[sakeido]

This story starts at the very beginning of the day.
6:40am - Cell phone alarm goes off, to no effect
6:50am - Radio alarm goes off, to no effect
7:05am - I wake up just in time to hear the blizzard warning is gone. What blizzard?
7:08am - Some guy comes on who may have been a famous somebody or other who just appeared on David Letterman. For some reason, they might have been talking about how he stutters? I have no fucking idea. I might have been dreaming.
7:30am - They still have not played a song, so I get out of bed.
7:40am - Raisin toast is prepared.
7:50am - The raisin toast is finished and I go get ready.
8:00am - Leave for work.
8:10am - Arrive late. The workday begins and I lose the ability to remember anything.
11:30am - UPS came? A day early? Fantastic!
4:30pm - Day ends much too late.
4:40pm - I pay way too much in taxes and brokerage fees to UPS, but the guitar is mine.
5:00pm - I take the guitar out of the box and, never having encountered a case like this before, do not know how to fucking open it.
5:20pm - I still can't open the case. I leave for school.
6:15pm - Arrive at class 15 minutes late. Fall into a stupor, which subsides only temporarily whenever I stare at the smoking hot girl sitting next to me's ample chest.
6:40pm - I drop a line about wanting to leave to play a new guitar; it piques her interest. Teacher intervenes. There is only 13 people in the class including myself - I should have seen it coming. Lengthy reflection on the stupidity of the university school system follows.
7:30pm - Leave class early.
8:30pm - Arrive home. Schmooze with dad.
8:45pm - Charge downstairs furiously to get this party started. Pic story begins.

I am confronted again with the case which had confounded me earlier. I remember my buddy's Fender case, and opened it before I remembered to take a picture.

These slide sideways? Fuck!
8:46pm - I crack the case open and take a picture as a tease.

8:46pm - I throw it wide open. Patience is gone. Look at it!

8:47pm - Guitar is immediately plugged in and played, being in perfect tune. Maybe Floyds aren't so bad after all?
9:10pm - Stop playing. The guitar sounds fantastic. The strings though, are so skinny and dull feeling! There also is another secret weapon I have for this guitar. It has something to do with that there bridge. I want more tone!

It could be in Guitar Shit Drawer #1...

Nope. Number 2? Also the resting place of a game that owned my life for the first two years of post secondary, and the working copy of the novel I am writing. I removed it from the shot because the first page is boring and I don't want to show it to anyone.

There she be

9:15pm - Time to install this puppy. That video sure is handy... Time to flip it on over and get going here. That neck is sex no matter which side you are looking at. That, I am pretty sure, is the full sized original Strat heel. It is big, sure, but that means more tone, and moreover, it doesn't get in the way of my playing at all. AANJ is for pussies.

First, I need to grab a drink. Only Diet Pepsi will do, because I'm a huge fag.

9:20pm - Remove that trem cavity cover, which is exceptionally well finished and cut. This also means just the pressure alone would hold the thing in through an entire rally. I get it off though...


9:30pm - All ready to go.

9:50pm - Bam! Within the space of just eleven words, it is installed.

9:55pm - A string change follows. Elixir 10-49s. The guitar is tuned to a proper 6 string tuning - D fucking standard. Stringing up a Floyd isn't so bad, when its locked. HA. Its not flush mounted anyway, which probably also helps, not to mention makes for more tone and makes the fine tuners less annoying on my picking hand.
10:15pm - The guitar is now ready for play. Metal is administered. Uploading the pics starts.
10:52pm - Still not finish fucking uploading. Still playing.
Now...


Observations
- A mahogany strat body is quite heavy
- A mahogany strat body finished in just oil looks fucking sweet
- A mahogany strat body is super ergonomic and comfortable
- A mahogany strat body sounds huge, especially Tremol-No'd
- The maple Charvel neck is a joy just to look at from the front
- The maple Charvel neck is a joy just to brush your fingers against
- The maple Charvel neck is a joy to look to look at from the back. Ibanez wishes they could make skunk stripes that cool.
- The neck plays like butter. I imagine a USA Soloist would feel just as good (paint notwithstanding). The profile is perfect, slightly thinner than my SLSMG, super comfortable, and fast
- The headstock looks great.

On the whole, this is pretty much everything I've wanted from a guitar. Huge, fat tone, with a neck pickup that is alternately spanky or smooth depending on how you play it, and a bridge pickup that is tight and articulate (but I'm probably going to swap for a Bareknuckle anyway). The neck is a Cool Rails, the bridge, a Custom 5. Cosmetically, the guitar is a stunner. I grabbed the one they had with the nicest grain, but it is the maple fretboard and Strat headstock that really set it off. I wanted a metal sounding Strat for the longest time, but no cost effective options exist, and once I factored in all the costs of building a Warmoth, plus case and assembly, this Charvel was actually less money.
It still fits my specs to a T, sounds perfect, looks perfect, plays perfect, and even though it was an impulse buy, I am 100% happy with it and won't mind paying it off over the next while. When the Blackmachine comes in the summer, I think it might have a bit of a battle on its hands for my #1 player (unless I can change the order to a 7 string somehow).

Other comments: Service at the Music Zoo is quite good. John Oliva in particular was very good when it came to replying to e-mails. The shipping was fast and while they didn't declare it as cheap or a gift or anything for me (and I got fucked on duties as a result) but that is understandable because it may be somewhat illegal to do that. I don't hold it against them.
The Tremol-No is also a very very cool piece of kit. I've had it sitting around forever and haven't installed it and I really wish I had tossed one in my JP7 now. It sounds great, and the install was so intuitive and well explained (in the video - the instructions made no sense to me, but I'm not a guitar tech). I love this thing. I want to toss one in my S7320 as well but I guess it is difficult with the ZR trem.

WOOWOO

[Michael]

SWEET guitar man.

[B Lopez]

That sombitch is badass

[Used666]

Killer axe bro......but are there rubbers in your random guitar drawer?

[sakeido]

I suppose you could say its more ofa random everything drawer

[Shawn]

Very nice!

[ShawnFjellstad]

looks great, man!
i've always loved the look of oiled mahogany.

[loktide]

Originally Posted by sakeido

The guitar is tuned to a proper 6 string tuning - D fucking standard.

[the.godfather]

That looks pretty killer!

And they sell these without the neck pickup too don't they?

[Ancestor]

Dude, that guitar kicks ass.