deeaa
October 9th, 2010, 08:06 AM
I got this VERY beat-up yamaha for very cheap...I was looking for a super-shredder with a floyd for cheap, simply for recording at the PC when I need super-fast shred stuff and whammy tricks. So when I saw this one already with an EMG, I grabbed it no matter the super-shitty looks and state. Broken nut, no locks, all beat up and very badly repainted with so much dings and cracks it could be easy to see it had been red once, and SO worn frets I was quite worried there wasn't enough metal for a fret job without new frets.
I got it before 23:00 last night, and spent an hour on it then and 2 hours this morning and now it's done.
First I sanded it proper, and applied an oil finish. Then I filed the frets properly, leveled the whole neck carefully, oiled, cleaned, polished.
Then I made a new nut for it, wanted a super low action, and found an old locking part I fitted, and stringed up with light 009 strings. Intonation setting and minor adjustments, and needed a dab of new solder and knobs plus schaller locks, and then it was done.
And needless to say, it is indeed a shredder extraordinaire. Very flat and wide fretboard, thin neck and EMG81 and a floyd...what else could it be. Compared to my other guitars with more traditional radiuses and narrower, normal necks this practically plays itself with ultra-easy tapping and super-fast low end runs and riffs. The floyd is a bit worn but still works well - might have to put in a Gotoh later.
Rather low-filed frets, next to insanely low action now and wide, flat neck also means it's much harder to do bends though, have to concentrate so the strings don't slip away as they are so close to the frets. But for what I wanted it for, it's superb, way better than I imagined when I first started working on it because it was a true junker.
Pics:
http://deeaa.pp.fi/images/yamaha.jpg
http://deeaa.pp.fi/images/yamaha2.jpg
I got it before 23:00 last night, and spent an hour on it then and 2 hours this morning and now it's done.
First I sanded it proper, and applied an oil finish. Then I filed the frets properly, leveled the whole neck carefully, oiled, cleaned, polished.
Then I made a new nut for it, wanted a super low action, and found an old locking part I fitted, and stringed up with light 009 strings. Intonation setting and minor adjustments, and needed a dab of new solder and knobs plus schaller locks, and then it was done.
And needless to say, it is indeed a shredder extraordinaire. Very flat and wide fretboard, thin neck and EMG81 and a floyd...what else could it be. Compared to my other guitars with more traditional radiuses and narrower, normal necks this practically plays itself with ultra-easy tapping and super-fast low end runs and riffs. The floyd is a bit worn but still works well - might have to put in a Gotoh later.
Rather low-filed frets, next to insanely low action now and wide, flat neck also means it's much harder to do bends though, have to concentrate so the strings don't slip away as they are so close to the frets. But for what I wanted it for, it's superb, way better than I imagined when I first started working on it because it was a true junker.
Pics:
http://deeaa.pp.fi/images/yamaha.jpg
http://deeaa.pp.fi/images/yamaha2.jpg