New Guitar, Amp, Cabinet Day

[Kazz]

I got email notification that the big brown G A S truck had been to my house so I rushed home for a late lunch. What showed up today? 80's Fender Strat Japanese Foto-Flame model with original to guitar Floyd Rose and a very very nice Epiphone Valve Junior Head and Cabinet.

Dug through all the styrofoam to find the head in one box and cabinet.....hmm did not find a power cord....good thing it takes a regular computer style power cord...I have tons of em.....plugged her in unpacked the Strat.....checked her out a bit....plugged in and jammed.....Fat Strat.....humbucker sounds very smooth and creamy.....singles wow....don't have the words yet......grabbed the Les Paul and OMG the Valve Jr really came to life with a the Les Paul....it was almost other worldly. No pedals yet....just Guitar, 6 foot cable.....Amp....short cable to cabinet. MAGIC. The Mrs. is making me take her out to dinner and to see the new Angelina Jolie movie "Salt" tonight and going yard selling tomorrow morning....so it will be early evening or Sunday before I can get engrossed again.....I promise pictures before the weekend is out and a more detailed review including plugging the pedal board in.

Long Live Tube Amps, Les Pauls and beautiful Strat's from the Hair Metal days.

I hope to channel my inner C.C. Deville and Frank Hannon later.

Kazz....out......gotta get back to the office.

[Eric]

Congrats, Kazz!



but....does it have to be C.C. Deville? So many other options...

[Katastrophe]

Congrats, Kazz!

Post a pic!

And, if you could post a clip of you playing "Modern Day Cowboy" or "Heaven's Trail," I would appreciate it :)

[marnold]

Cool stuff, Kazz. Glad to see you won't have to be learning the chord progression for "D.I.V.O.R.C.E." :)

[Robert]

Congrats!

[MAXIFUNK]

Good For You I love to hear when folks get great new gear it just warms the soul and makes want to go GAS SHOPPING MYSELF!

congrats:applause

[otaypanky]

Be sure to use a speaker cable and not an instrument cable to connect your cab to the head! Otherwise bad things can happen to the amp
Next, proceed to :rockon

[Kazz]

Be sure to use a speaker cable and not an instrument cable to connect your cab to the head! Otherwise bad things can happen to the amp
Next, proceed to :rockon


Thanks for pointing that out....I will make sure to head over to Guitar Center in the morning and get exactly what I need.

As soon as she tells me where she hid my camera I will get some pics posted. I really cannot wait to show the girls to you guys.....and the amp man...I know several here have them and I know it is ONLY 5 watts.....but to be able to dime it and have the sound be smoking from both guitars, but espeically the Les Paul was fabulous to me.....and we havent even gotten to play around with the pedals yet :-) Seems to me I read that I could use the speaker out from the AD30VT and connect to the cabinet too for an even raunchier time. I will have to look into that one.....but if I find even more tonal nirvana wrapped up in that Epiphone Valve Jr, The 19 year old might just get that VoX he has been lusting after......(might I said might LOL)


I have a lot to learn about a Floyd Rose setup and how to change strings and tune and all that fun stuff. Guitar did not come with the bar and locking nut for the Floyd....are those easy to round up? I will probobaly only play around with the floyd for a very little bit before I look into ways to block it off. Some Dime Darrell harmonic dives for fun a few times and then get back to the real world......I want to hear some Stevie Ray, some Jimi and some other great Strat Blues come outta this thing.

Guide a guy in the right direction folks. Pictures by the crest of the weekend I promise. Maybe even a sound clip or 2 of my terrible playing.....but if not next weekend Jordan is coming to spend a weekend before heading off to college......I may wait to record until there are some skills present in the house :-)

[marnold]

Check out Axecessories (http://www.axcessories.com/) for the bits you need for the guitar. Is it an actual Floyd or Licensed-by? Fender itself might be able to help too.

[deeaa]

Ayh Valve J is a fun amp...and very easy to mod even better! Sometimes I regret selling mine. Oh well...

