Floyd Post Broke through Schecter! / NGD

[Joe Bfstplk]

We just lost the coolest cat to cancer I ever had two days before this past Christmas. He was 16, an all black Maine Coon and was like a human being with coolest personality. My wife is ready to get another cat or dog, but I have no desire. It’s like nothing will ever replace him and I feel wrong to get another because I won’t be able to love it properly. I know it’s weird and I never felt this way about other pets I had. While I say this now somehow I know I will have another pet someday. Maybe your situation is similar.

My condolences.

From the sound of it, your cat had a great home and loving family for his time here. Keep your mind and heart open. Perhaps a situation will arise where you can rescue another, or vice-versa. My GF at the time, back in 2000, dragged me to the pound - a couple days after my cat Jake passed, and on my birthday - and I was adopted by a wonderful mama cat named Coco, along with her three kittens, Bagheera, Shadow, and Jason, along with a stray kitten named Zootie, whom she also adopted.... Coco and Zootie lived with me for 17 years....

 

[rossipedia]

The replacement guitar stays in tune perfectly, the fretwork is great, the action came from the factory really low, the tone is deeper, it’s freaking completely gorgeous with the grain of the black limba and wenge, and it feels fine, but for some reason, I just don’t connect with it at all. I mean, I so wanted to love this thing and for it to be my new instrument, but I just felt nothing.

I’ve been ruminating hard about this. I know I’m ridiculously picky about guitars, because the technical aspects are just a gate for me, an opening gauntlet of analysis, but on top of a guitar that functions well, I really just have to feel something with it. It’s like a relationship, an intimate one, where you’re using it to speak. Not where you’re using it to speak for you; you’re speaking through it; it’s a conduit to your soul. And I feel like that’s sacred. I don’t give a damn about much else in this world, but at least this one thing I’ll insist on for myself.

I can’t put my finger on it, because this thing is brand spanking new, from the manufacturer’s US headquarters no less, and it looks freaking amazing and awesome, but I know for sure I don’t want it, and I don’t exactly know why. There’s no real reason I can point to, and I feel like I should have a concrete thing to point to and say, “This is exactly the reason,” but the reality is I just feel empty with it in my hands.

I guess it’s the same as when I’ve been in so many guitar stores and picked up boutique and incredible handmade instruments, and my dick goes soft. It’s not a reflection on the guitar, it’s my attraction to it. The same reason why in the aughts I played dozens of Gibson and Epiphone Les Pauls until I settled on the one that hit me in the solar plexus.It was an Epiphone, to my surprise, and it was the one that had the mojo. I couldn’t put my finger on why for that either, but whenever I picked it up, I could feel it calling to me with inspiration.

While the first Super Shredder was out of commission, I finally reconstituted my only other guitar from storage, my Washburn Parallaxe Trevor Rabin (with my mods of series/parallel switches, dual concentric knobs with 50s LP wiring, low tone cap values, and Duncan Saturday Night Specials), and immediately I felt so strongly the connection I’ve always had with that instrument. It hit me like a fucking hammer how important that connection is to me, and how I never want another guitar I don’t deeply bond to. Contrasting the two, the thought of keeping the new Super Shredder feels terrible, wrong, and superficial. It centers me to who I am as a player.

This was not at all what I expected, and not what I wanted at all, but I have to be true to my feelings. I so wanted to love this thing and immediately developing a relationship with it, but it would be like dating someone with no chemistry. You just can’t do that.

So I’m going to sell the Super Shredder. I didn’t even take the plastic film off the pickguard and trem spring cover. I have no doubt someone can love this guitar and bond with it. I’ll try to take some good pictures of it, but my wife took some off the cuff while I was taking it out of the box, and those are below. These were taken as a kind of celebration, because the last thing on earth I thought I’d be doing is selling this thing, so just know these initial pictures were not taken in the spirit of product photography, but just a happy personal moment, with some great afternoon light blazing in!

