# Pimp My Axe - 7321 mods - long (pics alert)



## AVH (Mar 4, 2006)

Just finished putting back together my 7321 that I stripped down and modded with all new hardware and pickups. So now what basically began with a good neck and body but shyte hardware, and mediocre pickups, has turned into an Ibanez with certain features that make it an ass-kicking axe for a reasonable outlay of dinero.

Since the guitar was all-black, the white binding looked a little stark, so I thought I'd just go with the whole monochromatic thing, and make all the other stuff white as well to balance out the overall look - but not too much. Kinda reminds me of something Paul Gilbert or Munky might use.







I took many pics throughout the process, which I think I'll maybe do a couple of hardware reviews for in that forum, after I've had a chance to set-up and tweak it a bit. The nut height still is not there yet. 

What was done to this axe, from the head down:






- replaced cheap, sloppy tuners with six Schaller M6 Mini's in black, and installed white pearloid buttons. Kept the black button screws, and painted retainer washers white, for contrast of course.  Classy or cheesy, still looks interesting. 
- replaced horrible,  badly cut plastic nut with Graphtech Tremnut. Great low-friction nut, excellent material for tuning stability.






- installed a Hipshot D-tuner on the low B, which allows you to accurately drop the tuning down to a preset note. By good fortune it also uses a mini-Schaller, heh heh. It was originally chrome, but I was not going to be put off by that. The body housing and shaft were painted black to match the other machines, and the lever arm was painted white - in keeping with our monochrome theme. I'm going to do some serious experimenting with this. I may even mod it again by expanding the note range drop even further to something like, um, say, F. Chug it baby!  And then back to Bb at the flip of a switch. Hmm... we'll see...






- dressed fret ends, which were poorly filed and still sharp. The frets were crowned beautifully though, despite the shitty ends. 
- 'ebonized' fingerboard with Fiebing's black dye and a post-curing follow-up rubbing with lemon oil. Dying bound fingerboards is a major masking bitch, and I don't relish doing it. Unbound, no problem. Not pure black, but almost - really dark.






- I thought these Graphtech V-strap buttons were pretty cool, and are made from the same graphite-like material as their nuts and saddles. There was no doubt in my mind to paint these white as well. Gives the axe a slightly odd, tech look about it.






- The back of the guitar, with the exception of the white tuner knobs and D-lever up top, was still all black on the body. We can't have that now, oh no... So to give it just that touch of contrast to break things up a bit, the neck retaining bushings were painted white, and the screws were left black. Mirrors the tuner retainer washers with that kind of 'owl eye' fastener look. Often it's the simple little details like this that really make a difference, i think.











- Now to the guts of the matter. Out came the mediocre Ibanez AH7-2 bridge and the sterile and lifeless AH7-1 neck pickups, and promptly replaced with a Dimarzio Blaze Neck for the bridge and an Air Norton respectively. Now were sonically talking....but still too much black.  Oh yeah! White plastic Bobbin Toppers from Universaljems.com. A really cheap way to non-permanently change the color of pickup bobbins, look fantastic, and come in a variety of colors. 
- The original standard, tall, black barrel knobs bug me, I prefer low profile knobs. My favorite profile knobs are Gibson bell knobs, which I painted matching white. And I prefer the satiny, plain look without the number indicators. Needless to say a mandatory switch tip change to white was necessary as well.  






What's with the switch? Ah, the icing on the cake: a Graphtech Ghost piezo saddle system with the Acoustiphonic pre-amp. Look closely and you'll just see the piezo wires discreetly disappear into my modded bridgeplate. I think I'll write a little review of this system after I tweak it a bit. It may be something I may not use that often, but bloody cool to have at your fingertips. I'm going to try some experimenting with an A/B/Y box with my HD147 for the crunch, and my PODxt for the 'acoustic' sound in stereo. Many happy hours of sonic bliss await me, hopefully. 

Sorry to be so long winded, but I thought you guys would like a gander at this puppy. I see no reason why Ibby can't put out something like this. Cheaper to do than the piezo-equipped edge trem they put out before. Now onto my next project: overhauling my old UV.


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## David (Mar 4, 2006)

damn, looks nice!


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## grim tr00 kvlt (Mar 4, 2006)

Looks great!


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## shredfreak (Mar 4, 2006)

Ace man.  

