This is my main guitar currently. I call it my Super Strat as it truly is Super! I wanted a "one of a kind" guitar that not only looked amazing but was so versatile I wouldn't need to change guitars for different sounds I may need during a show. I could not find a guitar that had these spec's other than spending thousands custom ordering one so, I built it myself. It started with a custom ordered Warmoth neck and a Strat body I picked up at the last BBE guitar show I went to back in November 2012. Here are the spec's:
Neck: Curly maple neck with rosewood fingerboard. It has 22 standard jumbo frets with star inlays starting from the first fret. I shimmed the neck with two dimes to give it an angle similar to a Gibson Les Paul. I also did this so I was able to make the Floyd Rose floating without routing any of the wood on the body to recess it.
Body: The body is made from Northern Ash which is very heavy. You may already know, I am a huge Gibson Les Paul fan so I like my guitars heavy. The wood the body is made of is very resonant.
Accessories: There is very little plastic on the guitar at all minus the pickups and some inner electronics pieces. The pickguard is made of hand carved aluminum (with matching back plate) from Ertmer music in Germany. You can find his items on Ebay. I have a custom etched neck plate as well to mount the neck to the body. In this picture I have chrome covers installed on the neck and bridge pickups but I have since removed them. I already mentioned above that it has an original Floyd Rose tremolo (floating). The tuning pegs are Schaller non-locking in chrome.
The electronics are very unique and provide me with 26 different sounds. The pickups are as follows: DiMarzio Liquid Fire (neck) and Crunch Lab (bridge). The middle pickup is a Duncan Hotrails. Each pickup has it's own individual on/off switch and each pickup can be split (push/pull pots for neck/bridge - separate switch to split the middle pickup). This guitar has a HUGE sound. It sounds like a Les Paul in Strat clothing. It's BIG, WARM, and really THICK! With the pickups split, the guitar actually sounds similar to a regular Strat with nice single coil tones. I really like the pickups I installed and recommend them if you are looking for huge sound with versatility. When I built the guitar I was really trying to go for a Gibson Les Paul sound but also something that had a lot of versatility and I think I went way over and beyond what I was going for. This is truly an amazing guitar... I am also a huge 1980's Kramer Pacer Imperial, Pacer Deluxe, and Baretta fan. I have several of these and still do use them on occasion. When I was signed to an indie record label in the late 1980's and early 1990's, I used Kramer Pacer's exclusively. I do like the Strat shape which is why I went with it. Looking to build another one soon....
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This is my "current" main pedal board as of May 2017 that I use live and in the studio. Here is what I have on the board:
MXR/Dunlop: Phase 90, Zakk Wylde Overdrive, Carbon Copy Delay, Original Spec Wah, & a Zakk Wylde Wah.
TC Electronics: Flashback Delay, Vortex Flanger, Carona Chorus, Polly Micro Tuner, & Sparks Booster.
Boss: Noise Gate.
BBE: Sonic Stomp Enhancer, & Soul Vibe roto-vibe pedal.
Way Huge: Swollen Pickle Fuzz.
Morley: Mini Volume Pedal.
Exotic Effects: SP Compressor & EP Booster.
J Rockett Audio: Archer Overdrive.
I never used to use guitar effects pedals but have since grown to love them. I don't use a lot at one given time but these give me options for different sounds which work out great depending on what song I am playing. I also have an extension pedal board which has two line 6 pedals. I don't use this board a lot but would like to expand on it and start using it live. I also have a smaller acoustic pedal board for instrumental pieces.
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This is my 1981 Gibson Les Paul Silverburst Custom. It has been completely chromed out and a DiMarzzio Super Distortion pick was installed in the bridge position. Awesome tone and sustain.
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Here is another Gibson... This is a beautiful 1984 Les Paul Studio Standard. This guitar has had many owners before me, the first of which had the Kahler Vibrato installed. When I purchased it several years ago, I fixed her up and get it to stay in tune. I then switched the pickups to a 59 in the neck and a super distortion in the bridge. This guitar sounds awesome and I can do dive bombs no problem. I have gigged with this guitar a lot but more as a backup to my 1981 Silver Burst Custom (above). These Studio Standards are almost like a regular Gibson Les Paul Standard but the body is slightly thinner (not by much) and the fret markers are dots rather than the normal trapezoids. The guitar is heavy, which I like, and sounds great.
Keep checking back as I will add more gear as time allows. Thanks for reading!