deeaa
January 23rd, 2011, 01:30 AM
I got this to work on it:
http://www.thomann.de/fi/esp_ltd_m100fm_stbk.htm
Used for ~year or so. Not really a very good guitar, IMO. For the same money a Squier Classic or something is much more a guitar. This I don't think would even make a good base for a bastadizing project like most of mine are.
The build of the guitar is impeccable as any instrument today. The neck is straight and sturdy yet thin enough & feels good. Playability is actually quite good. The guitar also looks rather cool.
The bad sides are - for starters it's very heavy for this kind of guitar. The fret level isn't top notch, while you get a nice low action it would need some fine tuning in the upper register, as it can 'ground' ugly when doing bigger bends high up. Also the frets show significant wear here and there after only a year of playing.
These could be rectified, however, with a little TLC and fretwork, although the fretwire material seems a little soft which makes me worry for future. The weight I don't like though.
Then the biggest problem. The guitar came adjusted for perfect intonation on 12th fret but it doesn't sound right elsewhere. I worked on it for close to two hours and made the intonation a workable compromise where it's roughly intonated OK accross the scale but not exact anywhere. I had to move the saddles back a good lenght and it is obvious to me that to get a better intonation the locking saddle would have to move closer by almost a millimetre or so. The 1st fret is just too far. Now this would already be a bigger problem to work, at least for me that is simply too much work to justify keeping this kind of guitar.
It's now intonated well enough for any beginner etc. but still, surprisingly bad for a modern CNC's instrument. It could perhaps be a good candidate for testing a Buzz Feiten nut, though. But it being a straight-to-lock nut, no actual bone nut there makes it harder. If I'd make it my player I'd remove the nut and put in a normal nut and put the lock behind that, where there is actually an extra bar keeping the strings down BEFORE the nut (why, I can't understand).
Anyway, onto the floyd (copy). Not good. Might have been good when new, but despite (I'm told) very little use if any, it's clearly worn. Doesn't return to tune too well when used heavily.
Also, it doesn't work lightly as a proper floyd should - stiff and weird, but still just lax enough so that hitting a hard low E makes it wobble. Even my 100-dollar Yamaha junker I resurrected has a Floyd copy that is ten times better than this sorry excuse of a Floyd.
Going on with the Floyd setup...there isn't any room in the body to pull up high enough. It pulls up annoyingly just a hair under one step, no more.
Finally the main tuners are total crap & loose as hell, which doesn't really matter thanks to the locks - but also the Floyd's fine tuners are so loose you practically need to breath on them to knock it outta tune.
I made it playable with a nice action and overall OK intonation, and it's quite OK if you don't use the floyd and play mostly between 1st and 8th fret...after that the chords sound dead and there are occasional 'grounding' problems.
This verifies my ideas that you can get a totally professional axe by buying something like a Squire CV or something and working it over, but this kind of axes are built more for show and dollar signs in sight...it works fine as a starter guitar but no matter how much work or bastardizing I'd put in it, I'd never make a great guitar out of it.
Gimme an old, beat-up Charvel, Charvette, Yamaha, Squier, something rather than these new ones...with the old ones, if you find one with light woods and a straight neck you can make it just as good as any $20.000 guitar really, but if the basics are this compromised...naah.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6nk96PAbWiI/TTvT72eManI/AAAAAAAADhw/s7zZO-EcyXs/s912/IMAG0611.jpg
http://www.thomann.de/fi/esp_ltd_m100fm_stbk.htm
Used for ~year or so. Not really a very good guitar, IMO. For the same money a Squier Classic or something is much more a guitar. This I don't think would even make a good base for a bastadizing project like most of mine are.
The build of the guitar is impeccable as any instrument today. The neck is straight and sturdy yet thin enough & feels good. Playability is actually quite good. The guitar also looks rather cool.
The bad sides are - for starters it's very heavy for this kind of guitar. The fret level isn't top notch, while you get a nice low action it would need some fine tuning in the upper register, as it can 'ground' ugly when doing bigger bends high up. Also the frets show significant wear here and there after only a year of playing.
These could be rectified, however, with a little TLC and fretwork, although the fretwire material seems a little soft which makes me worry for future. The weight I don't like though.
Then the biggest problem. The guitar came adjusted for perfect intonation on 12th fret but it doesn't sound right elsewhere. I worked on it for close to two hours and made the intonation a workable compromise where it's roughly intonated OK accross the scale but not exact anywhere. I had to move the saddles back a good lenght and it is obvious to me that to get a better intonation the locking saddle would have to move closer by almost a millimetre or so. The 1st fret is just too far. Now this would already be a bigger problem to work, at least for me that is simply too much work to justify keeping this kind of guitar.
It's now intonated well enough for any beginner etc. but still, surprisingly bad for a modern CNC's instrument. It could perhaps be a good candidate for testing a Buzz Feiten nut, though. But it being a straight-to-lock nut, no actual bone nut there makes it harder. If I'd make it my player I'd remove the nut and put in a normal nut and put the lock behind that, where there is actually an extra bar keeping the strings down BEFORE the nut (why, I can't understand).
Anyway, onto the floyd (copy). Not good. Might have been good when new, but despite (I'm told) very little use if any, it's clearly worn. Doesn't return to tune too well when used heavily.
Also, it doesn't work lightly as a proper floyd should - stiff and weird, but still just lax enough so that hitting a hard low E makes it wobble. Even my 100-dollar Yamaha junker I resurrected has a Floyd copy that is ten times better than this sorry excuse of a Floyd.
Going on with the Floyd setup...there isn't any room in the body to pull up high enough. It pulls up annoyingly just a hair under one step, no more.
Finally the main tuners are total crap & loose as hell, which doesn't really matter thanks to the locks - but also the Floyd's fine tuners are so loose you practically need to breath on them to knock it outta tune.
I made it playable with a nice action and overall OK intonation, and it's quite OK if you don't use the floyd and play mostly between 1st and 8th fret...after that the chords sound dead and there are occasional 'grounding' problems.
This verifies my ideas that you can get a totally professional axe by buying something like a Squire CV or something and working it over, but this kind of axes are built more for show and dollar signs in sight...it works fine as a starter guitar but no matter how much work or bastardizing I'd put in it, I'd never make a great guitar out of it.
Gimme an old, beat-up Charvel, Charvette, Yamaha, Squier, something rather than these new ones...with the old ones, if you find one with light woods and a straight neck you can make it just as good as any $20.000 guitar really, but if the basics are this compromised...naah.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_6nk96PAbWiI/TTvT72eManI/AAAAAAAADhw/s7zZO-EcyXs/s912/IMAG0611.jpg