Let’s see those Les Pauls!

Nice, all!

Have you ever played a non-Virginia EJ strat? Any sense of how different they are in the real world?

Yeah, my father had an EJ Strat some years back. Playability wise they feel the same to me. It's been a while, so I can't really comment too definitively on the tonal differences. I know the Virginia comes with the same (or as close to the same) pickups as Erics main 54 Strat. I really like the guitar. Sounds great and the 12" radius with jumbo frets is the big appealing factor for me.
 
Update on the collection (previous post). I should probably slow my roll, I've been going a bit overboard haha

collection.jpg

On the wall:
YearMakeModelNeck PUBridge PUCountry
2007 (maybe '08)DeanDime Shadow MLDuncan 59Duncan DimebuckerKorea
2020DeanML Select Quilt Top Trans BraziliaDuncan APH-1Duncan TB-5Indonesia
2015ESP/LTDEC-1000 FM EvertuneDuncan JazzDuncan JBKorea
2020ESP/LTDMH-1000 FM EvertuneFluence Modern AlnicoFluence Modern CeramicKorea
2020JacksonPro Dinky Modern Ash HT6Fluence Classic NeckFluence Classic BridgeKorea
2020JacksonJeff Loomis Pro KellyFluence Classic NeckFluence Classic BridgeKorea
2014JacksonKE2 Eerie Dess SwirlDuncan SentientDuncan NazgulUSA

Down in front:
YearMakeModelNeckBridgeCountry
2020StrandbergBoden Metal 6 Black PearlFluence Modern AlnicoFluence Modern CeramicIndonesia
2020DeanCustom Dime ML Classic BlackDean DMTDuncan DimebuckerUSA
2019ESPE-II M-II Neck Thru BlackEMG 81EMG 81Japan

I bought a lot of guitars this year (I just turned 40, so f##k it).

The USA Dean and USA Jackson are my current crown jewels. They are instruments that play like an extension of my hand, and you can tell the quality of the tone even when they're unplugged. The KE2 is I especially enjoy as it's been upgraded with Jescar 58118 stainless steel frets (the largest that Jescar makes) and it almost feels scalloped as a result.

Each is unique and I love them all, though. I think I might be done for the time being, at least for 2020. I mean, aside from the black KE2 I have on order, but that should take a couple years before it's completed. At least that's what Sweetwater tells me.
 
Some new guitar builds.

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Apparently this is the 17th guitar that I've built, A Raven Guard themed guitar after the boys in black of the 19th Legion of the Adeptus Astartes. I've been experimenting with some new stuff and this has been my first guitar with an oil finish. And even now it's still sticky at times. LOTS of Crimson Guitars penetrating and finishing oil went on this to get as glossy a coat as possible.

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Since I was using stains and the alder body wasn't looking that special by itself I tried adding a birch veneer. Because it looked awesome when I bought it. Just not so awesome after adding the black stain. Lesson learned, some colors look better on some woods, some better on others. You can see the original birch in the bare wood sections. I created the bare wood sections using masking tape, staining over them to create the illusion of a set of buckles for a jet backpack the Raven Guard loves to use so much. The electronics of this guitar have given me immense problems. Now I like to include a lot of electronic gizmos in my guitars so some electronic shenanigans were to be expected. Pickups currently are a set of Seymour Duncans I pulled out of an old guitar. Originally I had a set of Guitar Fetish Neodymiums with a hotrail bridge, but I was getting almost no volume out of this guitar. I tried everything, desoldering, resoldering, until I found out that the kill switch in the upper horn was the main culprit. When I had unscrewed it I got normal sound, when I tightened it it must have shorted out against the shielding paint. So I scraped as much of the shielding paint away as possible and added some plastic insulation on the inside. I thought that would fix it, but the pickups were still kinda weak, with notes dying out quite quickly. I swapped the pickups out for an older Seymour Duncan set I had lying about and I feel its better now. All that desoldering and resoldering did ruin the the shadow kill volume pot as it no longer turned the volume down when twisting the knob. For extra fun I've included a Devi Ever Hyperion 2 Fuzz, with a oscillating pot for oscillating goodness. Works fine. Plays also nice with a tone knob for increased or lower pitch. Chrome hardware and an Ibanez Lo Pro Edge locking trem.

