MkIII Renegade
New member
USA model with Koa body, birdseye maple neck, and pau ferro fretboard. Picked her up with lots of corrosion to the original Jackson Floyd and other hardware (previous owner must have lived in a saltwater cave! :eek5: ), so after eventually giving up on finding the separate components, I replaced it with a German Schaller Floyd + locking nut, new Bare Knuckle Pickups---Nail Bomb Ceramic at the bridge and Cold Sweat neck, push-pull volume/tone knob with coil tap, brass tone block, and new everything else except the tuners and jack plate. This one has even has the rare Jackson neck plate, which I've been told may make this 1 of 50 produced. My total investment is rather stout by this point, but it delivers!
I need to take more pics later, but here is one along with some of the other stablemates:
The initial setup and corroded strings were wretched, but after this rescue mission, it is transcendent to play, i.e. it makes me feel like a better player! The neck is more narrow at the nut that most Charvels, making it easy get a handle on chords and melt from one string to the next for fast riffs and leads. It has stunning intonation and resonance, and stays in tune extremely well, which is a major deal to me when evaluating any guitar. Needless to say, the neck is also lightning fast!
The Nail Bomb is probably my first "modern" passive pickup (classics like the Duncan Distortion and JB have been around for ages.....) and it has tremendous clarity even under massive gain, and plenty of malicious slice for leads, yet taps well for clean sounds (especially the middle position). The Cold Sweat is excellent also, and manages to get close the neck lead tone of a 22 fret guitar, which is my preference. BKPs are expensive, but worth it for at least one guitar IMO, and I wanted this guitar to be something different.
Anyway, if you can get your hands one of these, try it! These are serious guitars. I've been lusting for one since '95, which is now 21 years ago!!! :eek5: I guess this qualifies as vintage now, at least for my generation.
I need to take more pics later, but here is one along with some of the other stablemates:
The initial setup and corroded strings were wretched, but after this rescue mission, it is transcendent to play, i.e. it makes me feel like a better player! The neck is more narrow at the nut that most Charvels, making it easy get a handle on chords and melt from one string to the next for fast riffs and leads. It has stunning intonation and resonance, and stays in tune extremely well, which is a major deal to me when evaluating any guitar. Needless to say, the neck is also lightning fast!
The Nail Bomb is probably my first "modern" passive pickup (classics like the Duncan Distortion and JB have been around for ages.....) and it has tremendous clarity even under massive gain, and plenty of malicious slice for leads, yet taps well for clean sounds (especially the middle position). The Cold Sweat is excellent also, and manages to get close the neck lead tone of a 22 fret guitar, which is my preference. BKPs are expensive, but worth it for at least one guitar IMO, and I wanted this guitar to be something different.
Anyway, if you can get your hands one of these, try it! These are serious guitars. I've been lusting for one since '95, which is now 21 years ago!!! :eek5: I guess this qualifies as vintage now, at least for my generation.
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