I can’t think of a non-douchebag way to ask this, but what advice would you guys give for selling a guitar in today’s marketplace?

Oh man, what a bummer. You're not alone in feeling that way, though... if it helps:

finding a good guitar is like finding a lover. You need one that responds to your touch, that feeds back that same energy. Playing a guitar that matches you is an intensely personal and almost intimate experience, in my opinion. And when you find one that's a good match, it's like finding a good partner. You just know. Millions of little bits of sensory inputs that defy quantification leading to an unmistakeable and undeniable emotional connection.

Because that's all music is: passion.

She can be perfect in every way, but without that spark... if it ain't there, it ain't there. You can't force it.

 

[GitGuy513]

Jesus Man, I'm so sorry. That is horrible and brutal. For my wife and me it was our younger dog who died a couple days after he turned 13. That was so long ago, but she can't deal with adopting again. It was a long a brutal cancer, and it just ripped our hearts out. We spent everything we had then went way way way into debt, and nothing could save him.

With the guitar it's different though. I think I'm still learning what I'm truly drawn to. Like one thing I'm realizing now is that I have an affinity for small frets, like my Les Paul had and my Trevor Rabin has. The ability to get right down there on the fingerboard feels so right to me. My connection to the Trevor Rabin feels so strong and so right, for whatever reason, but I don't think it's like I can't have that with another guitar right now, just not the one they sent me haha. I'm sure there's some other guitar out there that would do it for me too, but I don't need a new guitar necessarily. I would love something with a Floyd that had the mojo, and maybe I'll find it, but I'm such a picky bastard it has to be in person. I have to feel it, plug it in at a store, hear it, and know it's right. I know for sure I can love the specs and demos online but still not feel it in person. To me each piece of wood has its own resonance and feel and soul, and the combination of woods in the neck and body complicate that too. I don't know, but one thing I've learned about myself is that, if I have a guitar that doesn't have the mojo, I'll spend all of my time fighting it instead of just playing. With the mojo, even if it doesn't have the specs I prefer, I forget everything else and just play.

Thanks for the condolences. I don’t want to derail your thread, but the one thing you mentioned is what I think is a big part of it. That’s the last year was super tough with the treatments and cost and him rebounding then slowly getting worse. He hated going to the vet. He kept being a trooper and would stay with us and love us like normal that deciding when to finally say enough is enough was so hard. We had to put our pets down before, but it was a much quicker thing. Never dealt with cancer. Anyway, I think it’s not ever wanting to go through that long drawn out thing again.

As far as your guitar, when I said dealer I was thinking a local place where you could try the guitar first. I guess having music stores close by is getting harder to find. I also get not wanting deal with it right now. I was thinking of a way to not take a used guitar price hit on what is a brand new guitar. I hope things pan out and thanks again.

 

[Andy Eagle]

The replacement guitar stays in tune perfectly, the fretwork is great, the action came from the factory really low, the tone is deeper, it’s freaking completely gorgeous with the grain of the black limba and wenge, and it feels fine, but for some reason, I just don’t connect with it at all. I mean, I so wanted to love this thing and for it to be my new instrument, but I just felt nothing.

I’ve been ruminating hard about this. I know I’m ridiculously picky about guitars, because the technical aspects are just a gate for me, an opening gauntlet of analysis, but on top of a guitar that functions well, I really just have to feel something with it. It’s like a relationship, an intimate one, where you’re using it to speak. Not where you’re using it to speak for you; you’re speaking through it; it’s a conduit to your soul. And I feel like that’s sacred. I don’t give a damn about much else in this world, but at least this one thing I’ll insist on for myself.

I can’t put my finger on it, because this thing is brand spanking new, from the manufacturer’s US headquarters no less, and it looks freaking amazing and awesome, but I know for sure I don’t want it, and I don’t exactly know why. There’s no real reason I can point to, and I feel like I should have a concrete thing to point to and say, “This is exactly the reason,” but the reality is I just feel empty with it in my hands.

