Mathias JABS Explorer Reproduction

Anyway, on to my latest project; an accurate replica of Mathias Jabs 1978 Explorer! I was able to pick up a 2000's era Explorer off of EvilBay, for a song. Apparently the 1st owner had a few stickers on the back, and some kind of porn actress' autograph, covered with clear tape. Anyways, the guys girlfriend wants the autograph gone, and goes after it with nail polish remover! Not good. It kind of 'melted' the paint and discolored/lightened it up. I guess that acetone has some kind of weird chemical reaction with laquer. Whatever, that is why I got it cheap. It was already finished in Vintage White, so that was a bonus. My goal was to build an Explorer, exactly like Jabs. Nothing like those really crappy Gibson production models from the 80's! Those things were all wrong! Most of them had nickel silver hardware, black headstocks, no pickguards, no covered pickups, incorrect control layout etc etc. Here is what I started with:

So I get this guitar, and I don't really have super high expectations. So I plug it in, and WOW, I am amazed at the crunchy tone goodness! When you think of what a Gibson should sound like, this one does. I had thoughts about swapping out the pickups, but the stockers sound killer. Matter of fact, the bridge pickup sounds so good, I may consider it (500T) for some of my other Metal Guitars! I had forgotten how good the Gibson pickups sound, I guess I have just gotten away from them, over the years, it has been all Seymour Duncan, since forever ago. 1st thing, I strip the guitar, and prep it for the stripes. The graphic looks simple, but it is not. The stripes go over the sides of the body at right angles, meaning that they are wider on the edges, and exactly symmetrical on the back. The layout was not easy, but I got the stripes, applied in tape, to where I wanted them. Then I put fine-line tape on the taped stripes edges, and removed the tape, for paint. Just a tad of light sanding the striped area, and it was good to go. I used good quality (Stew-Mac) guitar laquer. I also painted the headstock white, while I was at it, since stock it was black. The white doesn't match 100%, because The Gibson laquer has faded nicely, due to the clear coat applied, as is customary with Gibson's finishes. The white will look the same color, eventually, as it fades, I am hoping. The previous owner was also a smoker, so that greatly sped up the beautiful yellowing/aging process! Thanks!! I used a Gold gibson decal applique, since I painted over the pearl inlay. No problems here, with a decal applied directly over the legit Gibson logo. The stripes came out great, and the rest of the project was just simple, straight up hardware swapping. All gold hardware, and gold covers/pole piece screws for the p'ups. BTW, you can't just flip around a bridge cover, for the neck pickup. The spacing is different! Ask me how I know....!! I took just a couple of liberties, by using the TP6 fine-tuning tailpiece, and the Kahler style locking clamp. These can easily be reversed, and I need the fine tuners, since I am so used to playing with the Floyd Rose bridge - brutal! The only other 'deviation' that I made was to use amber speed knobs. Jabs had traditional gold colored knobs, but his appeared very dark, probably due to age, smoke etc. So the amber knobs look a bit better, even if they aren't accurate. I also modded the controls to Volume-Master Tone-Volume, which is how I like it. Finally a coat of black dye to the ebony board, for the finishing touch. Nice surprise to find that only the white Explorers come with ebony boards, which I greatly prefer?! Thanks for reading through another novel! On to the pics:

Hope you all like it!