I wonder how a black and white swirl would look like with all that. Might try that one mine. But then again i still get tons of ideas to do with it. The tuner will have to go first though.


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## evil (Mar 4, 2006)

Excellent job, looks super-clean.


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## Leon (Mar 4, 2006)

hot damn! nice work


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## Mastodon (Mar 4, 2006)

Wow nice, but I would have to dissagree with you on the stock hardware is crap comment.


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## Nats (Mar 4, 2006)

damn dude, great job


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## maskofduality (Mar 4, 2006)

did you have to route a new out put jack for the piezo system or are the piezos and magnet p/ups both going through the same output jack exclusively?


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## Rev2010 (Mar 4, 2006)

Very VERY nice mods!! Good work  The only thing I don't care for is the _shape_ of the knobs. Other than that everything is hot.


Rev.


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## nyck (Mar 4, 2006)

Holy shit, NICE job man!


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## maskofduality (Mar 4, 2006)

i was just thinking of how this looked close to a black and white version of the uv7 bk in ur profile pic.

btw, the job you did looks pretty fckin professional. as if you spent 4k to have someone else do this


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## Metal Ken (Mar 4, 2006)

God damn dude. The only thing i'd have done different is no D tuner. But Thats the best looking 7321 i've ever seen \m/


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## Nik (Mar 4, 2006)

Gorgeous!


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## Shawn (Mar 4, 2006)

That looks a 100% better. I love white pickups.


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## Drew (Mar 5, 2006)

awesome work.


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## DSS3 (Mar 5, 2006)

Holy shit, I get one of these and do the piezo thing.


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## kovachian (Mar 5, 2006)

That looks fantasmic, very very professional. I'm a little ignant on piezos though, did you have to install a preamp for that?


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## Ibanez_fanboy (Mar 5, 2006)

ok  i want to do that to mine now


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## The Dark Wolf (Mar 5, 2006)

That is fan-freaking-tastic, bro. What an awesome job you did.

And I'm to bound fretboards like Drew is to creme pickups. That is too sexy.


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## Battle-axe (Mar 5, 2006)

Tht looks fantastic man! Great job!


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## b3n (Mar 5, 2006)




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## AVH (Mar 5, 2006)

Hey guys, thanks very much for the props. As well as being a crusty, fossilized old thrasher, I've also been a p/t tech - doing repairs and mods on the side in the Toronto area. I took a few years off from doing this while focusing on my herpetological endeavors ugh: don't ask), but I'm now gearing up again, buying more lutherie tools (Stu-mac is loving me right now), and going to start a little p/t tech/mods/repairs business out of my apartment, aimed directly at HR/metal guitarists & bassists who need good set-ups, amp biasing, or certain mods done. I can do almost everything except major structural work (removing fingerboards, new inlays, neck resets, refinishing, etc.), and thats only because of limited shop/tool resources. And if I can't do the job, I will say so up front, and direct you to the place or guy who can. I think I'll call it MetalTech or some such thing. When that time comes I'll fish for advice from the seasoned crowd here. Ok, enough spam, sorry.

Oh, yeah..ok...I realize not all aspects of this axe are going to appeal to everyone; but that's the cool thing about modding - you make it exactly what _you_ want. It would be a pretty boring world if we all liked the same thing, wouldn't it?  I knew enough of you guys would dig this, and maybe inspire some of you to do something similar. I bought the 7321 specifically because I saw it as an empty pallet to build from what I wanted in a hardtail Ibanez 7. The only other thing I considered, but changed my mind of, was I also wanted to remove the F/B dots, fill in the cavities, and have a blank, black f/b with binding. But that's a lot of work, almost would be as much to just replace the whole board. If bloody Ibanez would just offer plain ebony f/b's _LIKE ALL OF US KEEP ASKING FOR - HINT HINT IBBY_, we wouldn't be forced to do these things to our axes.

The Ghost system is controlled by their AcoustiSonic pre-amp, and is thankfully tiny enough to just fit into the RG control cavity. Just. I decided to forgo adding the extra 5 Mohm volume pot, and only install the mini mag/both/piezo switch. Output volume of the piezos will be determined by placing the switch in the middle 'both' position, and then turning the tiny trim pot to match the output of the Dimarzios. Once set, you simply balance your outboard amp(s) accordingly. When I want 'acoustic' sound, I just want to flip _one_ switch, and have piezos full on - no twiddling adjusting volumes - just full-on go, thank you. 

Link to large picture:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v631/uv7bk/Guitar stuff/7321cntrlcavty_lrg.jpg

There was no extra routing involved - just some creative drilling for the piezos, and enlarging the wire channel to the output jack. Oh, and yes, it has a stereo output jack, and can be used with both a stereo Y cable, or a normal mono cable and the mag/piezo output is automatically mixed, and therefore dependant on you to decide on switching your amp sources. So many ways to configure. 

Jeez, I'm being long-winded again. Sorry guys, I just like being as thorough as I can.


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## AVH (Mar 5, 2006)

Mastodon said:


> Wow nice, but I would have to dissagree with you on the stock hardware is crap comment.



Well, sure you can. But perhaps you got lucky, and got a good one with tight ratio tuners (bad slop- turning the key and nothings moving), bridge saddles that didn't shift when you bent certain strings, and worst of all - the atrociously cut nut that was, seriously, one of the worst I've ever seen. And I've worked on easily 200+ guitars over 20yrs or so. Tight, creaking, slots caused horrid tuning problems. It goes without saying that this is another way Ibanez keeps the costs down on some guitars, as well as shifting production to Korea/Indo with rediculously low wages and overhead. As long as the neck (aside from the fret ends, I thought was excellent), and the body is good (which it is), everything else can be improved upon. And if I didn't think this axe wasn't basically good (and is kick-ass for the $), there's no fucking way in hell i'd even give it a second glance (I'm way too cheap for that).

Now you tell me that's not the shittiest, stock nut you've ever seen. Totally unacceptable crap. Even when I bought it, in the first minute of looking at it, I said "this is gotta go".  






And replaced with a properly cut piece - ah, that's better...... 





As I said, I think you got lucky. If there's one put out like this, you know there's more out there.


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## Leon (Mar 5, 2006)

i really like the painted washers on the headstock, too. they just JUMP right off there!


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## Shannon (Mar 5, 2006)

Man, I gotta hand it to ya. You should be VERY proud of yourself! Excellent job & nice overall vision. 
[action=Shannon]runs out to buy an RG7321. [/action]


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## nyck (Mar 5, 2006)

That's so cool man. You should post up some soundclips of it.


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## Jason (Mar 5, 2006)

If you dont mind me asking what did the mods cost you? OR shall i say what would it cost somebody buying the parts themselves?


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## AVH (Mar 5, 2006)

Thank you, yeah, I think I will record some clips as soon as I get everything tweaked right. I still have some work to do on the action at the nut end first, as well as finishing another guitar and a bass for some other people. It will be interesting....



.jason. said:


> If you dont mind me asking what did the mods cost you? OR shall i say what would it cost somebody buying the parts themselves?



Well, let's see...... all told it cost me about $550 Cdn for all the parts, including taxes and shipping.


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## Elysian (Mar 5, 2006)

damn dude, now i know some of the stuff i wouldn't mind doing to my RG7421 lol, though not in white... where did you get the 7 string piezo saddle setup?


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## NegaTiveXero (Mar 5, 2006)

What did you you have to get for the piezo? I know you need the Saddles and the Pre-amp, did you get a different output, or volume pot. Which toggle switch did you get?

I really want to get a piezo on one of my guitars.


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## AVH (Mar 5, 2006)

Elysian said:


> damn dude, now i know some of the stuff i wouldn't mind doing to my RG7421 lol, though not in white... where did you get the 7 string piezo saddle setup?



Got the saddles, preamp kit, switch, nut and V strap buttons all from http://www.graphtech.com. Excellent stuff, and just the most wonderful people to deal with on the phone - awesome customer service. Originally I wanted to go with L.R.Baggs (because I thought their pre-amp looked interesting), but they only provide pre-made whole bridge sets, and just wouldn't budge on providing the extra saddle. But then Graphtech offered a complete saddle set for 7 string (and were the only ones who did), so my choice was a no-brainer. 

Yeah the white thing....I went with white only because of the starkness of the beaming white binding standing out against the all black guitar. I had thought about using some other colours - green was out, because of my UV, and then I thought of orange, but then it would match my custom orange Marshall cab and that's a little gay, and red with the black would look a bit too much like a metal cliche  . Black & yellow might look kind of cool, or maybe purple. Different tastes.


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## The Dark Wolf (Mar 5, 2006)

Dendroaspis said:


> Black & yellow might look kind of cool, or maybe purple. Different tastes.



Black and Yellow!





Purple!!!





Excellent choices!


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## Shannon (Mar 5, 2006)

The Dark Wolf said:


> Black and Yellow!



What the hell happened to Michael Sweet's face? Are the demons finally coming out? I guess you can't be goody-goody forever.


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## The Dark Wolf (Mar 5, 2006)

Shannon said:


> What the hell happened to Michael Sweet's face? Are the demons finally coming out? I guess you can't be goody-goody forever.


I noticed that after I posted it, lol. Apparently someone on Google don't like them some Stryper!


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## AVH (Mar 5, 2006)

Too much!


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## Vince (Mar 5, 2006)

That guitar in the original thread-starting post is so fucking tight it's not funny. I may have to do that to one myself!!


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## Shaman (Mar 5, 2006)

Great job man


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## Mark 7 (Mar 8, 2006)

How in the hell did I miss this one? 

Dude that is the nicest self mod I've ever seen! I have a 7321 and always thought white trim would look cool - and I was right! Added the nut and piezo saddles and holy shizzle!

Very noice!


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## Digital Black (Mar 8, 2006)

That is exceptionally Hot!


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## Pauly (Mar 8, 2006)

That's exceptionally w1n.


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## Mastodon (Mar 8, 2006)

Hey...what's that thing infront of the first tuning peg (7th string tuning peg)?


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## usagi (Mar 8, 2006)

WOW! So what's your feeling about the Hipshot D now that you've had it awhile? Why schallers as opposed to sperzels?


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## AVH (Mar 9, 2006)

usagi said:


> WOW! So what's your feeling about the Hipshot D now that you've had it awhile? Why schallers as opposed to sperzels?




I've had one before on an old SG, so I'm already familiar with them. They're interesting and somewhat handy. I try to use it constructively music wise, writing things where I can change in the middle of a song for added range - throws some people for a loop. Besides, I've never seen one use on a seven string yet, so I wanted to be able to go _really_ low easily. Works really well after you tweak it correctly. And it looks kinda funky.
The best use I've ever seen with these was actually with Jazz/NAge bassist Michael Manring, he has a custom six string bass with a hipshot _on each string!_, and uses them the wildest way Ive ever seen.  

I went with Schallers for a few reasons. I intially wanted to go with Sperzels, which I think are superb tuners, but I had such a hard time with them trying to get a single extra tuner for a 7, they just wouldn't do it flat out. So I got so pissed off with them, I just said screw it and went with what I've used for years, which is Schallers or Grovers usually. Gotoh's are good too, but the final thing that did it was the pearl buttons - I could only get them for Schaller. Done deal. And the hipshot used a Scaller machine aswell, so it was a no-brainer.


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## D-EJ915 (Mar 9, 2006)

That's one sick looking guitar dude, congrats on a job well done!!


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## 7 Dying Trees (Mar 9, 2006)

Now that is the way to go, you've turned a stock guitar into something of a mosnter! Really nice mods, all tastefull, and all the time just making it a better guitar both option wise and sound wise. I really like the D-Tuna thign, that is well cool!


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## usagi (Mar 9, 2006)

Very cool. I found a website that sells sperzel singles and they have a drop D set up. I don't know if they're similar. I was thinking it would be cool to have them the E and B.


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## AVH (Mar 10, 2006)

usagi said:


> Very cool. I found a website that sells sperzel singles and they have a drop D set up. I don't know if they're similar. I was thinking it would be cool to have them the E and B.



DOH!  
It must have just been the Canuck distributor who just wouldn't budge seeling singles. What site is this? I would like to see what they have available parts-wise. I'm always looking for interesting gadgets and stuff like that.
That's ok though, the Schallers are still good machines, and I just _had_ to have the pearloid buttons. 
I think if he now comes back and tells me they also have pearloid buttons for Sperzels too, I think I'll jump off my balcony


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## Memq (Apr 17, 2006)

Ok man u own it  great job!!


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## Leon (Jun 21, 2006)

bump.
(for Favorite SS.org 7)

hands down, this guitar kicks ass


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## bostjan (Jun 21, 2006)

good idea! i'm still impressed!


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## dysfctn (Jun 21, 2006)

Damn man! That looks awesome!
You said you were going to do a Universe. Do you mean the one you just posted up, or the UV7BK in the pic of the other thread? If so, I can't wait to see what you do with that!


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## Alpo (Jun 22, 2006)

Looks awesome!


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## JPMDan (Jun 22, 2006)

now that your Axe is officially pimped *pops your shirt collar*


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## steve777 (Jun 22, 2006)

Wow, that looks absolutely INCREDIBLE, dendroaspis! Seriously, that is one of the nicest looking mods I have ever seen. So simple in color scheme, yet so effective. Truthfully, I never thought I would see the day that a 7321 would give me GAS. Once again, great job!


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## Rick (Jun 22, 2006)

I've got GAS for a 7321, no doubt!


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## jlagoon (Jun 22, 2006)

How does the blaze neck sound on the bridge?


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## xeroparadox (Feb 3, 2007)

Dude thats a rocking guitar!
what did you use/do in order to paint the tuner parts and the like?
i have a blueburst rgr body and want to take it from all black components to black and white, just like youve done.


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## Mastodon (Feb 3, 2007)

Wow, I can't believe this thread started nearly a year ago.

Time flys dosn't it?


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## AVH (Feb 3, 2007)

Yeah no kidding. It was an alright axe, I sold that axe months ago to God_Puppet.


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## templton89 (Mar 31, 2008)

Sorry for bringin up an old thread but I really need to answer some questions...

where did u get those Gibson bell knobs? all bell knobs that I saw online had different profile compared to yours, or maybe your just look a bit different because of different color?

also a question bobin toppers - when you buy one from jemuniverse listed as 7-string type - do you get a set of two to cover the whole humbucker or just one? in other words to change color of both pups - would i need to order 2 or 4?

and about Graphtech Tremnut and schellers. 
can u tell me which one of those trem-nuts did u get? because on website there is not a single word about 7 string versions - so I'm guess I just need to get a wide one and use some sand paper if it doesn't fit, rightt?. And also are those M6 Mini's really as good as people say? because I want to get 2 - for lower B and E because i change tuning on those 2 all the time and it's a pain in the ass to tune B down to A, not to mention anything lower...

and now definitely the last one - what kind of paint did you use? did you apply some sort of coat to protects it/make it last longer/make it more abuse-proof?

Hope you'll have time to answer these noob questions, I will really appreciate it - thanks.


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## JerkyChid (Mar 31, 2008)

dude that's just awesome!!


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## Thrashmanzac (Mar 31, 2008)

fuck that's classy


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## AVH (Mar 31, 2008)

templton89 said:


> Sorry for bringin up an old thread but I really need to answer some questions...
> 
> where did u get those Gibson bell knobs? all bell knobs that I saw online had different profile compared to yours, or maybe your just look a bit different because of different color?
> 
> ...


 
Damn, this was a while ago....

Yes they are still there. Trem-Nut Pre-slotted for Carvin 7 string PT-6700-00:

Graph Tech Guitar Labs - Item Description Page=

I would never endorse any product publically without believing in it. IMO, Schaller, Gotoh and Waverly make the most consistent and backlash-free 'normal' tuners around, aside from the newer whacky Steinberger's. 

Those knobs were just normal, black, Gibson bell knobs painted white, and then clear coated, all with Tremclad poly auto paints, two coats each, find sanding between coats. That's it.


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## templton89 (Mar 31, 2008)

Dendroaspis - thanks a lot for answering my questions. 


Now there seems to be another problem - all I need is 2 Schallers, and warmoth sells them separately unlike other websites (packs of 6) but the problem with warmoth is that the order has to be worth at least $25, while 2 schallers would be $18 - 7 bucks is not a big deal, but do i really have to buy some stuff that I don't need just to get 2 tunners? is there an alternative?


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## Psychoface (Mar 31, 2008)

that is offically sexy and sleek as fuck 
i deem this fucking pic and thread true!


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## thesimo (Jun 8, 2008)

love this guitar, the mods are all really tastefully done. awesome job.

btw i youtubed that bassist with all the hipshots - completly bonkers!


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