I guess it’s the same as when I’ve been in so many guitar stores and picked up boutique and incredible handmade instruments, and my dick goes soft. It’s not a reflection on the guitar, it’s my attraction to it. The same reason why in the aughts I played dozens of Gibson and Epiphone Les Pauls until I settled on the one that hit me in the solar plexus.It was an Epiphone, to my surprise, and it was the one that had the mojo. I couldn’t put my finger on why for that either, but whenever I picked it up, I could feel it calling to me with inspiration.

While the first Super Shredder was out of commission, I finally reconstituted my only other guitar from storage, my Washburn Parallaxe Trevor Rabin (with my mods of series/parallel switches, dual concentric knobs with 50s LP wiring, low tone cap values, and Duncan Saturday Night Specials), and immediately I felt so strongly the connection I’ve always had with that instrument. It hit me like a fucking hammer how important that connection is to me, and how I never want another guitar I don’t deeply bond to. Contrasting the two, the thought of keeping the new Super Shredder feels terrible, wrong, and superficial. It centers me to who I am as a player.

This was not at all what I expected, and not what I wanted at all, but I have to be true to my feelings. I so wanted to love this thing and immediately developing a relationship with it, but it would be like dating someone with no chemistry. You just can’t do that.

So I’m going to sell the Super Shredder. I didn’t even take the plastic film off the pickguard and trem spring cover. I have no doubt someone can love this guitar and bond with it. I’ll try to take some good pictures of it, but my wife took some off the cuff while I was taking it out of the box, and those are below. These were taken as a kind of celebration, because the last thing on earth I thought I’d be doing is selling this thing, so just know these initial pictures were not taken in the spirit of product photography, but just a happy personal moment, with some great afternoon light blazing in!

I can’t think of a non-douchebag way to ask this, but what advice would you guys give for selling a guitar in today’s marketplace?

View attachment 136063View attachment 136061View attachment 136064View attachment 136065View attachment 136062View attachment 136066

It looks great, play it in, set it up exactly like you old one and play only it for a month.

 

[GitGuy513]

My condolences.

From the sound of it, your cat had a great home and loving family for his time here. Keep your mind and heart open. Perhaps a situation will arise where you can rescue another, or vice-versa. My GF at the time, back in 2000, dragged me to the pound - a couple days after my cat Jake passed, and on my birthday - and I was adopted by a wonderful mama cat named Coco, along with her three kittens, Bagheera, Shadow, and Jason, along with a stray kitten named Zootie, whom she also adopted.... Coco and Zootie lived with me for 17 years....

Thanks! That’s great you took all the kittens too.

Actually we signed up to be volunteers at our local SPCA. We are just waiting to go through all the process. To be dog walkers you have to go through a few hours of training. Well you have to go through some training for all the animals, but the dogs are a bigger deal. It's such a bummer all the Pit Bulls that need homes. I have a bum knee so I may be resigned to being a “Kitty Cuddler”.…Thanks again!

 

[State of Epicicity]

Oh man, what a bummer. You're not alone in feeling that way, though... if it helps:



She can be perfect in every way, but without that spark... if it ain't there, it ain't there. You can't force it.

Man, you put it beautifully. I had seen your other post before, but it really hit home reading it. Thanks so much.

 

[State of Epicicity]

Thanks for the condolences. I don’t want to derail your thread, but the one thing you mentioned is what I think is a big part of it. That’s the last year was super tough with the treatments and cost and him rebounding then slowly getting worse. He hated going to the vet. He kept being a trooper and would stay with us and love us like normal that deciding when to finally say enough is enough was so hard. We had to put our pets down before, but it was a much quicker thing. Never dealt with cancer. Anyway, I think it’s not ever wanting to go through that long drawn out thing again.

As far as your guitar, when I said dealer I was thinking a local place where you could try the guitar first. I guess having music stores close by is getting harder to find. I also get not wanting deal with it right now. I was thinking of a way to not take a used guitar price hit on what is a brand new guitar. I hope things pan out and thanks again.

Dude, detail, tangent... I don't care! To me human conversation requires tangents.

There are two guitar stores pretty close by, but I'm also within three hours of many many stores. I could potentially take a day to see what they might offer. I read through @Chewie5150's thread about selling through Reverb, and that also seems good enough maybe. The consensus seemed to be positive. I'm just sitting with it.

 

[Sixstring]

Bummer about your replacement fiddle... I know what you mean about not connecting with it! I think we all have our stories. Mine was a beautiful Suhr Gold Drip Caster I loved how that guitar looked but just couldn't bond with it, I don't know why. Truth be told I wish I still had it because it was so different and I never really took the time to massage it so it would work with me.

I'm with the others that are saying to give it a while and set it up, play it and make sure it's not just your head getting in the way!

 

[Andy Eagle]

Ask your self what exactly is the difference and see if you can make it more similar before you move on. It looks like a nice example and I'm sure it will benefit greatly from playing in.

 

[State of Epicicity]

I should say, I feel very lucky. This is not a big tragedy or anything, not remotely. Yeah, I was really excited to bond with this guitar, but this whole situation really has been a blessing in disguise. In rediscovering my Trevor Rabin, I had my best night of playing in a long time last night, and I'm taking full advantage of the wider fretboard and smaller frets. Maybe that's a big part of it. I'm also really enjoying the advantages of a fixed bridge, more freedom with your right hand, bending one note out of two, you don't have to compensate the other note like I do on a floating Floyd, I don't know. Whatever it is, it's inspiring me.

I really do appreciate the advice to give the other guitar some time. But I've been down this road. For every guitar I've owned, I got it knowing the compromises and understanding it's very difficult to have a guitar that has everything you might ideally want, and that's why so many of us have a small collection of guitars. No big deal. But I also know that fundamental feeling of when a guitar is just right, you know? Like, it's that feeling that the guitar is calling to you to make music. I can play and practice on any guitar, and I realize that for some, my giving up a perfectly fine guitar seem like a point of weakness or something, but to me it's just like dealing with people. Sometimes you meet someone, and maybe they're cool in many ways, but you just know you don't care about getting together; you just don't feel it. This kind of feels like that.

I've had guitars before where I got them based off specs, but I didn't really feel a connection, and those were always the least productive parts of my musical life. I would play, but I never really felt anything like I felt with my Washburn P3, my Epi Les Paul, or my Washburn Trevor Rabin. Call it a spiritual thing, or a voodoo or woowoo thing, but I think there are things that just kill the vibe for whatever reason, and vibe isn't necessarily easily definable or fixed in that way. I mean, I think about the reason that the highest end studios often go to great lengths to make artists feel at home, so they can be their best. The reason good producers kind of act like psychologists to pull the best performance out of someone. This is something I heard Mike Clink talk about in an interview. You could walk into the room and say "This studio has all the best equipment. Ignore the asshole receptionist, the harsh lighting, the cold sour coffee, the freezing room, the dickhead engineer treating your band like you guys suck. This is a really expensive mixing board you'll never be in front of again. Now get all that shit out of your head and give the performance of your life." Yeah, you can overcome stuff like that through mental discipline, but why insert something you don't vibe with yourself?

And of course I'm not talking about anything as concrete as this studio analogy. Like I said, this guitar is just beautiful to me, even moreso than the first one. And the action is even lower, so it plays like a beast. I should be in love right now, playing my heart out on it. I still can't point to what it is.

To me, the vibe is more important than anything else. I think that is why so many guitarists get stuck on certain guitars. The reason Bonamassa, e.g., had Duncan unwind the pickup from his favorite Les Paul to create his signature. I mean, that pickup might just not do it in another Les Paul, but I'm thinking the Les Paul that had that pickup had the mojo, and Bonamassa is hoping that recreating the exact wind with the same wire, magnet, and construction will reproduce as closely as possible the vibe of that particular guitar. Or Slash's Les Paul copy from Appetite for Destruction, or any number of magical guitars that just did it.