Explorer Floyd Rose

 Here is my latest project guitar from Dr Floyds mad scientists workshop! I have always had a love for Explorers, first and foremost. From Mathias Jabs white/black Gibson Explorer, to the Explorers that ZZ Top used in all those videos. I even built my own ZZ Top Explorer out of pine and a 2x4!! I painted it white, and it had the black/yellow 'ZZ' down the fretboard! It didn't play, but I was hooked. I also used to look longingly at the Sears Wishbook at those Cort Effector Explorers that used to sell for like $299 and just dream away... But I digress. I have had a few Explorers over the years, and still own a couple of Kelly's, but I always wanted an Explorer, done my way. So I found one of those super high quality Japanese made Explorers on eBay, a Revival, by Hondo. And this one already had one of the pieces to the puzzle -- it had a vintage trem!!! I am 99.99% sure that the Hondo was made in the same factory as the lawsuit Ibanez Explorers. I have seen, handled and played a couple of those, and this Hondo is so identical, there is literally no doubt that this is the same guitar, albeit with a different logo. I picked up this guitar, for a song, but not without a fight, off of eBay! I conducted my usual snipe bid warfare, but another bidder was in the hunt, right up until the end. What I had working for me was the other bidder (a-hole!! lol) was bidding manually, whereas, I had entered the max I wanted to pay, and let it ride. The a-hole ended up bidding the same exact amount, as my high bid, with about 2 seconds to go. Earlier bids of the same amount take precedent, so I won!! The irritating part is that if I could have waited just a bit longer, I could have saved a good amount of $$$, since the a-hole was bidding, manually, and I am a cheap prick, so that still kind of eats at me!! Anyway, this hatches my plan, for an Explorer with the best bridge ever made - the Floyd Rose!! I receive the guitar in short order, and the outstanding seller included a nice hardshell, that the auction did not specify, and the condition of the guitar is just beautiful. It is *almost* a shame to modify this guitar, as it is 100% original, down to a couple of factory stickers on the back of the headstock. However, I did not feel that bad, as the Revival came with crappy no-name pickups, very cheap electronics, and cheap brass/gold plated hardware, save for the real Grover tuners. It is obvious the the Revival series was going for the late 50's Gibson Futuristic Explorer model, due to the finish and hardware appointments. One unusual thing, the Revival series all feature black binding on the guitar bodies? Interesting as Gibson never did this, and it actually adds a degree of difficulty (class) to the building of the guitar?! The first order of business is to ship the guitar off to my luthier extraordinaire, Tucker Barrett, for Floyd Rose routing surgery. Even though this guitar already had a vintage trem, this will be an intricate process. Due to the shallow neck angle, required by the vintage trem, the Floyd will have to slightly recessed, into the body, to match the vintage trems string height. I give Tucker explicit instructions as to how I want this guitar routed. I despise recessed Floyd Rose' and I simply want this trem sunk into the guitar 1/8 or 3/16  or so, as required. NO back routing. Think how the Peavey EVH Wolfgangs were routed and you get the idea. I explained that I wanted the trem to decrease pitch, only, not pull back/up, and for the base plate to rest on the body. Well, long story short, this time my expert luthier really let me down! First he told me I would have it in 1 week, which turned into a month, but that is no big deal. I gladly wait, for the quality of TB's work! We had an understanding that I would get a phone call, before routing, just to make sure we were on the same page, and I get no phone call. When I finally get my guitar back, after another week, and another week, you guessed it -- f'ng traditionally recessed Floyd Rose route! My heart sank when I saw it, and while I was very nice, I did get my point across that I was not happy with the recess job, and I wished that he had not done it that way, which was not as we had discussed. However, Tucker does such outstanding work, and a lot of it for me, I just pony up his usual reasonable fee, and move on. So, enough whining, I am a problem solver, not a person who gives up!! So I resign myself that this is going to work, no matter what! So I make a decent block of wood, and stain it/clear it to match and I fill in that gaping route! I used a piece of industrial automotive tape to hold the block in, if I should ever decide to remove it (unlikely) or sell the guitar, it will be more versatile, with the back routing. I gutted every bit of the cheap electronics, and went with all new wiring, three way switch, pots etc. I did leave in the input jack, and the actual wire between the 3 way and the control cavity, as they were ok. I wired mine up Volume - Master Tone - Volume, so that I can do the RR machine gun thing, switching from a live to a dead pickup, I have this on just about all of my guitars! I also used amber Gibson knobs, like on the original, not the black notched speed knobs that came with it. Including gold knob pointers ala RR! Details! I went with Duncan pickups, with gold covers. I had a double cream F-spaced JB made, and a double cream Jazz for the neck. Again, these pickups are more versatile, should I ever need a double cream, I can swap out plain black pickups, under the gold covers. Gold pole pieces came on the JB, so I sourced gold pole pieces for the Jazz as well. It is all about the details, with me!! (ED: note that the sound of a covered pickup IS altered, and it will take some getting used to!) Oh yeah, I also used a top-mount Floyd locking clamp that I sourced from Carvin, as to not weaken the angled neck joint. The only other thing that I did was have the headstock resprayed black and added a Gibson logo, then 4 coats of clear. Some people may not agree with this, but again, the details and looks are almost as important as the playability and sound, almost. In a bit of Irony, the logo came out like sh!t, as the clear coat did not flow well over top of it, and it kind of buckled and warped the decal, before settling down! But on this guitar it works, a glaring mistake at the bridge and at the headstock -- a matched pair!! I died the rosewood board a darker shade of black, as should be done to all rosewood boards, IMO. Sorry for the long winded story, if you have gotten through all of this, reward yourself with the pics!!

ps. The 342 on the control cavity cover is my badge #!

My Floyded Les Paul

 OK, so here is the story of my Les Paul with added Floyd (LPF):

 Neal Schon had just come out with his Gibson LP signature guitar. I have always thought that Neal's old Floyded LP was as cool as shit, and the new ones were even better, save for the recessed Floyd. However, I did not like the $8K price tag, and I also did not like how the back of his guitars are cut up like swiss cheese, for the sustainer, battery etc. So I set out to build my own!

 1st order of business is to find a guitar, of course! I searched for almost a year, mostly eBay. I found a couple of the super lights with Floyds, and a few Epiphones that were available, but nothing really did it for me. So I resigned myself, that I was just going to have to build it, rather than buy it, that is a good thing! Builders know what I am talking about, here. One night, around 2:00am, I am surfing eBay, and I find a 'well-used' 1970 Les Paul Custom. This thing was beat to hell, major belt buckle rash, paint worn off of the neck, the entire guitar had been cleared over at some point, horrid Grover Imperial tuners, you get the picture. I email my good buddy, Mike Hickey, and ask him to check it out. He looks it over, and agrees with me, that at that price (I think it was around $1600) it was a good deal. So I hit the 'buy it now'.

 The seller is very cool, and emails me a couple of times, and actually wants to speak on the phone, so I send him my number. When we talk, I get the feeling that I am being 'interviewed' as to whether or not I am suitable to take custody of 'his' guitar. I do NOT let on to my plans for the guitar, to spare the owners feelings. He gave me some backstory on the guitar. He lives in Ohio, and he bought the guitar used, in 1971. The story is that a local player, and heroin junkie bought the guitar new, then pawned it. The owner checked it out at the pawn shop, and wanted it but did not have the cash on him. The pawnshop owner said he had somebody coming in to buy the guitar. Further that the buyer was a well known player and collector, so my guy had better act fast. He gets the cash together, and buys the guitar right out from under the collector, who turns out to be Gary Ricrath of REO Speedwagon fame. According to the guy I bought it from, Ricrath was always scouring the guitar stores and pawnshops, and buying up all of the Les Pauls he could get his hands on, and we all know what kind of collection he has, even to this day!

 Anyway, my guy gets the guitar, and keeps it for over 30 years, before selling it to me. He played in a band called 'Arndt' I think that they may have been a Christian type band, maybe? This guitar definitely saw the inside of smoky bars, more than the inside of its case, judging by the yellowing of the binding -- awesome!! He said that he just didn't play it anymore, and he could use the money. I must have passed his interview, because he felt that the guitar was going to a good home! (which it did, I love this guitar and will never sell her!)

