dominus
King Midas to Cheap Guitars
Ok, last weekend Musician's Friend had a special going on the Dean Vendetta XMs, $70 each. (I picked up 3 of them, can't go wrong with 3 cheap guitars for the price of one cheap guitar. $210 shipped, can't beat it.)
Stringthrough bridge, 6 to a side tuners, comfortable Strat shape, just about perfect for me. (Only thing better would be a single bridge humbucker and made of Mahogany, but I'm sure I won't find that under $100.
) Basically I was looking for cheap guitars to beat up, swap pickups in, and possibly refinish.
The stock pickups were a little underwhelming of course, the tuners suck (already replaced one with a set of Grovers that fixed that issue, but I need to get two more sets), one of them has the bridge at a slight angle towards the neck, one had a ground wire that went from the tone pot to nowhere, another one has a bridge post hole that's a little oversized, the rear ferrules pop out easily.. but all in all, I can make these into killer guitars with a little bit of time, glue, and replacement parts. (Might even strip the bodies down and restain each one a different color. I don't care, they're CHEAP.)
Man, the Paulownia wood is LIGHT. Each guitar feels like it weighs about 3 pounds, especially after I pull out both humbuckers and just install a bridge one, as that's how I play. Also quite soft, as the one bridge at a slight angle can attest... and then this evening I was adjusting polepieces on a humbucker, the screwdriver slipped out and just barely hit the body... DING! Unbelievable.
Moving along.... Paulownia supposedly sounds like Swamp Ash, so I tried to use that as a guide for installing pickups. Dimarzio Air Zone and PAF Joe worked well, the Mo' Joe was ok but not great. The Duncan Designed JB clone works GREAT, the Screamin Demon.. NOT AT ALL. It sounds... hollow. I really want to give that another shot, so give me an idea on what to put it in. I have guitars made out of every other type of wood (alder, mahogany, basswood... ), where would it sound good?
Stringthrough bridge, 6 to a side tuners, comfortable Strat shape, just about perfect for me. (Only thing better would be a single bridge humbucker and made of Mahogany, but I'm sure I won't find that under $100.
) Basically I was looking for cheap guitars to beat up, swap pickups in, and possibly refinish. The stock pickups were a little underwhelming of course, the tuners suck (already replaced one with a set of Grovers that fixed that issue, but I need to get two more sets), one of them has the bridge at a slight angle towards the neck, one had a ground wire that went from the tone pot to nowhere, another one has a bridge post hole that's a little oversized, the rear ferrules pop out easily.. but all in all, I can make these into killer guitars with a little bit of time, glue, and replacement parts. (Might even strip the bodies down and restain each one a different color. I don't care, they're CHEAP.)
Man, the Paulownia wood is LIGHT. Each guitar feels like it weighs about 3 pounds, especially after I pull out both humbuckers and just install a bridge one, as that's how I play. Also quite soft, as the one bridge at a slight angle can attest... and then this evening I was adjusting polepieces on a humbucker, the screwdriver slipped out and just barely hit the body... DING! Unbelievable.
Moving along.... Paulownia supposedly sounds like Swamp Ash, so I tried to use that as a guide for installing pickups. Dimarzio Air Zone and PAF Joe worked well, the Mo' Joe was ok but not great. The Duncan Designed JB clone works GREAT, the Screamin Demon.. NOT AT ALL. It sounds... hollow. I really want to give that another shot, so give me an idea on what to put it in. I have guitars made out of every other type of wood (alder, mahogany, basswood... ), where would it sound good?
