sustain than the Suhr. It also has one almost-dead note: 2nd string 7th fret decays morphing into an harmonic instead of maintaining the fundamental tone. But that is totally solved by placing the Fender FatFinger at the headstock. The FatFinger did not fix the Suhr.
 
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So happy with this guitar that I've pampered it with the Alianthus wood pickguard. Mojo can happen at the most unexpected piece of timber 🤠
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I don't know if it is my imagination but, could the wooden pickguard improve resonance and sustain? I should have made a test recording before replacing it.

The more I play with the Z90 neck, the more I love it. Still waiting for the Z90 bridge
 
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So happy with this guitar that I've pampered it with the Alianthus wood pickguard. Mojo can happen at the most unexpected piece of timber 🤠
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I don't know if it is my imagination but, could the wooden pickguard improve resonance and sustain? I should have made a test recording before replacing it.

The more I play with the Z90 neck, the more I love it. Still waiting for the Z90 bridge
The short answer is probably no, BUT any change in overall mass will slightly alter it's overall resonance and you may slightly prefer it. It will only be slightly different rather that better or worse. Adding mass to the body usually adds sustain but always at the expense of resonance in the body. It is more about the frequencies not producing dissonance between major components .
 
The short answer is probably no, BUT any change in overall mass will slightly alter it's overall resonance and you may slightly prefer it. It will only be slightly different rather that better or worse. Adding mass to the body usually adds sustain but always at the expense of resonance in the body. It is more about the frequencies not producing dissonance between major components .

That makes sense. It could even be some enhancement of the new FW or the new revisions of my presets, since I haven't played with it for a while. There are so many parameters at the equation, including the psychological :D
 
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