 When I receive the package, it is the best packed guitar I have ever seen or received. The seller literally carved out a LP case shaped cavity, from a huge block of styrofoam!! Needless to say, the guitar arrived in as good a condition as it shipped out in. The previous owner had been going for a Jeff Beck 'Blow by Blow' look, so he had swapped out the pickup rings for creme ones, and there were later Dirty Fingers pickups in her, the whole deal. Mike Hickey helps me sell off all of the lightweight Gibson tunamatic parts, and the Dirty Fingers etc. and I end up making a few hundred back, which is cool.

 Next step is; I gotta get this thing routed for a Floyd! So I ship the guitar off to a local luthier, Tucker Barrett. He is the man. This guy build violins and acoustic guitars and his luthier skills I would put up against anyone in the country. He honed his skills in NYC in the 70's and 80's I think. So he routes the guitar out for the Floyd Rose and re-frets it. The guitar was on at least its second set of frets, when I got her, and they were almost non-existent! Tucker put on some huge Dunlop 6100 frets, which were the biggest I could get, lol!! The routing job is superb, and he actually uses a unique rout on the face of the guitar, which is only big enough for the spring block, and then a small 'hole' for the backside of the trems bar assembly, it is a separate route. Sorry, no pic of this. I don't remember what Tucker charged me, but Mike and I agree, I got about $800 worth of luthier work for less than a third of that!! As I said before, Tucker is the man!

 Last step is the final assembly, which was done by me. I had previously picked up the Sustainiac Stealth system for a LP. I had a hard time with the guy at Sustainiac, because he kept pushing the system that uses the sustainer as a passive pickup, and I wanted the single coil sized system, that allows for my choice of a single coil sized neck pickup. The system he was pushing used a lame dummy pickup for humbucking applications. Luckily, I get the system I want, that the builder/owner of Sustainiac says they are phasing out. I took a tip from Stew Mac, and make a LP control cavity template, so that I can wire up this spaghetti mess, outside of the guitar. I nearly go blind, soldering up all of the tiny little intricate joints, but I get the job done. The beauty of the Sustainiac system is that it all fits in the LP control cavity. No separate battery compartment, no separate compartment for sustainer guts etc. All switching is handled through push-pull pots, so no minis added etc. I highly recommend the Sustainiac product! I went with a DiMarzio single coil sized humbucker rail type pickup, whatever Neal was using, honestly I can't remember. I went with a  DiMarzio super distortion in the bridge. Normally I am a total Duncan man, but I took a chance, and I'm glad I did for this particular guitar. I went with gold hardware, because I feel that it looks classic on a LP custom. Top mounted the Floyd locking clamp, so that I never have to worry about the neck joint. I also replaced the tuners with proper Grover rotomatics, which I rebuilt. Finding the right tuners took months of scouring eBay, btw, total pain in the ass! I also used some aged speed knobs, to go with the totally beat up relic look of the guitar. She plays like a dream, and it is on the lighter side, for a Les Paul. The Floyd is blocked, like on all of my guitars, as well. Sorry for the long rambling story, on to the pics:

 Floyd route took care of all of the belt buckle rash!! Kind of a greener black color??

 See, everything actually fits in the cavity, no swiss cheese, like Neals!

 I hate leaving holes in any guitar, I would rather have a lonely old screw-head

 About the same height as an early Soloist, which works well for me!

 Tucker even routed the back for a recessed plate, awesome!! I painted it black...

 Peter Frampton finding his original 54 Les Paul, inspired me to modify mine, once again. I have always liked the versatility, and honestly, the look of a 3 pickup Les Paul. I figured what better guitar, than this one, as it is already a Frankenstein, of sorts! Here is an updated pic:

 The addition of the 3rd pickup, does effect my playing, a bit. The center pickup gets in the way, when you are really 'digging in' with your pick. When I'm strumming or speed picking, there virtually is no difference. Time will tell if I can live with this, or not. There is more to this story, that I will reveal, after I first get some feedback about this.