I do think that magic comes from these players, that Steve Vai can take any guitar and make it sound like a genius alien is trying to communicate with you, and you'll feel moved by it, but even he is constantly refining his signature models with new and more nuanced features that align better with where he is at that moment. I think that special connection with the right guitar, totally aside from technical aspects, makes you more inspired and centered, and for someone like me, who feels like there have always been big roadblocks between me and time enough time to play, I feel like I can't spare any more time with something I'd have work hard to connect with, even if I can't define why.

 

[State of Epicicity]

I'm an arrogant asshole, and I was wrong.

I want to say give a little time

Give 'er a week

play only it for a month

give it a while

Okay, you bastards. Your collective words were ringing in my head. I just couldn't stop thinking about the advice. Am I being rash? Am I too scarred by the soft wood of the first one? I had so many questions running through my head. I was going around and around, just thinking, "Yes, the tone is deeper than the first one, the action came from the factory really low with no problems I've found, it feels good, it has a treble bleed from the factory with five very usuable and cool positions (neck series, neck parallel, neck/bridge, neck outer/bridge inner, bridge series), so What's my problem?"

I decided to grab the guitar for just a minute and record a riff dry, and I put the guitar down. Then I just started messing with the Axe-FX III and customizing several tones carefully, the way I normally do, not thinking about the guitar at all, just focused on creating what I wanted sonically. What came out was amazing. I used five or six different Plexi models, plus the Dirty Shirley 1 and the 5150-II Lead. They all sounded so badass, and deeper than the Trevor Rabin. So then, with these presets now created, I grabbed the guitar and started playing in my style, using the trem bar subtly but really often, riding the volume and tone knobs, and I was getting these incredibly tones, easy to control, and very expressive. And because of the low action I was easily pulling off whatever I wanted.

I wasn't thinking automatically about my connection with the instrument; I was hearing the tone and wanting to bend it to my will, and I realized, that right there is my connection to the instrument, connecting with the tone itself. When I've bought other guitars, I've played through real amps, where you're not picking IRs, moving mics in a DynaCab, choosing the right one of 300 amp models, etc. You're plugging into a simple amp and moving knobs then focusing on the guitar producing that sound; the experience is cohesive and easy. Here it was different: I had to create the basis for that cohesion to be possible, just a few amps, cabs, and mics set just right, and it was easy then to feel the connection. It was awesome.

As I said, you are bastards, because now I realize how arrogant and blind I was, and I have to eat my words. I've written so many words too, and they all are stupid now.

I'm keeping this guitar.

Seriously though, thank you guys. Thank you for all thoughts going with my initial reaction too; it felt better to have solidarity, even if I now know I was dead fucking wrong. I now know how to evaluate a guitar in the digital age: record it, set it aside, create many tones, then play and see how I feel.

Here's a picture I caught today really showing the beauty. Caveat that the plastic is still on the pickguard, so that looks bad, but look at that wood grain!

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

View attachment 136094

Good to hear that Lilith has opened up to you....

 

[Dramelot]

Been watching this thread as i have one coming. (Standard mahogany w/ seafoam paint and maple neck) hoping I can dig it. My wonderful Ibanez S's premiums no matter what, cant get used to the wide nut width. These neck dimensions seem to be what I like. And an easier modifiable platform. Fingers crossed.

 

[State of Epicicity]

Been watching this thread as i have one coming. (Standard mahogany w/ seafoam paint and maple neck) hoping I can dig it. My wonderful Ibanez S's premiums no matter what, cant get used to the wide nut width. These neck dimensions seem to be what I like. And an easier modifiable platform. Fingers crossed.

Best of luck Man! Is it the 1272?

https://www.schecterguitars.com/Sun...R-S?quantity=1&custitem_color_master_list=758

I think that one looks really cool because it has 22 frets! It's the only Super Shredder I've seen with that. I hope it works out for you.

 

[GitGuy513]

Hey it’s all good. I’m glad you’re bonding because it certainly looks like a killer guitar and those pup selections are great for getting all sorts of tones.

 

[Budda]

Its a guitar, dont overthink it just play it. Get offline for a week and learn/play songs you love on it and see how it goes.

 

[Dave Merrill]

Excellent man, happy happy, glad you two connected! Rock on!

 

[rossipedia]

I'm an arrogant asshole, and I was wrong.

Okay, you bastards. Your collective words were ringing in my head. I just couldn't stop thinking about the advice. Am I being rash? Am I too scarred by the soft wood of the first one? I had so many questions running through my head. I was going around and around, just thinking, "Yes, the tone is deeper than the first one, the action came from the factory really low with no problems I've found, it feels good, it has a treble bleed from the factory with five very usuable and cool positions (neck series, neck parallel, neck/bridge, neck outer/bridge inner, bridge series), so What's my problem?"

I decided to grab the guitar for just a minute and record a riff dry, and I put the guitar down. Then I just started messing with the Axe-FX III and customizing several tones carefully, the way I normally do, not thinking about the guitar at all, just focused on creating what I wanted sonically. What came out was amazing. I used five or six different Plexi models, plus the Dirty Shirley 1 and the 5150-II Lead. They all sounded so badass, and deeper than the Trevor Rabin. So then, with these presets now created, I grabbed the guitar and started playing in my style, using the trem bar subtly but really often, riding the volume and tone knobs, and I was getting these incredibly tones, easy to control, and very expressive. And because of the low action I was easily pulling off whatever I wanted.

I wasn't thinking automatically about my connection with the instrument; I was hearing the tone and wanting to bend it to my will, and I realized, that right there is my connection to the instrument, connecting with the tone itself. When I've bought other guitars, I've played through real amps, where you're not picking IRs, moving mics in a DynaCab, choosing the right one of 300 amp models, etc. You're plugging into a simple amp and moving knobs then focusing on the guitar producing that sound; the experience is cohesive and easy. Here it was different: I had to create the basis for that cohesion to be possible, just a few amps, cabs, and mics set just right, and it was easy then to feel the connection. It was awesome.

As I said, you are bastards, because now I realize how arrogant and blind I was, and I have to eat my words. I've written so many words too, and they all are stupid now.

I'm keeping this guitar.

Seriously though, thank you guys. Thank you for all thoughts going with my initial reaction too; it felt better to have solidarity, even if I now know I was dead fucking wrong. I now know how to evaluate a guitar in the digital age: record it, set it aside, create many tones, then play and see how I feel.

Here's a picture I caught today really showing the beauty. Caveat that the plastic is still on the pickguard, so that looks bad, but look at that wood grain!

For our first year together, my wife and I were on and off, and I wasn't entirely certain about the relationship. Now we've been together 10 years and have two kids.

Sometimes the spark needs a little time Happy you found yours!

 

[Sixstring]

I'm an arrogant asshole, and I was wrong.









Okay, you bastards. Your collective words were ringing in my head. I just couldn't stop thinking about the advice. Am I being rash? Am I too scarred by the soft wood of the first one? I had so many questions running through my head. I was going around and around, just thinking, "Yes, the tone is deeper than the first one, the action came from the factory really low with no problems I've found, it feels good, it has a treble bleed from the factory with five very usuable and cool positions (neck series, neck parallel, neck/bridge, neck outer/bridge inner, bridge series), so What's my problem?"

I decided to grab the guitar for just a minute and record a riff dry, and I put the guitar down. Then I just started messing with the Axe-FX III and customizing several tones carefully, the way I normally do, not thinking about the guitar at all, just focused on creating what I wanted sonically. What came out was amazing. I used five or six different Plexi models, plus the Dirty Shirley 1 and the 5150-II Lead. They all sounded so badass, and deeper than the Trevor Rabin. So then, with these presets now created, I grabbed the guitar and started playing in my style, using the trem bar subtly but really often, riding the volume and tone knobs, and I was getting these incredibly tones, easy to control, and very expressive. And because of the low action I was easily pulling off whatever I wanted.