[Kazz]

Rev it says "Floyd Rose II" on the actual trem and on the headstock it says Stratocaster with Synchronized Tremolo" "Floyd Rose Squier Series"

[marnold]

Stew Mac has parts that they say will fit a Floyd II. Here's the page. You should be able to get everything you need.

http://www.stewmac.com/shop/Bridges,_tailpieces/Floyd_Rose_tremolos_and_parts.html

Apparently a Floyd II is a cheaper version put on mid-range and import guitars back in the day. Assuming the knife edges haven't worn down at all, it should work well.

[Kazz]

Thanks Matt.....wasn't there something that you bought for your Floyd that helped with string changes and intonation issues? I really know nothing about locking trems or Floyd set ups at all. Any help you can offer is greatly appreciated. Sorry to say that the "Floyd" was not any part of the reason I bought this guitar. It had all to do with it being a beautiful Strat.

[marnold]

Yeah, it's the trem stop that Axcessories has for sale. You can get it other places, but they have it the cheapest. Put it on the body between the springs. You can move the allen screw until it touches the block to keep it stable during string changes. Then move it back when you're done or keep it there to "block" the trem and make it dive-only.

As far as general Floyd care and feeding goes, check out these four videos (http://floydupgrades.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=page&id=35), especially #1 and #3. The first shows you how to install the trem stop and how to block the bridge. The third is all about tuning, intonating, and floating the bridge. I also really like following Spud's method of restringing Floyds (http://www.thefret.net/showpost.php?p=138706&postcount=8).

Floyds require a little extra work but once you've spent a little time with it, it will become second nature.

[Brian Krashpad]

Congrats!

And you know what they say about pics. ;)

[Kazz]

Yeah I know Krash......the wife had a honey do list about 3 miles long....guess that is what I get for getting 2 new guitars and an amp this weekend.

[duhvoodooman]

.....I promise pictures before the weekend is out....
:poke :spank ;)

[sunvalleylaw]

Congrats Kazz!

[Kazz]

:poke :spank ;)


The wife hid my camera. Soon I promise.

[Kazz]

2/3 down....I will get pictures of the Vjr over this next week or weekend.

Kazz' New Guitar Pictures (http://s167.photobucket.com/albums/u132/sarrkazztic/guitar%20stuff/New%20Guitars%20August%202010/)

[MAXIFUNK]

2/3 down....I will get pictures of the Vjr over this next week or weekend.

Kazz' New Guitar Pictures (http://s167.photobucket.com/albums/u132/sarrkazztic/guitar%20stuff/New%20Guitars%20August%202010/)

Those are both a great find indeed!!! Congrats once again!

[Kazz]

Thanks Maxi I am elated about both guitars and especially the new amp.....I have had a Peavey Bandit 112, Peavey Classic 30 and the VOX AD30VT and now the Epi Valve Jr......and I seriously wish I would have started with the Vjr. I still have not put any pedals in front of it either. That I am sure is coming this weekend when Jordan is here. The wife is taking the girls to a movie so the boys can have "Jam Time" Can't wait to test a few of my overdrive/distortion boxes and a few other goodies.

[mrmudcat]

floyd arm is in the gig bag compartment:hungry

The strat also has new wiring and pots with a tbx tone control..................:zzz

[Kazz]

floyd arm is in the gig bag compartment:hungry

The strat also has new wiring and pots with a tbx tone control..................:zzz


I guess I will have to look again, all I found the first time was a small allen wrench. I will look when I get home tonight.

[Kazz]

Found it Muddy...thanks....now I just have to figure out how to put new strings on and give it a setup for intonation

[bigG]

Mucho congrats on all the new booty, Kazz! Beautiful! :applause

[Kazz]

Jordan and I had about an hour to tinker around with the Les Paul and Strat last night on the Vjr and man that kid can sure make it all sound good. Particularly with the strat since he is a huge Clapton fan. Today Mrs. Kazz has to work so we will really get to rip it up a bit.

[ctguy1955]

Be sure to use a speaker cable and not an instrument cable to connect your cab to the head! Otherwise bad things can happen to the amp
Next, proceed to :rockon

Thank you for this info........I was not aware and hope to get a new setup
within the next century.

[Commodore 64]

http://lucky-cricket.com/files/kazz_guits.jpg