Move over, Coloradoman.

[xenophobe]

^ agreement, except for the rosewood part. I would be happy if all my rosewood magically transformed into ebony. I would wake up and it would be like xmas day.

I just don't want to see such a fine and unique guitar modded. I'd leave that one as-is because I honestly don't think I'd change anything about it, except put an EMG or Super Distortion in there. That guitar is fucking badass exactly the way it sits, IMO.

[Mazrim]

Yeah man, I've taken out a court order banning you from swapping Ebony for Rosewood.
It's that serious.

[vector]

Good luck with that, Mazrim. Money well-spent, no doubt.

Like I said, it's all subjective. I recognize the guitar's attributes and visual appeal but respectfully submit that I gotta make it mine. You'd all do the same (and throw out a good-natured, "fuck you" for emphasis.)

[MiikeyLawless]

I have a weakspot for californians as well. They are too sexy to not get a hard on when looking at em.

[Snoogans]

If you swap for a rosewood board, you'd be able to get another sweet custom built around the ebony one, right?

[vector]

If you swap for a rosewood board, you'd be able to get another sweet custom built around the ebony one, right?

I suppose so. The cost of swapping out ebony for rosewood is prohibitive. $1,100 just for a new rosewood board w/ MOP inlays on the old neck. Not sure if you read it or not but I had decided to nix the rosewood swap. Too costly... for now.

[Trem]

Well, i decided to pull this out.
I mentioned before it belonged to my friend who died in 97.
I'm pretty sure he got this for his 17th birthday, so it should be an 87, possibly an 86.
It got stepped on at a party and the headstock snapped unfortunately. His dad repaired it best he could,
and it did play fine after that. I'm not sure what model it is though, any idea?

[pro-fusion]

That's a Chaparral. Most likely an '86 or earlier, because Hamer switched those to bolt-on necks and 25.5" scales in 1987. Very nice, regardless of the headstock break.

[vector]

pro-fushion's correct. It's Chaparral with fairly rare O'Connor snakeskin paint job. The age sound about right, too, because the trem was a flat-mounted OFR- before they switched to Schaller lic'd Floyds and routing to float. Damned shame about the neck break. That'd be one hell of an ax, if fully intact. As is, it's still pretty fookin' cool!

[Trem]

Cool, thanks a lot!
I should really glue and clamp the front of the headstock down and fix her up. This thing was an amazing player, it had the lowest action you could possibly get away with. I was gonna turn it into a clock to hang on my wall, heh, just something to look at daily to remember my best friend by. Probably the better idea is to revive it and play it every once in awhile. I can keep it with light strings and have a standard tuning guitar.


Daaamn.... So i just found this. Well, that's what it looked like a long time ago wow. Yeah i remember now it had those OBL singles. But i could have sworn it had a trembucker type bridge pup with the horizontal poles, like a Blues Saraceno Duncan. http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/t...c-jim-oconnor/

[vector]

Cool, thanks a lot!
I should really glue and clamp the front of the headstock down and fix her up. This thing was an amazing player, it had the lowest action you could possibly get away with. I was gonna turn it into a clock to hang on my wall, heh, just something to look at daily to remember my best friend by. Probably the better idea is to revive it and play it every once in awhile. I can keep it with light strings and have a standard tuning guitar.


Daaamn.... So i just found this. Well, that's what it looked like a long time ago wow. Yeah i remember now it had those OBL singles. But i could have sworn it had a trembucker type bridge pup with the horizontal poles, like a Blues Saraceno Duncan. http://www.hamerfanclub.com/forums/t...c-jim-oconnor/

I thought that looked VERY familiar... saw this for sale over at the HFC back in July. Wow.

[Rupe]

Very cool...and I'm all for swapping out Ebony if this is going to be a player. As pretty as Ebony is, it brings nothing good to the tone party on an electric (its great on an acoustic though). I always wondered if I was crazy for thinking this, but my observations were confirmed as valid when the builder for whom I have the most respect (Tom Anderson) stated the same thing. That's not to say that a guitar with an Ebony fretboard will sound bad (I use a LP Custom on occasion that sounds good...would probably sound better with a Rosewood board though), just that it sounds good in spite of and not because of Ebony.

Before you Ebony lovers get your panties in a bunch, its an observation that I have made through extensive listening and comparisons. Also, a shit-ton of gain and compression will essentially nullify the subtleties of tone woods...I'm referring to clean and semi-dirty tones.

[vector]

Very cool...and I'm all for swapping out Ebony if this is going to be a player. As pretty as Ebony is, it brings nothing good to the tone party on an electric (its great on an acoustic though). I always wondered if I was crazy for thinking this, but my observations were confirmed as valid when the builder for whom I have the most respect (Tom Anderson) stated the same thing. That's not to say that a guitar with an Ebony fretboard will sound bad (I use a LP Custom on occasion that sounds good...would probably sound better with a Rosewood board though), just that it sounds good in spite of and not because of Ebony.

Before you Ebony lovers get your panties in a bunch, its an observation that I have made through extensive listening and comparisons. Also, a shit-ton of gain and compression will essentially nullify the subtleties of tone woods...I'm referring to clean and semi-dirty tones.

While I don't need validation from others of a similar mindset, I am pleased that someone else gets it.
I, too have had quite a few guitars over the years and thru extensive playing and comparisons, have arrived at the preference for rosewood over ebony. Exhibit A- my Charvel CS Star with a rosewood board, coupled with an alder body, is, hands down, the best sounding ax of the bunch, imo. That's pretty high praise given some of the axes it has been put up against. But I'm not taking away from ebony and it would asinine for anyone to make the claim that one is better than the other. It's personal and subjective preference. Nothing more, nothing less.

So, Rupe, I think I will go ahead and have one of the 6 Cali's I (will) own swapped out for a rosewood board. To the folks who are digging the midnight blue Cali- relax, it's likely not gonna lose its ebony goodness.

[RacerX]

its ebony goodness

[vector]

Tru dat. Now, get a life...