OK-I believe I'm going to work on a monster guitar. *Here are my ideas so far..
(starting from an Ibanez RG5xx body and wizard neck)
* *I'm going to scallop frets 21-24
* *DiMarzio Evolution at Bridge, PAF Pro at Neck
* *No middle pickup
* *5 way switch with coil taps in notch positions and both in middle
* *kill switch

I've also toyed with the idea of adding a sustainer...
any other cool suggestions?

Have you considered any inlay work or finish for the body? Electronically it sounds pretty killer.

I would beef up the neck pickup a little to come closer to the EVO. Maybe an Air Norton or Air Zone. Good luck!!!

Question: why scallop 21-24? Is it just for asthetics? Because in all honesty, it won't make an iota of difference that high up on the neck as far as playability.

But I know some people that just like the way it looks.

(just curious) *

Off with the Evo, get a Breed, Fred, Tone Zone or something from the Duncan catalog instead. Oh and a Wilkinson trem, locking tuners and an Earvana nut.
The 5-way switch is a good idea. Got one guitar with similar pu setup.

(Edited by MrGreenGenes at 12:38 pm on Dec. 16, 2000)

I believe Vai did the scallop thing for tonal integrity on the high frets. I personally like it for the ease of control when playing that high on the neck. Easier to bend I guess.

nope- sorry the Evolution is definately staying. *I'm not thrilled with the Breed and I really dislike Seymour Duncans.

I'm doing the scalloping for a number of reasons. *Primarily because I do a tremendous amount of right hand hammering (tapping). *If you've ever heard the solo from "Big Trouble" this is what I'm talking about. *The scallops just make it easier to get a solid note out of those cramped spaces for me. *I know Vai has stopped requesting them on the newer JEMs but I have it on my JEM7VWH and I have really come to appreciate it. *

In terms of possible finishes, I've been toying with the idea of using a Diffraction Grating Film. *Diffraction Gratings (in this case a plastic sheet) are materials which have been cut by lasers in such a way that they diffract or split white light into the electromagnetic spectrum. *I would overlay the grating over a mirrored top (either a pickguard material or alumnium) and then whenever I moved the guitar would throw off rainbows...sounds cool on paper, but it's even nicer in person

maybe, if you are feeling confident, you could replace the dot inlays with some of that refraction grating stuff too? Just an idea

Oh and I like the Scalloping too, and "Big Trouble" has IMHO one of the best solo's EVER :biggrin:

If you're going for neat electronics you could maybe also consider a "blower" switch that gives the bridge pickup on full output bypassing the tone and vol pots, like some Tom Andersons?

Jono, I like those ideas. *The deal with this grating stuff is that it's supposed to be a filter so theoretically you're supposed to be on the other side of the grating from the light source, but since I'm putting a mirror behind it, it should bounce the light back through the filter. *If I can cut it in circles it would be very cool

I like the blower switch idea too, something I could toggle on during solos *
Now if I could just screw a fan onto the body to blow my hair back like Steve's

Heh. Gotta have that guitar-mounted wind machine. Maybe you could control it with one of those new Morley volume pedals!

I like the idea of having dots that are painted the same colour as the body (if you have to have dots at all).

I hafta disagree with Jeff on the issue that the scallops don't make any difference up that high on the neck, I had scallops done on my 550's along with 6100 fretwire, HUGE difference. I can play the notes much more cleanly than I could pevious to the mod.

now as far as what else to do to the guitar, I have ( not using currently) a chandler Tone-X control, basically a wah in a tone pot's space and some minor mods to the wiring. (oh yeah, you need to find a place for a 9v battery) anyway, its kinda kewl for using the wah stuck in one position tone for leads, its' a pull pot and then you rotate the knob for the wah effect, adds about 3Db of boost to your signal. kewl mod.
Keep us aprised of what you do.

Bamm

Hey Bamm, how is your custom 555 coming *along?

Its going as slow as molasses in...what month is this?

I havent had time to even practice 1 time this MONTH.
I took a 2nd job so no time at all... 16+ hours a day working... *sniff*