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Inlays made with black epoxy from Stew Mac. I don't know what it is with me and epoxy but I have a lot of misfires mixing the stuff. Once I had a neck with epoxy markers that still weren't hardered after three months. But the Stew Mac stuff hardened right every time. Worth the money if you ask me. Funny thing when you make your own guitarneck, you start sculpting and shaving the neck to the right thickness until you are happy with the results. Then months later you put the neck on and you go, whoah, way too thick! What was I thinking. Sometimes its good to best to take a step back and sleep on it before deciding. Not that it mattered that much though. It's easy to remove a neck and shave it down some more.

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Normally I use decals or paint to add letters and slogans, but this time I wasn't going to do all that, I was going to stain and oil. So I figured I would use masking tape to create symbols, and I used a dremel to carve out my logo and then fill it up with white chalk and superglue. And that would shine through the stain cause stain and superglue don't mix. And it worked. Now if only my head was a little more steady.

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Same thing with the battle cry of the Raven Guard, which is victory or death for those who can't read Latin. Carved out with a dremel and filled with white chalk and superglue.

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The Raven Guard emblem, done with masking tape, then drawn the emblem on it and cut out the excess masking tape. Not as straight as I would like it at some places, note to self, find better quality masking tape.

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Gratuitous ass shot. Note the black veneer I glued in between the two pieces of maple I used to glue the neck together. Not only does it look cool in my book, it also helps to align the neck more properly to the body centerline. Also note the strip on the upper horn where I had a little router accident early on in the build. You can easily fill it up with super glue and sawdust as I used to do in the past when I finished off my guitars with spray paint. But with stains there's no hiding such mistakes any more.
 
Guitar build no. 18. My how fast it goes when you spend so much more time at home thanks to the beer virus. IMG_20201014_153334.jpg

I do like Les Pauls, except when I have one in my hands or possession, then I hate the damn things. They just plain suck to play. I always say, if the Tele is like the Ford Model T, and the Strat a comfortable nice 1950's cruiser, the Les Paul is like one of the first gasoline cars of the late 19th century. Radical in its day, but totally unplayable for people who actually like comforts like cut outs, tummy cuts and necks that aren't baseball bats. With G-strings that stay in tune and headstocks that don't snap off when you give it the stinky eye. So I figured it was time to build my own version of the Les Paul more suited to my tastes and needs. And also because I was watching way too many Crimson Guitar build videos.

I'm a Warhammer 40K nut and I like to build my guitars in that theme. With Fender it always feels like the Imperium of Man to me. Brutal, ugly, parts thrown together. A Fender clone should be Imperial themed. With Gibson it feels more graceful, whole, so that immediately gives me an Aeldari theme, those arrogant stuck up on the cusp of dying out space elves. So I went with a theme inspired by Craftworld Biel-Tan.
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An observant observer might notice that the body has some crossover with a Jazzmaster. I kinda like that offset shape. There's a hollowed out interior in the poplar body, covered up with a maple top, and in which I carved the Aeldari runes of from top to right Kaela Mensha Khaine, the Aeldari God of War, the rune of the Biel-Tan Craftworld and the rune of the Aeldari people as well. There's a toggle kills switch up top, as is the course with all my guitars, Shadow kill pot for volume for push button kill switching, as is the course with all my guitars. String through body with a tunamatic bridge, and I swear this was way before Eddie died, a pair of Guitar Fetish VEH Brown Sound pickups, cause I wanted to try something new. And I have to say they sound nice. There's a slight carved top, as is custom with Les Pauls, and a slight carve close to the edge, because I got a little too enthusiastic with the sanding machine doing the overall carve. And I do watch a lot of Scar my Guitar videos, and that guy does it all the time, so I figured I might as well do the same.IMG_20201014_153439.jpg

My version of the Les Paul headstock. I didn't want the strings to fan out like they do on the Les Paul, which is why the G-string has a bad habit of geting out of tune. Notice the green binding on the fretboard.

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Aeldari runes on the sides. Notice the tummy cut for more comfort. I did not paint the sides of the maple top so as to create the illusion of a binding on the body. The runes were carved out with a dremel and then filled with black epoxy, as I knew that the green stain would not cover those up. IMG_20201014_153611.jpg

Gratuitous ass shot. I wasn't sure if I was going to glue the neck or not, but in the end I went for the old screws. I also did some additional carving to facilitate higher note access.

