Ngd: M8m

[xenophobe]

LOL Im slower than dog shit in winter or something to that effect lol I cant control thus postal service...Its a wonder they survive. I shipped a guitar the same day I shipped your neck the first fuckin time. That guitar still isnt there. And its not a sold guitar its a loaner to a friend...never good when a dimas rhoads in a fuggin anvil case goes missing...at least i can be fairly certain she is safe wherever she is lol

I'm not particularly bothered by a $175 import neck that I don't even have a use for yet. No worries, it could have waited a month and I wouldn't have minded. I picked up my M8M yesterday and my ESP Custom Strat also came in the mail yesterday, so I have plenty to distract me.

[decadence5423]

I'm dealing with a package USPS clearly lost right now. Tracking information hasn't been updated in 6 days, was supposed to be delivered 5 days ago and they're giving me the run around. They told me it must have a wrong address... yeah... because Amazon screwed up my address.

Beautiful guitar though. Love their 7 strings, the 8 strings must be awesome as well. It's also probably a little confusing to play.

[Richard W]

Hngd!

[coloradoman25]

Many of my new toys showed up this week...sadly my Mark V arrived utterly fucking destroyed. but I have the haters special to keep me busy my bugera 333xl

[xenophobe]

Many of my new toys showed up this week...sadly my Mark V arrived utterly fucking destroyed. but I have the haters special to keep me busy my bugera 333xl

This is the other one that arrived yesterday:

I haven't even taken pictures of it yet. lol It plays so delicate. It's like the exact opposite of my Jackson Strathead... my Jackson has really low action, but I can heavy hand the pick attack because of the jumbo frets... This ESP action is so low, you need to play it gently. The neck is slim and it feels like butter. And the ESP low profile neck heel is amazing. Judging by the options, it was over $7000 US brand new.

2009 non-US Market Custom Strathead:

[Hellbat]

Is that a kill switch or coil tap?

[xenophobe]

Is that a kill switch or coil tap?

It's a coil tap.

I haven't pulled the pickguard, but those are Suhr pickups and that's a gain-boost switch of some sort. I'm not positive though, but it certainly does add about 10 decibels or so to the output.

[j2379]

that ESP is way cool, very Dave Murray.

[toejam]

That 8-string and ESP are awesome!

[xenophobe]

Thanks! The ESP is like brand new, and now I know why... There is some string buzz I just can't get rid of... I had to put a shim on the edge of the neck pocket farthest away from the neck pickup, almost sticking out of the neck/body joint. I got this guitar from Japan, so I'll eat $500 if I return it. I'm taking it to my luthier after I post this. I think it's probably correctable without a fret level, but I tried to set this thing up three times... And pretty soon Ron will be able to publicly humiliate my setup skills... lol

On a good note, the neck is amazing, the fretwork is immaculate and the overall quality of the build is really high.

Check out these build quality shots (sorry crappy cell phone pics, but good enough to get the point across):



All of the shielding is under the paint.. I'm pretty impressed with this:

[surfreak]

Very nice build indeed, I like the threaded inserts in the neck, but they shouldn't have lacquered the neck butt. Why don't you try sanding it down? Perhaps that might help you get rid of some string buzz on the higher frets?

[xenophobe]

Those pictures don't even really do it justice, there's a shock absorbing battery mount in that battery cavity. It's fucking shock absorbing for christs sake!

It isn't higher register string buzz, it's random interval string buzz... A string 11th to 14th, low E from 5-10, B string on 9-11. It's not consistent. I don't mind a mild, consistent buzz across the whole lower strings from having an action too low, and by that I mean a barely noticeable buzz that doesn't affect sustain or notes fretting out... this wasn't it. I mean typical Jackson ESP 1.5mm at the last fret type of action. The neck isn't warped. I checked against a machinist's ruler. It should be playing fine, but for some reason it isn't.

BTW, the RR1 I set up for Ron, as he told me in his words "is the lowest action of all his guitars"... I'm fairly confident when I play a neck with string buzz if I can get it out or not. There's nothing I could do. So I gave it to my professional luthier to asses.

As for the neck, I'm not going to take off the thin coat of lacquer. I would need a belt sander to accurately grind the heel so it would sit right. There's no way in hell the guitar played the way it did when it left the factory, so instead of eating $500 in shipping costs both ways, I decided to give it to my luthier... a real luthier, not a guitar repair shop or guitar tech for him to assess and tell me how he would fix it and get it done.