11 Dean Vendetta XMs refinished, what's next?

dominus

King Midas to Cheap Guitars
Next on the list, an LTD H-100 that I got from Andrew Lamprecht, sounds absolutely amazing with a Dimarzio D-Sonic, so that one's getting the single pickup treatment, and a new finish.

I have a Schecter Damien 6 with a Dimarzio Breed, still up in the air on that one, I hate the walnut color natural finish, but I haven't quite found the amp/eq settings to make the Breed sound as good as the rest. Could be the guitar itself.

I have a BC Rich Zombie, not quite sure on that one yet either. It has a Floyd, which I hate, but I'm not to the point of filling and drilling yet, so it'd keep the Floyd, I'd just lock it down as best I can. It also has a painted neck, so I'd either have to strip/sand the back, or fill the neck humbucker cavity and try to match the body color to the neck.

I have an LTD F series, with a Duncan blackout. Sounds ok, but not quite sure on that one either. Maybe I'll pull that out and try a few passives in it.

I also have a ton of guitars I need to sell, I think I'm getting close to my record of 30 guitars owned at one time, and that's just too many. I like having all the different pickups and whatnot, but at some point I will be moving across the country, the Deans are great because they weigh so little, maybe about 3.5 pounds each. They're also so cheap, I'm half tempted to sell off all my other odd guitars and just pick up another half dozen. I may try experimenting with more unconventional finishes.. as I've almost exhausted all the standard colors:
 
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Re: 11 Dean Vendetta XMs refinished, what's next?

want to sell me that orange one :D haha
I must say with all the guitar you are painting you still have not done your blood splater one yet.
 
Re: 11 Dean Vendetta XMs refinished, what's next?

The LTD H-100 will get the blood splatter. Still looking to find the right color red for the blood, I have the white already. ;)
 
Re: 11 Dean Vendetta XMs refinished, what's next?

thats going to look very cool. It would also be sweet to see a mirror finish
 
Re: 11 Dean Vendetta XMs refinished, what's next?

You should do one with a water droplet finish. Some dude on the Harmony Central forums did one a few months ago with that type of finish.

I think he painted it black, let it dry, misted it with water, and then lightly sprayed it with silver or grey. It was freakin killer looking!!
 
Re: 11 Dean Vendetta XMs refinished, what's next?

You should do one with a water droplet finish. Some dude on the Harmony Central forums did one a few months ago with that type of finish.

I think he painted it black, let it dry, misted it with water, and then lightly sprayed it with silver or grey. It was freakin killer looking!!

Once H-C comes back up I'll try to find that thread, sounds interesting.

Ok, I did a shootout between all the guitars. Figured all the guitars are pretty much the same aside from pickups. (Well, the red one only has a 500k volume pot, but all the rest are the same 500k vol-500k tone-3way setup. Volume and tone cranked up all the way.) I used the same setting on my Tonelab ST for all of them, didn't even touch the EQ or gain. All guitars were tuned to open C.

All of the pickups work for metal, I can get anything from speed metal to death metal, which is what I'm after. Here's the complete list, from red to gray, all Dimarzios, except for the Custom 8:

Fred
Evolution Neck
Mo' Joe
Evo 2
Megadrive
Super Distortion (AlNiCo 5 instead of Ceramic magnet)
SD Custom 8
Air Norton
Air Zone
Steve's Special
Super 3

I think my favorite was the Evolution Neck, with the Custom 8, Megadrive, Steve's Special, Fred, and Air Zone in a 5 way tie for 2nd. All of them have their own flavors, and they all sound great in their own way. None of the pickups sounded bad, at all.

I also plugged in a few of my other guitars, after adjusting the pickup height on the Breed I found the sweet spot, so the Schecter goes in the refinish pile. I've also got an X2N in a guitar that sounded perfectly brutal, and a GFS VEH that also sounds really good.
 
Re: 11 Dean Vendetta XMs refinished, what's next?

Once H-C comes back up I'll try to find that thread, sounds interesting.

Yeah man, I've been trying to search for that ever since I wrote that, but unfortunately that place has been down or whatever.

I'll do my best to find it. I hope I do, because it was a really groovy thread.:)
 
Re: 11 Dean Vendetta XMs refinished, what's next?

Very cool!! MORE pics!!

You have officially created your own signature series!! Congrats!
 
Re: 11 Dean Vendetta XMs refinished, what's next?

I think you should mail out the blue one to your buddy John for, uh, testing. Or the orange one, or the red one, or the green one...
 
Re: 11 Dean Vendetta XMs refinished, what's next?

Silly question, why aren't you on the Dean Forum? If you are, I have missed it. :scratchch Come share a big thread of Painted Vendetta Pronage. :approve:

Cool work. :cool2:
 
Re: 11 Dean Vendetta XMs refinished, what's next?

Eh, I haven't really found a green that I liked.

Grabber Green?
bossonerh3-1.jpg
 
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