Recent content by rays44

Best advise was to get the compensating bridge for your '52. Once you fix that, they're magic. My '68/69 Custom is the favorite of all my Lesters. When you add the '56 Special it's a collection I personally wouldn't give up for the "54. I have a '57 Special and a 'late '53 goldtop as well, so I...

Try disconnecting the tone pot. It's reversible and can be made switchable if you like it.

I'd love to smoke a cigar with him and talk/play guitars for an afternoon.

Proximity effect. Pickups were grabbed from a bin and wired traditionally in the guitar. The out of phase tone in my 1999 Historic '57 re-issue sounds totally different than the oop tone you would get in a 2 p/u guitar. It's a great tone with all due respect to Mr. B. Of course, this is all my...

For the life of me, I can't understand why Harmonic Design pickups get no love. I posted about them many years ago and got crickets. They had the best ad, Harmonic Design, we never heard of you either". I've had their Classic humbucker in one of my guitars for over 20 years. The Z90 is wonderful...

I have the RK Fly model. Essentially the same but with an overdrive section tweeked to Richie's liking. I agree with everything you said. The downside, IMO, is that it sounds horrible in front of an amp and needs to go into the amp's FX loop return if it has one. I've gigged with it direct into...

I just picked up an EH Soul Food and am very pleased with it, but you already have the Klon. Also picked up a Digitech FreqOut pedal which is a one trick pony (but it's a very cool trick). These two pedals into a Fender amp gives a very convincing Peter Green "Supernatural" sound at...

I always looked for "issue" guitars that were priced accordingly. Issues that I found acceptable were re-fins and changed parts. Playability and tone were my primary goals. The enjoyment I have gotten from them over the last 30 years has been well worth it. That said, they will be worth more...

Blues For Narada is a song that, for some reason never gets mentioned. Adult chords with a Wes style melody line and Gary's soulful shredding is one of my favorites. Too bad there are no videos. It appears on the "Blues & Ballads" album from '94.

That's the way to do it. Congrats!

Bought a few models years ago and still have them. The Z90 is a unique 5 pole design (not a P90 clone although make one of those too) and the vintage humbucker is a nice take on a massively cloned design. Always wondered why they flew way under the radar.

I bought mine in the late '80's and always found it to be a great guitar. I found the Shaw neck p/u to be perfect for my tastes, but the bridge was somewhat brittle. Swapped many p/u's over the years. The '59 Duncan and Shaw were tied for best neck position. The bridge sounded best with a hotter...

Funny, I still have my SG2000 from '78 but never sprayed the fretboard. Guess it was someone else. Sorry to stray off topic.

If you really want to hear that alnico neck pickup in its element, turn a clean amp way up and lower the volume on the guitar. With the right volume pot the tone will morph into a beautiful Fender meets Gibson tone that becomes the definition of unique.

I've used WD40 since the late '70's on all my guitars. Spray a small amount on a cloth, grab each string and wipe. Never sprayed directly on fretboard. 40 odd years later, never a problem and nice clean strings.. WD pot cleaner works well on scratchy knobs.