Wow Mikey, You got all you need right there. You should bolt some stringswingers into the soffets so you can have a bunch of beautiful guitars in all rooms, at the ready for you whenever you need one. Hey, stranger things have happened. Ever been to Liss Pharmacy in Summit? Home of Guitars and Jazz? There are guitars hanging all over the place there.
Hey Big~ Congratulations on moving into your new digs. Wall to wall hardwood floors are a bonus. Where are your lovely ladies and amps going to hang out?
Sure glad to be here, didn't sleep well last night, wired, excited, strange surroundings. But today I walked to a great grocery store, shopped and came back. I have my parlor guitar and one box coming today, the other guitars should land Friday, the movers arrive Saturday. This place is the schnizzle !!
theres a lovely Catholic Church a block away, bells chime the time. I love it here
Last edited by BigMikeinNJ; 03-10-2016 at 03:31 PM.
Lots going on again. Building manager meet at 10am to have the Rules explained. All my guitars are safely in Franklin Park (close by) UPS comes about 1pm. Building doesn't allow weekend moving so the truck drivers are pushing on to be here about 7pm. Man, the details !!!
But all I want is my espresso setup and iMac. The rest I'll slowly deal with. While clearing out a closet to park all the storage boxes I found this rug, they had to clean and stash it when Mom needed to use a walker. It's back next to my bed now. Lovely 6pm bells from the church. Doggone fellas, it's nice here. Can't wait to unpack Blondie !!
Last edited by BigMikeinNJ; 03-11-2016 at 07:11 AM.
Of course I wanna start my Honeymoon with Blondie. Ssent this Pay It Forward, it's a Pisano copy - I included a Duncan 59er, Schatten controls and a new stair step ebony pickguard for it to a friend in Atlanta, he got it, is ecstatic.
Last edited by BigMikeinNJ; 03-11-2016 at 07:15 AM.
Well all the guitars and boxes came in. Im so sore from moving stuff to clear out closets for tonight when the movers come I just located Blondie and unpacked her, gonna do the rest in a few days.
Well, the movers have come and gone, got my critical stuff located and unpacked and had a couple Jack Daniels to celebrate. And it was great making my first decent espresso in some time. Wow !!
now to get the cable company out to bring this place into the 21st Century.
I was on the impression that you are planning to change the pick up, for a Bartolini, I suppose a floating pick up. But I see in the pictures that the pick up installed in China is screwed to tho top of the guitar. The question, don't that screwing will leave holes of the screws? Or the pick up I see in the pictures is floating?
The other question, supposedly Mr. Wo uses aged wood of 19 years. If that is the case why you asked for better woods? What more can he give you?
I had planned on using a floater, but late in the process I had a change of heart, since I already had two great floating pickup guitars made by Mr Wu I decided to get that WesMo type set pickup sound. I sacrifice some volume while unplugged but get a deeper fatter tone plugged in.
Mr Wu did a fantastic job on the guitar. If you have read any of threads on China builds most cats eventually upgrade to their favorite American made components here Stateside. Those types of parts are very hard to acquire in China, thus driving up the shipped cost. I had a brief window of time between getting the guitar and moving to Illinois. So I took it to my techs for an overnight service, an upgrade of 50% but well worth it in this case as I know no one in Illinois yet... So now it's got a Duncan Seth Lover and new CTS pots and caps and wires and output jack. Put on a set of TI GB12 flats and did a bit of fret dressing and then the setup. WOW E WOW WOW WOW !!
The wood upgrade: you can take the wood they choose which is usually pretty nice. I wanted this to be a really exceptional guitar so I asked Mr Wu to really look for the very best woods he could find for the entire guitar, back, sides, neck and top. I paid his up charge, which would be different depending on the size of guitar and woods being chosen for the build.
And to someone PM'ing me, the guitar is 17 wide by 3 deep. The approving of wood chosen by Mr Wu is part of the build process. Lora sends you photos of the back, side and top plates for your approval. It's a highly organized process.
Hope this answers all your questions. Again I urge anyone to contact Ms. Lora, I don't mind giving advice but fellas Ms Lora is right there and very good at helping. Let HER be your hands and eyes in Beijing.
Big
Last edited by BigMikeinNJ; 03-18-2016 at 05:03 PM.
Thanks a lot for your promt response! It is more than clear. I already wrote to Yolanda Team. Man, your guitar inspired me. I think I'll go with a floating pick up. I sincerely congratulate you on your newborn baby. It is just awesome. It is your creation as much as Mr. Wu. You put a lot into the making. Lot of good taste. And I must confess, I'm crazy about mother of pearl and abalone. So that when I saw your guitar, I went crazy. It is so incredible beautiful. The whole design is outstanding.
The only thing I would like you to do is some recording. To hear the singing of the siren!
I gave someone also mourning the loss of a parent some sage advice: don't sit around too much stewing in your own juices - get busy. Well, I took my own advice and busted open a box that had all my knives and kitchen gear. Hand scrubbed all is stuff and stored it. Next I unpacked some "dresser boxes" and used the boxes to clear out drawers of jewelry my Mom had.
