Recent content by japanstrat

The U-1000 pickups from the "Super 70" classic period (which is around the mid/late 70s), have Alnico 8 magnets. The U-2000 had an Alnico 5 magnet btw. The Maxon made "Super 70" and the Maxon made U-1000 were the lowest pickup model in the available pickup model lines and the lowest Maxon made...

Came across this GIBSON USA VS ORVILLE JAPAN clip. Seems like it's a Terada K Orville with stock PAF like (around 7.5k or so) Ceramic magnet pickups. The Gibson has 490R(neck), 498T(bridge) pickups Gibson 490R (Alnico2) 7.2 - 7.83 KO Gibson 498T (Alnico5) 12.32-13.46 KO I thought the K...

It's only the "Orville by Gibsons" that came with Gibson pickups. The Orvilles came with generic pickups, and the ones I've tried are not that bad IMO. If you want to change the pickups then there are loads of different pickups from Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio and Gibson and others. I think...

Well, after looking at a fair few Maxon Greco pickups with stamped serials on them I noticed the following. Most Maxon pickups up to 1981 have a serial starting with a 1 or 2 but there are early 70s Maxon pickups in SG's that have serials starting with a 3. In late 1981 the Maxon pickups seem...

I like tusq but the evertune would take some convincing for me to try it and even then I'd only try it on a beater because of all the routing that's needed. I can live with a few tuning problems but if someone wants better tuning stability then the evertune might be worth a look.

Wow that's enthusiasm. Anything Jacco says should be considered seriously IMO as he's one of the best MIJ researchers out there.

The Super 70 clone (might be near a U-1000 clone as well) is the Smit's Ultra 7T http://www.smitspickups.com/Limited_editions.htm

Well, I'm not a Kiss fan at all but I think Paul can play a fair bit but he's not a Guitar God. Why does someone need to be a Guitar God when judging a guitars tone? I think songwriting is his main thing and I think he's written some good things. He's also bald btw.

http://www.tokaiforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=7051&highlight=&sid=c20fbae4420794a9de083dca27e9d15e When asked why they never got a deal with Gibson even though the band always thanked them on albums, he replied, "...it's no secret that, back in the 70's and 80's a lot of the Japanese companies were...

Elliot Easton played a Greco Super Real for a while and was an endorser in one of the Greco catalogs. Paul Stanley has used Grecos and has said that the best Strat he's ever played was a Greco. EVH played a Ibanez Destroyer early on and it's basically the same as a Greco Destroyer as the...

No anything? I need dots or inlays or something, I get lost. I have a MIJ guitar with red dots on rosewood and I have trouble playing that because I can't see the dots very well. Wide and Fat necks might be for some but are not for me. I have played Classical guitars with wide necks but if...

The frets might have been dressed to come up to a point in a triangle sort of way and if the fret heights are a bit on the higher side of things than it might lead to note intonation being a bit more dependent on finger pressure. Scalloped fingerboards like Blackmore and Malmsteen have used...

That is a near perfectly fitted tenon. As good as I've seen.

Striking a string causes string movements that induce the wood to vibrate in the body and the wood in the neck to vibrate as well, and these neck and body wood vibrations influence how the string movements progress and therefore the tone. The string movements produce a note made up from a...

Well, I think they do have to leave a bit of room to adjust the neck angle a bit, like putting on a Strat neck and getting it right before tightening the bolts. I think I've seen Gibson ones that are not too pretty either. Tenons are all BS to me, as long as the neck doesn't fall off and the...