# Blackmachine stuff at the London Guitar Show



## Pauly (Apr 29, 2007)

Right before I forget here's all the juice on these two guitars I saw at the show. 

First up this one:






Doug said this was a 30" designed for clarity and beef, but he he said it was clear when you played and listened to it, in the higher registers it wasn't just a normal guitar (due to the long scale). I can safely say 30inches is more than I could take!   

Apparently he won't do anything under 28" for these sort of things (he was quite vocal about shorter scale lengths sounding shit). This one will set you back about £2000.

Then there was this one, made especially for the LGS:









Right this one is 25.5"-28" and his aim with this guitar was to make an instrument that when playing on the E to E you couldn't tell was anything other than a normal guitar, and indeed it didn't give away any hints of the destruction about to follow on the low B and F# (although this guitar was tuned down a 1/2 step). The neck on this is only 3mm wider than the 7's he does, and the string spacing at the nut is NARROW, at the bridge it's like a Gibson sorta string spacing (apparently), the idea being to make it as comfortable to play as possible and let me tell you, I may be back to front when it comes to playing guitars but you can feel a neck in your hands in *know* it's the shit, and this was, simply, the shit. I could barely tell the difference between some of the 7-string necks I'd checked out earlier and this, it was crazy! Strings were 9's, with the lowest string an 84! Wasn't too heavy either.

Oh and it sounded good too, as it should for £5000!!!!  Apparently this is because just about _everything_ on this guitar is custom built - pickups (didn't want EMGs cos he doesn't like them), strings, the body has 5 chambers hollowed out, the woods are extra extra fancy. Basically if you're from America, I can see you all very eager to part with $10,000 for this mwhahaaha.

As I said, it does sound a bit good though. Before I forget, the pickups are either Lundgren or this crazy German dude he's working with that will make 1 off pickups with basically any sort of configuration (and is a bit mad too).


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## Shawn (Apr 29, 2007)

Very cool. I like the black one on top especially.


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## xwmucradiox (Apr 29, 2007)

Did he have anything in the 6 or 7 string range. Ive been waiting on a 6 for about 9 months now.


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## D-EJ915 (Apr 29, 2007)

man, that first one is hot a balls, he just needs to ditch all the "comfort cuts" (which are a pain in the ass) and make a flat body one, that'd rule! \m/


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## xwmucradiox (Apr 29, 2007)

D-EJ915 said:


> man, that first one is hot a balls, he just needs to ditch all the "comfort cuts" (which are a pain in the ass) and make a flat body one, that'd rule! \m/



From my discussions with him, those types of changes aren't really negotiable. Hell offer different woods and pickups and hardware but body and neck shapes are pretty much fixed.


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## Pauly (Apr 29, 2007)

xwmucradiox said:


> Did he have anything in the 6 or 7 string range. Ive been waiting on a 6 for about 9 months now.



He had about four 6 strings there, a spalted maple top one (see thread in General Music Discussion), a kinda 'typical' looking one, that Tele style one with the flame inlays and this SG looking one with a shorter scale.

I didn't see any seven strings there, sorry!


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## xwmucradiox (Apr 29, 2007)

Word, I have a B2 coming soon and Im excited to get it. I ordered it before I started playing in a 7 string band but Ill still find a use for it.


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## Pauly (Apr 30, 2007)

They are SICK guitars and I'm sure you'll love it. Tbh it's kinda put me off painted guitars temporarily.


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## ohio_eric (Apr 30, 2007)




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## Stitch (Apr 30, 2007)

\m/

I  blackmachine. Are those Bareknuckles on the second one?


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## Pauly (Apr 30, 2007)

Lundgrens.


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## Stitch (Apr 30, 2007)

Broken lundgrens? Since when?!


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## xwmucradiox (Apr 30, 2007)

On the fanned fret theyre apparently from a german builder who does unique one-offs like that.


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## Pauly (Apr 30, 2007)

xwmucradiox said:


> On the fanned fret theyre apparently from a german builder who does unique one-offs like that.



Yeah, sorry the baritone 8 is Lundgrens and then fanned is from this 'really low-profile' German guy that will apparently do ANY kind of pickup. All part of the extra cost for getting a fanned fret 8..... £5000, got $10,000 spare?


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## skinhead (May 1, 2007)

stitch216 said:


> \m/
> 
> I  blackmachine. Are those Bareknuckles on the second one?



+1 but i don't have that amount of money 

I love that ebony top there!


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## parabola5353 (May 2, 2007)

i really admire the simplicity of these guitars, yet they still look amazingly beautiful.


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## jtm45 (May 2, 2007)

Nice thread Pauly 
I've been waiting for someone to post some pics from his stand at the LGS.Good work man!
Those guitars look great! I'd love a Balckmachine 7 with the 25.5-28" Fanned-fret thing goin' on.

I played a 6 string B2 that was one of his first few that he built with a solid snakewood neck and fretboard and that thing was fuckin' gorgeous in every way possible.Played,looked and sounded like a total dream!
More recently I also got to try a B7 with a rosewood neck with ebony fillets and a swamp ash body with an ebony top and that was possibly the best 7 i've ever played

That pickup dude you're talking about is 'haeussel' in Germany.He makes some great pickups and he's the only dude i've come across that makes a 7 string single-coil sized dual-rail humbucker.
He's also the only dude i've seen that makes 10 string humbuckers (see below).




This is one of his 7 string dual-rail single-coil sized HB's. Gotta' get me one of these suckers to sit next to a Custom 7 string Sustainiac driver in a project i've got in the pipeline.




They'd make a pretty cool addition for the middle pickup spot on a UV or an RG1077xl too. Be interesting to see how they sound tapped as a single-coil too.
He even made a triple-coil (!!?!) single-coil sized 8 string Strat pickup for a guy who posted here before (to go in his custom 8 string Strat).


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## Cool711 (May 2, 2007)

How much for the stacked single sized humbucker?


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## Durero (May 2, 2007)

jtm45 said:


> Gotta' get me one of these suckers to sit next to a *Custom 7 string Sustainiac driver* in a project i've got in the pipeline.


_Please_ tell us more about this - did you have the driver custom made? By whom? Pics?

You should start a thread on this and enlighten us all about your sustainer exploits! I've had no luck at all asking Sustaniac (Maniac Music) to build a 7-string driver for me.


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## metalfiend666 (May 3, 2007)

Nice pics Pauly 

I found the 30" scale too much myself last year (Whitby Goth Weekend clashed with LGS this year so I couldn't go. Bloody women!), but the 884 I played laster year was perfect. Similar to the fanned 8 you posted, but with a more reasonable £2300 price tag. I'd get a 25.5 to 27 or 27.5" fanned 7 from him if I could afford it.


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## Pauly (May 3, 2007)

Cool, I think last years fanned fretter without the EMGs would work for me, and my wallet better!


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## distressed_romeo (May 5, 2007)

Fuck that 8 looks nice! Are there options for colours?


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## xwmucradiox (May 5, 2007)

All Blackmachines are oil finished so the only color options are the color of the wood. Those tops are mostly ebony so thats why theyre black.


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## Pauly (May 5, 2007)

Ha, as in, natural wood+stain? Quite possibly, if you have the cash.


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## jtm45 (May 5, 2007)

Durero said:


> _Please_ tell us more about this - did you have the driver custom made? By whom? Pics?
> 
> You should start a thread on this and enlighten us all about your sustainer exploits! I've had no luck at all asking Sustaniac (Maniac Music) to build a 7-string driver for me.



It's not in a guitar yet but i actually have in my posession a custom made 7 string Sustainiac.
I'll start a proper thread on it soon.I've wanted a proper Sustainiac in a 7 string for ages so i'm chuffed to bits to actually have one.
I'll be fitting it pretty soon.I didn't have a camera to hand but i stuck the driver in my scanner so you could see it.Not a very good pic (scan?)for now but i'll get some better ones done in a day or so when i can get my camera back.
Sustainiac really weren't keen on doing one for me because they have to completely hand make them(that's why there's no logo on this one) as they don't have any machines set up to make the 7 string drivers.It surprising how persuasive the power of nagging can be. 
I've got all the electronics to go with it as well so i'm ready to go with it.Just gotta' get round to sorting a guitar for it to go in.
That's just a dummy coil next to the actual driver to fill a gap.I'll probably remove that (it's only stuck there with double-sided tape)and hopefully get one of those Hauessel single-coil sized humbuckers to go next to it.
The driver is an active single-coil pickup when it's switched off as well but i'd still like a passive HB of some sort in the neck position.

I'll sort some more pics and info when i start fitting the thing but here's that scan pic teaser shot to wet your appetite.
*CUSTOM 7-String SUSTAINIAC Driver Unit*


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## Durero (May 6, 2007)

Thanks Dave!

It'd be great to see more detailed pics - I'm especially interested in what the coils look like if they're visible from the side. My impression is that drivers tend to be wrapped with thicker wire & fewer wraps than pickups.

Very cool that you got Sustainiac to build you one.


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## TomAwesome (May 6, 2007)

Mmm, sweetness! I'd love to try that second one. That's freaking expensive, though! Bah. It's still nice.


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## Maniacal (May 8, 2007)

Thanks for putting those pics up

ive literally been looking on the net for days to try and find pics of the new 884

i own the 884 from lasts years LGS (until now the only one) and im getting the next 884 Doug makes

Im hoping to get some of those pickups to replace the EMG's i got with my 884


Jon


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## Alex-D33 (May 8, 2007)

very original disings ...and fucking awesome looking !!!! too . 
I like the Conklin-esque one better .great wood also .


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## metalfiend666 (May 8, 2007)

Maniacal said:


> Thanks for putting those pics up
> 
> ive literally been looking on the net for days to try and find pics of the new 884
> 
> ...



You lucky bastard! That 884 from last year's show was utterly amazing.


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## xwmucradiox (May 8, 2007)

Anyone have photos of the budget line? How can everyone go to the show and be excited and then only take one or two photos. Take a photo of every singe instrument there!


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## jtm45 (May 19, 2007)

I have looked everywhere on the net and these are about the only pics that show any of the LGS Blackmachine stand.Pathetic really!
That's another thing that we do really poorly in the UK (Guitar Shows).I mean,this is supposed to be like the UK equivalent of the NAMM show (i found that difficult to type without laughing too much )

I nearly went up to the LGS at the last minute jut to check out the new Blackmachine stuff but it didn't happen.
I would have photographed everything on the stand at least twice!

Hey 'Maniacal' dude!
How's about a full review of your 884 and some pics man ?


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## Maniacal (May 25, 2007)

jtm45 said:


> I have looked everywhere on the net and these are about the only pics that show any of the LGS Blackmachine stand.Pathetic really!
> That's another thing that we do really poorly in the UK (Guitar Shows).I mean,this is supposed to be like the UK equivalent of the NAMM show (i found that difficult to type without laughing too much )
> 
> I nearly went up to the LGS at the last minute jut to check out the new Blackmachine stuff but it didn't happen.
> ...




hey

sure il do that. 
i just brought a digital video camera too so il record some videos of me playing it soon

give me a couple of days and il put some pics/review up

Jon


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## sakeido (May 26, 2007)

xwmucradiox said:


> Anyone have photos of the budget line? How can everyone go to the show and be excited and then only take one or two photos. Take a photo of every singe instrument there!



I'm curious about this too, I have been e-mailing him about a budget 6 string and the price he gave me is great but he is not very forthcoming with other information about what the guitar will actually be like


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## petrucci_dude (Jun 13, 2007)

I only like the 6, 7, and straight fretted 8 string BlackMachines, the fanned fret ones look ugly to me. The fanned fret Oni's kill them.


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## Naren (Jun 14, 2007)

That first one looks pretty sweet.


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## Durero (Jun 14, 2007)

petrucci_dude said:


> I only like the 6, 7, and straight fretted 8 string BlackMachines, the fanned fret ones look ugly to me. The fanned fret Oni's kill them.


It's the opposite for me - fanned-frets are beautiful, like a bird's wing


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## Papa Shank (Jun 14, 2007)

petrucci_dude said:


> The fanned fret Oni's kill them.



I concur  

I'm a bit unsure about the Blackmachine 8s but I like the look of their 6 and 7's.


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