Hardware color opinions needed

[wulfe13]

Re: Hardware color opinions needed

Uh... I think you already went too far. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] Why go back now? Chrome knowbs might be hard to find on it though... [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[wulfe13]

Re: Hardware color opinions needed

[ QUOTE ]
Is anyone else reminded of their leather jacket from about 16 years ago?

I agree with Budman, cover that whole thing in studs.

[/ QUOTE ]

Hey..... mine is hanging in the closet! I'd still wear it if I fit in it. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[Jackson-Charvel]

Re: Hardware color opinions needed

Chrome knobs would be cool but there is too much blank space and more space for spikes. I'd fill up every inch of that guitar top with spikes. I dunno if thats your plan or not, but looks good so far.

[Jackson-Charvel]

Re: Hardware color opinions needed

And I forgot I would go with chrome EMGs as well as the metal chrome pickup rings to do it all the way.

[Newc]

Re: Hardware color opinions needed

Well, it's too late [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
AS I typed the original post I had already switched the knobs to chrome, and I must say it's a good thing that the volume knob is in the way [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]
Actually it's not that bad - you can spot it easily. The audience might not, but they're not the ones playing it are they? [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Anyhoo, it took me about 6 hours to get all the pyramids and domes on it. I tried glueing them on, but no luck. I coulda went with Krazy Glue but that's too dangerous when working with small slippery items [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img] I did need to use a few more pyramids and domes than the pics above show, but not many. The hardest part was getting them to stick into the wood! Since they've only got two tangs, and you can't hold them and hammer them at the same time, I had to make a tool to hold them (easy part). Then I test-drove one into the body to see if it'd work. Well, the tangs bent, so I had to straighten them out and try again. This time I took a small flathead scredriver (like for eyeglasses and such - those "precision" screwdrivers with the swiveling tip) and made the initial holes deeper, then pounded the pyramid in.
Then I did a second one like that and it kinda got bent outta shape but it went in finally.

So then I went all around the body just setting the pyramids in with one or two taps to get the pilot holes, then I planned to go back over those holes with the screwdriver, then go back and pound them in. Then I decided to go ahead and set the domes in the same way, so I'd spend the rest of the night just deepening the holes, and I could put everything in place in one sitting.
So then I had to figure out a way to make the tool I made for the pyramids grip the domes. Nothing worked so I figured I'd just make the pilot holes with another pyramid and then set a dome in it to mark the spot, and move on to the next one, etc etc. So I did that.

Sooooo while I was setting the domes I noticed the body seemed softer in some places, and I could easily drive them all the way in. Finally I realised (after 3 hours of setting pyramids and domes by then), that it wasn't the wood, it was the direction I had the tangs - if I put them in one way they were going between the grain, but when going the other way (which I HAD been) they go ACROSS the grain, making it harder to drive.
SO I went through and took them ALL off again and turned them and reset them - they drove all the way in with almost NO trouble [img]/images/graemlins/mad.gif[/img]

Unfortunately by this time I'd already had tons of little chips all over the top where I had set them in previously, but I was hoping the new seats would cover the old holes up. Of course not, and I was a moron for thinking that. So now what was a pretty much MINT surface is riddles with little chips [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]
Ah well.

Anyway, once I got the pyramids and domes set in (some are still kinda warped, but screw 'em), I had to find a way to set the spikes, as glueing them also failed - they just popped right off if you bumped them (using Mod Podge - kinda like Elmer's). So then it hit me - if the top's pretty much already screwed from all the chipping, just drill holes in the guitar and put dowels in the spikes (they have scre holes in the back, not tangs), and then sink the dowels in the hole on the guitar - worked like a charm [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
You could pull them out, of course, but they won't fall out.

I did strap it on once it was all done to check if my arm would rub against the hardware or if it would interfere with picking or knob working, but it doesn't [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
Of course, I haven't strung it up yet either (waiting on the nut from Drake he ordered from Kevin)

All in all it's been a very educational experience. If I do another one, I'm sure it'd come out a whole lot better-looking than this one did.

















Newc

[sfregias]

Re: Hardware color opinions needed

uh... very very... "heavy" looking!

nice!

[toejam]

Re: Hardware color opinions needed

Good job, you silly little freak! LOL Wonder how those studs will feel on your forearm while playing. [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[Newc]

Re: Hardware color opinions needed

sfregias - Actually, it does add a couple of pounds to the weight [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Toe - Actually you don't feel them at all [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
Well, I don't, anyway, because of where I rest my arm (on the bevel, not on the horn).

Newc

[TheSteveMan]

Re: Hardware color opinions needed

What in Bob's name did ya do to that thing!?! [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]
"METAL" indeed!! Haha, nice work, it's pretty flashy.
I dig the maple fingerboard btw. (Maple lover)

[Newc]

Re: Hardware color opinions needed

Yeah it's a cross between the Killer RG-Prime (Akira!) and KK Downing's Metal Studded V [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Now I just gotta put ebony trapezoids to get the Glenn Tipton link and I'm all set [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Newc

[toejam]

Re: Hardware color opinions needed

[ QUOTE ]
Toe - Actually you don't feel them at all [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]
Well, I don't, anyway, because of where I rest my arm (on the bevel, not on the horn).

[/ QUOTE ]
Alrighty then. What about if you add nails to make it resemble Kerry King's armband?? [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

[86mod5]

Re: Hardware color opinions needed

toejam - "Too Much Time On My Hands" was Styx.

[toejam]

Re: Hardware color opinions needed

[ QUOTE ]
toejam - "Too Much Time On My Hands" was Styx.

[/ QUOTE ]
Ah, that's it. Thanks!

[TheSteveMan]

Re: Hardware color opinions needed

[ QUOTE ]
Yeah it's a cross between the Killer RG-Prime (Akira!) and KK Downing's Metal Studded V [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Now I just gotta put ebony trapezoids to get the Glenn Tipton link and I'm all set [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

Newc

[/ QUOTE ]

Yay, somebody who knows of Akira and Killer guitars!!!!!
I was gonna plan on getting a Killer Starrion when I went to Japan, but I ordered a semi-custom Jackson Stars KS instead with that money.. I like the KS shape just a tad better, and it's neck thru, and I'm gettin no inlays [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]
I'm really into Loudness. My fave albums are Thunder in the East and Jealousy but I love it all haha!
(sorry, off topic a little)

[Newc]

Re: Hardware color opinions needed

Actually all I've ever heard was Thunder In The East, and that was on vinyl - still got it, too [img]/images/graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

But I did pick up a Killer RG knockoff last year. It's a decent copy but if you compare it to pics of the real thing side by side you notice very obvious differences. It's unplayable since it didn't come with a tremolo and the post spacing is not the same as the Floyds (Jackson, OFR) I have. Might be an Ibenhad trem spacing.

Newc