Abomination Reborn: The AT is (mostly) done!

5109 Views 56 Replies 20 Participants Last post by darren, Jun 16, 2011

GentleHands McCoy

Discussion Starter · Mar 20, 2011

Just finished wiring everything up this weekend. Everything on this guitar has been replaced since with the best components I could find. Heres the list

New
-Schaller Floyd
-Schaller Tuners
-Seymour Duncan Custom (Bridge)
-Seymour Duncan Jazz (Neck)
-Bourns Pots (tone is a push pull for splitting)
-Switchcraft toggle and jack
-Pickups rings/jack plate/etc.

The only original thing still on it is the back cavity cover :lol: It feels really cool to know that you have spared absolutely no expense in making an instrument as kick ass as possible. The eventual refret will be the icing on the cake.

:winning:

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2

Reactions: 5

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GentleHands McCoy

Discussion Starter · #2 · Mar 20, 2011

The verdict on the SD custom...

...Dave is correct in his description, it is a motherfucker of a pickup, might even give the 81x a run for its money. :metal:

Kagami

· #3 · Mar 20, 2011

That guitar is awesome man :yesway:

Josh

· #4 · Mar 20, 2011

Looks way better with the Zebras than the EMGs.

budda

· #5 · Mar 20, 2011

:yesway:

GentleHands McCoy

Discussion Starter · #6 · Mar 20, 2011

Josh said:
Looks way better with the Zebras than the EMGs.

Zebra's look awesome in anything :metal:

Max

· #7 · Mar 20, 2011

DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN

:drool:

That thing is short scale, no?

GentleHands McCoy

Discussion Starter · #8 · Mar 20, 2011

Max said:
DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMN

:drool:

That thing is short scale, no?

Yep, my first 24.75 guitar, thought I wouldn't like it when I got it, and now I daresay that I prefer it to 25.5.

Max

· #9 · Mar 20, 2011

Thats sick as fuck dude. Put some gargantufuck stainless frets on it, for posterity.

ohio_eric

· #10 · Mar 20, 2011

That looks awesome! Nice job! :yesway:

GentleHands McCoy

Discussion Starter · #11 · Mar 20, 2011

Max said:
Thats sick as fuck dude. Put some gargantufuck stainless frets on it, for posterity.

I've been on the "finding a quality refretter" stage for 6-7 months now. Its been tough finding one, I'm looking to spend no more than $400 tops (if I have to ship it both ways I don't mind additional expenses) but I have 3 leads so far

-Action Music (asked Chris/Mike/Dave their opinions on this and they said they do good work
-13th street (found out about this one from Mesh)
-That guy you were telling me about in Facebook chat, what was his name again?

If anyone else has any recs I would love to here them, only stipulations are

-has to do stainless
-has to know how to handle a Compound Radius board (I know nothing about referetting, but I assume a CR is somewhat more complex? Can anyone shed light on this?)
-If I can't bring it to them they have to be willing to let me ship it to them and then ship it back to me.

I was going to go PLEK, but I looked around and it looks like with PLEK and all the options I want it would end up being over $400, which I really don't want to spend.

Once this is done I will have spent about as much as what it costs to buy one of these new on the AT project
http://www.espguitars.com/images/guitars/Horizon-FR-II_STR.jpg
:lol:
Which is fine by me, I really love the Japanese Pro series. The name doesn't really carry the same zing as ESP or USA Jackson to most people but those who have played these will know what I am talking about.

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jaxadam

· #12 · Mar 20, 2011

Very nice, man.

GentleHands McCoy

Discussion Starter · #13 · Mar 20, 2011

One last major component upgrade I am thinking of is a big block upgrade.

Looking for opinions of those who have done this, is it worth it or not?

GentleHands McCoy

Discussion Starter · #14 · Mar 20, 2011

jaxadam said:
Very nice, man.

BTW, what do you think of your Angelus? Those seem to be kind of the "spiritual successor" to the AT, I'm interested in trying one out in the near future.

jaxadam

· #15 · Mar 20, 2011

Rogueleader said:
BTW, what do you think of your Angelus?

Oh, I love it, dude. I love maple tops on mahogany. I actually have an EMG 81TW and 89 in there right now, but I'm thinking about possibly doing something like a Duncan Distortion or Custom.

Did you originally have the EMG X series in this guitar? I've been really looking to trying those out.

GentleHands McCoy

Discussion Starter · #16 · Mar 20, 2011

jaxadam said:
Oh, I love it, dude. I love maple tops on mahogany. I actually have an EMG 81TW and 89 in there right now, but I'm thinking about possibly doing something like a Duncan Distortion or Custom.

Did you originally have the EMG X series in this guitar? I've been really looking to trying those out.

Yep, and I have them in my hardtail AT as well as a Student Soloist. The reason why I took them out is kind of a silly one, I really wanted a 81 in the neck for leads, but now that I've been using an 89 in all my guitars I really like having the SA portion there for cleans. So I ordered the 81TWX, which is an 81 with an SA like single coil second mode (much like the 89). EMG puts this on its website as a warning but I didn't pay attention, height wise the 81 TWX is massive, easily twice as tall as the Custom I have in the bridge :lol: so for most guitars with medium-low string height and flattish neck angle you physically can't fit it in the cavity without it bumping the strings. :lol: So rather than route out a deeper cavity I threw the 81 TWX in my Soloist and went with plan B for this one, which was a set of passives. Plus I wanted something that could handle Maiden style high gain, and the Custom/JB is definitely better than EMGs for that. For super high gain though its a toss up, I haven't spent enough time with this guitar yet to really find out which pickups I prefer.

Soundwise I love them, I have never really ever spent a meaningful amount of time owning/playing axes with regular EMGs so I can't compare the two, but they sound amazing.

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Max

· #17 · Mar 20, 2011

Mike vaughn here in town. Ive seen him cram out entire refrets flawless in an hour for rush service. If i dont refret my Ibby myself, i dont even have to look for who i want to do it. Ill just send it his way.

Fretting a compound radius board isnt any more hard really, unless itneeds to be leveled. If the board is properly radiused, the frets can be installed just like usual. The only thing is that instead of prebending them all to the same radius, they need to be done individually to varying radiuses. Any necessary fret leveling after the fact just needs to be done along the compound. No biggie.

Also, DEF go big block. I was always a skeptical about them, but every one ive ever heard has sounded notably different and IMO better

105

· #18 · Mar 20, 2011

Rogueleader said:
-Action Music (asked Chris/Mike/Dave their opinions on this and they said they do good work

+1. I have a guitar there getting work done now... then my AT is going in

GentleHands McCoy

Discussion Starter · #19 · Mar 20, 2011

Matt C said:
+1. I have a guitar there getting work done now... then my AT is going in

Do they do SS refrets? I was talking with Dave and he wasn't sure.

Nyarlath

· #20 · Mar 21, 2011

Normally, I'm not a huge Jackson fan, but the AT and the SLSMG are so awesome looking. I want one

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