I got all those clothes put away and then too a break looking over some of the jewelry in the dining room. I ran across some 30 plus year old pieces I made the n the 80s for Mom. I was cutting most of my own stones. Here's some sterling pieces - Mom loved pins and pendants. When polishing opals sometimes the bottoms polish up very nicely - mostly because they're flat. I didn't want a at beauty to be lost so cut the backs of the mountings out to show the stones off.
Mike, glad you're settling into your new home. My wife and I are moving states in a few months, and I can relate to some of the stress you've had. The new guitar is gorgeous!
Looks really nice. Congratulations made me jealous, I'm considering a Eastman jp copy from them. I was wondering did anyone had a one made ? How is the neck of the guitar ?? You had to make any adjustments?
Yeah I had a copy of the AR880 made by Yunzhi back in 2010ish when Ms Lora worked for them, it was my first contact with her and she was GREAT. Turns out back then Mr. Wu also was working for Yunzhi and he was the builder. It's a fabulous guitar, like all guitars coming straight from these shops (and any guitar out there on the market) it needed a good setup.
This part of the conversation has been covered tirelessly by me and others - these folks build amazing arch top guitars for the price point they charge. Remember this isn't any CNC shop where computers are cutting the bodies and necks, this is a cat that previously hand built violas and cellos and violins for years for a living. When "Eastman" got the idea to slide into the arch top guitar market these builders went along for the ride. That was some tough sledding for them to adapt to building arch top guitars, but the basic techniques of the classic orchestral instruments (violas, cellos and violins) remained. What Lora and Mr Wu bring to you is a totally hand carved, hand assembled, hand inlaid piece. It's too financially expensive for them to import American components and then install them in the guitars. The components they come with (MIC) are ok, but really I tell most guys, get the guitar made, save some money and later get it customized by your tech. Big cost savings for them and you. I did this with my Pisano copy , I did this with Blondie, the subject of this thread. The tech had to carve the neck on the Pisano copy some, it was too fat for me, not baseball bat fat, but I'm 69 and my old hands need a slimmer neck. So when I had the Pisano copy setup here it cost me $600.00 - for a Bartolini 5J neck mounted pickup, Schatten hidden volume and tone controls and output jack, a good fret level and dressing and the recarve of the back of the neck and matching nitro refin of the neck. WOW, what monster guitar it is. So total finished cost for a Pisano AR880 with FLOATING pickup $1700.00 - the Pisano is a great size and acoustically it barks and sings. Really comfortable shape.
So I worked with Lora telling them next time the neck has got to be thinner, and they listened. Blondie's neck is pretty comfortable. Of course 6 years has passed and my hands aren't getting any nimbler. But it's a gorgeous instrument and a true keeper... Nobody else makes a guitar like this - to MY EXACT standards... Check out Yolanda Team's website and contact Lora if you are considering something. I tell people it's ok to ask me questions but really I want them talking directly to Lora so they meet her and feel confident in what she can and will do for them.
Yup - I followed in Mike's footsteps two years ago and had Mr Wu build me his take on a Pisano (see pics from an earlier thread I did in the link below). +1 to Mike's advice. I happen to like the fattish neck on mine, but had my tech install a new nut, give the frets a workover and beef up the bottom part of the bridge + carve a compensated top part for it. I installed a KA pickup myself, incl. rewiring and new pots, and grounded the strings.
What's the neck profile like and what information did you provide on thickness, shape etc? Just nut width or what type (C/D/V) as well? I'm thinking about how specific I should be on my order. Something tells me I should just let them build what they think is the best.
I have one neck I really like that's C shaped, nut width 42mm-55mm (22 frets). Thickness 1st fret 22mm, 12th fret 23mm. How would it compare to this?
I've had Mr Wu build me a number of guitars over the years, I talked about him many places and he got a lot of clients by my posting and unintentionally promoting him.
He makes great guitars but to be brutally frank he insists on making fatter necks no matter what you tell him.
You want something really unique and don't mind explaining in great detail (with photos and illustrations). Ms Lora can translate it all to him. She's great.
He produces a great carved instrument but they all need a really good setup, fret leveling and replacement of the electronics. This has been covered ad naseum in many threads here.
I have no idea what neck shape you have described. Say something like "it feels like an early 80s Ibanez AS200" and I comprehend.
I spend very little time on this or any other forum due to my failing eyesight. Please spend time searching out the the threads here to get your answers.
What's the neck profile like and what information did you provide on thickness, shape etc? Just nut width or what type (C/D/V) as well? I'm thinking about how specific I should be on my order. Something tells me I should just let them build what they think is the best.
I have one neck I really like that's C shaped, nut width 42mm-55mm (22 frets). Thickness 1st fret 22mm, 12th fret 23mm. How would it compare to this?[/QUOTE]
Try slowing it down on youtube and singing or playing some of what he's doing. I don't have a guitar handy, but just listening at half-speed and singing some of the phrases, it's mainly...
The Formula 51 came last week and I played 2 gigs this weekend running the pedal directly into my QSC speaker and it was perfectly acceptable. I'm not a tone hound, but plugging the guitar directly...
oh ok that sounds cool
i'd prefer to play that F6 in the middle 4 strings X-8-10-7-10-X because the middle finger on the A string moves easily into the Edim chord
Reply With Quote
Recommandations for Hollowbodies for $600 and under?
Today, 05:20 AM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos