ESP Lordi-esque Sword Guitar

Here is an absolutely awesome sword guitar from the ESP Custom Shop. It was custom made for The Alfee's guitar player Takamizawa. The Alfee is one of the biggest rock acts in Japan and Takamizawa is well known for his Angel and other Gothic themed guitars.

It is a pro quality instrument that actually sounds AMAZING plugged and unplugged. Very loud and resonant unplugged. The action can be set anyway you want it and is currently super low. It is all hand carved etc. These start at around $12,000 or so new so offer accordingly.



Gibson Firebird X Limited Edition - Part 1

Had to post this guitar...it is just too awesome not to.

Info & specs straight from Gibson.
It features a lightweight body made from hand-sorted swamp ash, with a rock maple neck and curly maple finger board. This construction not only makes it refreshingly light (allowing you to play for many hours without even noticing), but it also allows the guitar to achieve exceptional sustain and tonal range. Firebird X is capable of very resonant and acoustic-like voicing.


The guitar is a bit more than six pounds in total weight. Special resonant chambers not only decrease total weight, but also allow acoustic-like tones and increased overall sustain. The guitar is louder than a typical solid body with substantial tone from lowest bass note to highest treble note. To get more depth, we use a heavy bottom gauge of string with E being about "10" and low E about a "52" with a custom gauge insuring even, crisp tones for all six strings. 

This guitar is clearly evolved from a Gibson Firebird, evocative of a rich history, but with contemporary features. With its hand-applied and unique high-end wood finish, the Firebird X is not unlike a cross between a vintage sports car and a modern sports racer. It is beautiful, historical and yet contemporary and unique. 

With a limited run of just 1,800 units, it is sure to become a collector classic.The fingerboard has character with a slightly burnt maple look. The neck inlays are tilted parallelograms, with a very dark wood. The headstock has a classic Gibson dove wing shape, which is bound, and a Firebird-style truss rod cover.

The Firebird X product uses three mini-humbuckers and a vastly improved hexaphonic piezo bridge pickup with an improved low noise, high dynamic-range preamplifier, making this a fully active guitar. The pickups are based on traditional Firebird designs, but have been significantly improved to provide more tonal range and to match the studio-grade preamplifier section. The result is that the signal dynamic analog dynamic range exceeds the specification of the high-end electronics — 110 dB. 

Each coil of the electro-magnetic pickup is individually controlled, allowing each coil to be on, off, or on-reverse polarity. The guitar's presets use the best combinations to recreate the world's best tones and some great new tones. New combinations can be made using the Firebird X editor, giving you an unlimited sonic palette.

The piezo pickup has a new, sweet acoustic-like tone, allowing the guitar to replicate a true acoustic instrument.

All controls on the guitar feel like they come from very high-end professional equipment. The pots are silky smooth with just the right amount of friction. All switches feel crisp and final — no wobble. The surfaces are knurled or textured to allow use with sweaty hands. 
 
Robo Tuners - This guitar continues on a tradition of having electronic tuners, and a fourth generation of supporting hardware and software. What this means is that the guitar can change tuners even more quickly and accurately, with an even simpler way to get to multiple tunings. 

The tuners can be used manually and have been enhanced to be more robust with a better feel when used manually.

Villainizer SteamPunk!

A custom made Villainizer steampunk guitar, a one-off guitar custom made out of a Rhodes Jackson V by Thunder Eagle Guitars. It’s designed with gauges, gears, pipes, welds, and a bunch of fake rust.

You Say It's You're Birthday!

Just felt like posting some cool stuff today since it's my birthday. So here it is, just click the image to enlarge.

Mr. Horsepower by Nigel Tufnel (Spinal Tap)

 































At the January NAMM show in 2001 the Ernie Ball, Music Man company created 25 of these guitars just like Nigel's, with all proceeds going to charity (The Casey Lee Ball Foundation). In October of 2003, one finally came up for sale that I found in time to buy . Each guitar is signed by Nigel and numbered. They went for $5,000 each at the NAMM show when originally offered. Now they are going for a lot more. I heard about one that went for $15K to someone in Japan. The number 11 guitar had a few modifications and sold for $11,000 on eBay in May of 2001. The #11 being a very important number for Nigel and Spinal Tap! On this guitar the "Attackometer" went to 11, the trem handle had an 11 ball instead of an 8 ball and there were dice (5 and a 6) inlayed at the 11th fret. This guitar here is #8. As luck would have it, the attackometer goes to 8 and there is an 8 ball on the trem handle. Everything except the chrome exhaust pipes function. Regarding his one of a kind guitar, Mr. Tufnel said "I wanted something that was flashy and would stand out on stage. But it had to be a working instrument that played well". And so it does. It has the same headstock as the Van Halen Music Man guitars and a very similar neck as well (a little fatter). It uses the Albert Lee body. The guitar is fairly heavy. Here are some of the important features:


- Maple neck; Chrome Yellow body and headstock; Flame paint job on body 
- Music Man Albert Lee Guitar body style
- 4 humbucker pickups, sized to match the string width as it travels down the body
- Pickup on/off status lights, colored to match to light signals on a drag strip
- "Hot-fuel proof" rubber selector switches
- Stainless steel exhaust headers, on the side of the body
- Functional tachometer built into the body with adjustable redline that measures the attack on the strings while playing
- Copper heat exchanger access covers on the back
- Key signature Inlays on the fretboard
- Tyre volume knob, which activates the tachometer lighting when pulled out
- Floyd Rose licensed tremolo system, with a gear shifter replacing a tremolo arm. Eight ball on the end of the gear shifter.
- 12v battery powered
- Each model hand autographed and numbered