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Neck LED's baby! You have to think Muse and Crimson Guitars for that. It wasn't easy but it came out nice.
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In case you're wondering, here's how it's wired on the inside of the fretboard.

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And there's also lighting on the inside of the body.

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This will look so sweet on a stage. :cool: And it also plays nice too. One of my better builds. The paintjob could be a little better, but other then that I'm very pleased.
 
Update on the collection (previous post). I should probably slow my roll, I've been going a bit overboard haha

View attachment 74604

On the wall:
YearMakeModelNeck PUBridge PUCountry
2007 (maybe '08)DeanDime Shadow MLDuncan 59Duncan DimebuckerKorea
2020DeanML Select Quilt Top Trans BraziliaDuncan APH-1Duncan TB-5Indonesia
2015ESP/LTDEC-1000 FM EvertuneDuncan JazzDuncan JBKorea
2020ESP/LTDMH-1000 FM EvertuneFluence Modern AlnicoFluence Modern CeramicKorea
2020JacksonPro Dinky Modern Ash HT6Fluence Classic NeckFluence Classic BridgeKorea
2020JacksonJeff Loomis Pro KellyFluence Classic NeckFluence Classic BridgeKorea
2014JacksonKE2 Eerie Dess SwirlDuncan SentientDuncan NazgulUSA

Down in front:
YearMakeModelNeckBridgeCountry
2020StrandbergBoden Metal 6 Black PearlFluence Modern AlnicoFluence Modern CeramicIndonesia
2020DeanCustom Dime ML Classic BlackDean DMTDuncan DimebuckerUSA
2019ESPE-II M-II Neck Thru BlackEMG 81EMG 81Japan

I bought a lot of guitars this year (I just turned 40, so f##k it).

The USA Dean and USA Jackson are my current crown jewels. They are instruments that play like an extension of my hand, and you can tell the quality of the tone even when they're unplugged. The KE2 is I especially enjoy as it's been upgraded with Jescar 58118 stainless steel frets (the largest that Jescar makes) and it almost feels scalloped as a result.

Each is unique and I love them all, though. I think I might be done for the time being, at least for 2020. I mean, aside from the black KE2 I have on order, but that should take a couple years before it's completed. At least that's what Sweetwater tells me.

How do you find the fluence pickups in the Strandberg? Considering the same thing for Mine.
 
How do you find the fluence pickups in the Strandberg? Considering the same thing for Mine.

I absolutely love them, although these days I'm leaning more towards the Classics I have in two of my Jacksons. I have the Moderns in the strandberg and allso in the LTD MH-1000.

I am 100% on board the Fluence train. The biggest thing to me is that they feel better. More articulate and "alive" I guess. They're super dynamic and responsive and just sound amazing. All the different voicings are really nice as well, you can get a ton of different sounds out of 'em.
 
I absolutely love them, although these days I'm leaning more towards the Classics I have in two of my Jacksons. I have the Moderns in the strandberg and allso in the LTD MH-1000.

I am 100% on board the Fluence train. The biggest thing to me is that they feel better. More articulate and "alive" I guess. They're super dynamic and responsive and just sound amazing. All the different voicings are really nice as well, you can get a ton of different sounds out of 'em.
Thanks for that. Going to give the classics a shot then.
 
The guitar in my avatar. Custom made from scratch, I chose all the specs. I even was allowed to choose the slab of wood, Gibson L5S inspired guitar. Same shape and super thin body, only made with a mahogany body and neck and a maple cap. The originals were 100% maple and had more bling. Seth Lover PAF pickups. Best part is it cost me 1/4 -1/3 the price people ask for the originals, many which are not in the greatest shape.F8A164AD-FE23-4F93-9D4B-276C738CADA9_1_201_a.jpeg
 
Very nice!

Looks like you didn't go for the original electronics, with the low impedance pickups, and the many-position Varitone-on-steroids thing. That might have been fun too, if maybe a bit whacked :)
 
Just got this in last week. Definitely a departure from the usual stuff I go for. This one's an 82 Aria Pro II PE-60. Just a great guitar that I'm having a hard time putting down.

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The guitarist from Journey had a Signature version of this guitar. I had an Aria Goldtop P90 that was a flat out clone of the real thing right down to the covered fret edges. Had to sell it and some of my other babies when I lost my job some years ago.
 
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