Artist Signature guitar quality vs. Artists actual guitar

[vikingrat]

I know that a lot of guys here in L.A get stuff tweaked by Performance guitars.

[oklaSTAR]

I used to have an Ibby Petrucci that was made for him but some employee snagged it that was amazing. The other JPM's I have played werent as nice.

[Robert Burns]

Vai didn't have enough of his own money to pay for his own gear to be shlepped to a gig? :ROTF"


And IIRC the "I can grab any JEM off the wall" comment was not about the 7VWH, it was about the Universe.



EJ - it was stated a few years ago that Jackson Custom Shops would be built by Mike Shannon, Pablo, and Tim Wilson. Granted this was after the Fender buyout and prior to that the same guy that built your proverbial RR1 built Mustain'es Customs, but these days Custom Shops are built by the "Masters", which is also what Fender does in their own line. Gibson also has a "Masterbuilt" setup for Custom Shop models.

Gibson was featured on Made In America (with Cliff Claven) a couple of years ago. They're building LPs and such in Memphis these days using local low-wage labor and CNC milling. They showed the guy responsible for the crappy finishes - he dances around this bench-grinder/buffer, knocking the masking tape off the frets and binding and basically ruining the finish. Honestly, he looked drunk.

**** Humm...where is Bengal 65 when you need him??

[fred dons]

thanks for the BS remark, I was "lucky" enough to work on the amp during before the concerts in Amsterdam, as Vai's dutch tech ( nor Vai for that matter) did not know that if you run 2 amps in stereo one needs to have its ground disconnected otherwise you would run the risk of a terrible hum (which was the case)
We were there on invite of the Carvin distributor and helped during one of the sounchecks.
I did not see Vai use Evo (I did not see it in Amsterdam so I assume it was not there) but he did use but Flo and the other guitars were 2 blue Jems (I did not see any black one, but it is a few years ago so I might be mistaken) of which he gave away one to the conductor and the other to the guy who organised the concert (Ko de Cloet). One of the 2 blue ones had a sustainer installed as backup for flo apparently, by a dutch luthier who functioned as his guitartech for these concerts.
so you are right he did not only took his underwear with him
I only witnessed the Amsterdam concerts so it might be that he used a different guitar in Groningen (if they were after Amsterdam it must be as he gave away the blue jems)

evo was there (i highly doubt he ever leaves the house without it) but he played the black indutrial type jem with the screwhead inlays instead, cos he liked the sound of it. he also played flo (you can see it behind him most of the time) and a blue off the shelf jem, so dont give me that BS.also, he didnt ask for a sustainer to be put on the guitars.
the amps yes, they are exactly what you get in the shops and he didnt have his pedal board with him, but guitars.. ooooh yeah, you bet your ass he had em with him.
and as to why he can play anything off the rack, just as well as his own? cos he's the fucking master of guitar, that's why.

the reason, why jackson has equal quality across the board (USA select, limited runs, custom shop) is that the same guys are involved in the building process.