I wasn't thinking automatically about my connection with the instrument; I was hearing the tone and wanting to bend it to my will, and I realized, that right there is my connection to the instrument, connecting with the tone itself. When I've bought other guitars, I've played through real amps, where you're not picking IRs, moving mics in a DynaCab, choosing the right one of 300 amp models, etc. You're plugging into a simple amp and moving knobs then focusing on the guitar producing that sound; the experience is cohesive and easy. Here it was different: I had to create the basis for that cohesion to be possible, just a few amps, cabs, and mics set just right, and it was easy then to feel the connection. It was awesome.

As I said, you are bastards, because now I realize how arrogant and blind I was, and I have to eat my words. I've written so many words too, and they all are stupid now.

I'm keeping this guitar.

Seriously though, thank you guys. Thank you for all thoughts going with my initial reaction too; it felt better to have solidarity, even if I now know I was dead fucking wrong. I now know how to evaluate a guitar in the digital age: record it, set it aside, create many tones, then play and see how I feel.

Here's a picture I caught today really showing the beauty. Caveat that the plastic is still on the pickguard, so that looks bad, but look at that wood grain!

View attachment 136094

Hey a real man knows when to admit when he's wrong seriously it's all good... sometimes it takes someone else to get you to look at things from a different perspective and you followed through and gained a guitar that you would have sent back, Win Win!

 

[Sashman]

I'm an arrogant asshole, and I was wrong.









Okay, you bastards. Your collective words were ringing in my head. I just couldn't stop thinking about the advice. Am I being rash? Am I too scarred by the soft wood of the first one? I had so many questions running through my head. I was going around and around, just thinking, "Yes, the tone is deeper than the first one, the action came from the factory really low with no problems I've found, it feels good, it has a treble bleed from the factory with five very usuable and cool positions (neck series, neck parallel, neck/bridge, neck outer/bridge inner, bridge series), so What's my problem?"

I decided to grab the guitar for just a minute and record a riff dry, and I put the guitar down. Then I just started messing with the Axe-FX III and customizing several tones carefully, the way I normally do, not thinking about the guitar at all, just focused on creating what I wanted sonically. What came out was amazing. I used five or six different Plexi models, plus the Dirty Shirley 1 and the 5150-II Lead. They all sounded so badass, and deeper than the Trevor Rabin. So then, with these presets now created, I grabbed the guitar and started playing in my style, using the trem bar subtly but really often, riding the volume and tone knobs, and I was getting these incredibly tones, easy to control, and very expressive. And because of the low action I was easily pulling off whatever I wanted.

I wasn't thinking automatically about my connection with the instrument; I was hearing the tone and wanting to bend it to my will, and I realized, that right there is my connection to the instrument, connecting with the tone itself. When I've bought other guitars, I've played through real amps, where you're not picking IRs, moving mics in a DynaCab, choosing the right one of 300 amp models, etc. You're plugging into a simple amp and moving knobs then focusing on the guitar producing that sound; the experience is cohesive and easy. Here it was different: I had to create the basis for that cohesion to be possible, just a few amps, cabs, and mics set just right, and it was easy then to feel the connection. It was awesome.

As I said, you are bastards, because now I realize how arrogant and blind I was, and I have to eat my words. I've written so many words too, and they all are stupid now.

I'm keeping this guitar.

Seriously though, thank you guys. Thank you for all thoughts going with my initial reaction too; it felt better to have solidarity, even if I now know I was dead fucking wrong. I now know how to evaluate a guitar in the digital age: record it, set it aside, create many tones, then play and see how I feel.

Here's a picture I caught today really showing the beauty. Caveat that the plastic is still on the pickguard, so that looks bad, but look at that wood grain!

View attachment 136094

Congrats!
But now we are awaiting the presets