The Tom Anderson / Vai / EVH Connection!

[speed monkey]

In another thread I mistakenly stated that Tom Anderson had built Vai's Green Meanie(what was I thinking????) and realized I had mixed up another guitar Anderson had built for him with that one...

In following up on this, an Anderson board member sent me this link to a thread where Tom Anderson responds to questions about the Vai guitar - yes, Tom Anderson actually participates daily in Anderson Board discussions...

EVH freaks will be blown away at what's in this thread - turns out Anderson replaced the neck on the Original Frankenstrat and moved the bridge around...also details about the Vai guitar....

[img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

Anderson > EVH > Vai

Steve E

[1trussell]

Re: The Tom Anderson / Vai / EVH Connection!

Good stuff, very informative.

[wodka]

Re: The Tom Anderson / Vai / EVH Connection!

Tom has talked about this on the Anderson forum. Apparently Vai came to him before he signed with Ibanez and they basically built a JEM type guitar. Vai said he wasn't interested in working with a big company. After the guitar was finished, he signed with Ibanez. TA said he saw him a few years later and Steve Vai acted as if he never saw him before. Odd.

[1trussell]

Re: The Tom Anderson / Vai / EVH Connection!

Originally posted by Chameleonfong:
</font><blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><hr /><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Originally posted by BigDaddyD:
The is the guitar Anderson made for him. The pic is from Jemsite.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> </font><hr /></blockquote><font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Right click on the box where the picture should be, click properties, copy and paste the address into your address bar. Voila! The blind can see again! [img]graemlins/poke.gif[/img]

[jackson1]

Re: The Tom Anderson / Vai / EVH Connection!

There's some funny and interesting stuff in that thread (if you believe it). The guitar player from the opening band at an Alcatrazz concert in 1985, knocks Vai's green Charvel off its guitar stand by accident, without Vai noticing it. He he [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

/Henrik

[jackson1]

Re: The Tom Anderson / Vai / EVH Connection!

[quiksilver]

Re: The Tom Anderson / Vai / EVH Connection!

Thanks for the link to the EVH (and Vai) stories. Very interesting reading. I could read about EVH all day. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[BigDaddyD]

Re: The Tom Anderson / Vai / EVH Connection!

The is the guitar Anderson made for him. The pic is from Jemsite.

[Chameleonfong]

Re: The Tom Anderson / Vai / EVH Connection!

Originally posted by BigDaddyD:
The is the guitar Anderson made for him. The pic is from Jemsite.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

[speed monkey]

Re: The Tom Anderson / Vai / EVH Connection!

Originally posted by quiksilver:
Thanks for the link to the EVH (and Vai) stories. Very interesting reading. I could read about EVH all day. [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">No problem...it looks like Hossman got in on it over there and weaseled some more info out of Tom...Classic....you gotta love a guy who runs a company like that and takes the time to share info with us common folk.... [img]graemlins/headbang.gif[/img]

Steve E

[BigDaddyD]

Re: The Tom Anderson / Vai / EVH Connection!

Tom even answers the phone at times, when you call the company. I called to ask some questions regarding having a replacement neck made. I spoke do this really cool guy for a while and he explained that they don't do that, but since he remembers building the guitar in question, he would do it for me. He told me to pack up the body and hardware and ship it to him. When I asked who I was speaking to he told me it was Tom Anderson. I couldn't believe that I just spent 10 minutes talking to him and did't even realize it. That is customer service. Him and Paul Rivera are in a class of their own.

[speed monkey]

Re: The Tom Anderson / Vai / EVH Connection!

Originally posted by BigDaddyD:
Tom even answers the phone at times, when you call the company. I called to ask some questions regarding having a replacement neck made. I spoke do this really cool guy for a while and he explained that they don't do that, but since he remembers building the guitar in question, he would do it for me. He told me to pack up the body and hardware and ship it to him. When I asked who I was speaking to he told me it was Tom Anderson. I couldn't believe that I just spent 10 minutes talking to him and did't even realize it. That is customer service. Him and Paul Rivera are in a class of their own.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Ha!!! you got lucky.....you didn't have to do the "send me your guitar and $500 - we'll put a new neck on it and KEEP your old one" deal...and yeah, Tom is a class act, I've spoke with him several times regading my guitars - mostly fromhim answering the phone when you call...

Steve E

[BigDaddyD]

Re: The Tom Anderson / Vai / EVH Connection!

Actually, the neck did cost $500. I did send my guitar, and I didn't have the original neck. There was no neck. The $500 entitled me to a custom neck made to my specs, made to fit the body perfectly. That is why he has you send the guitar. He then added the Buzz Feiten system, matched the headstock to the body, rebuilt the guitar and set it up as new. Well worth the $500. He keeps the original neck, when he agrees to do the work because he doesn't want someone slapping together a parts axe with his neck and passing it off as an Tom Anderson. He is a perfectionist and will not work on anything that someone else did. I eventually got the original neck for my guitar before sending it to him. I called to see if he would just rework the original for the same price as oppossed to building a new one and he said no. The reason was that the person who bought the guitar tried to scallop the neck and ruined it. He then brought it to a store to have a new fingerboard put on....it stayed in that state until I recieved it. The fingerboard needed to be planed, fretted....Tom would not work on it because he couldn't vouch for the work done by the other people and would rather be in control of the entire process. That is cool. This particular Anderson is from the first run from Nov '86. Tom doesn't make a habit of doing replacement necks, but when he agrees it is for a good reason and it will and should be on his terms.

[speed monkey]

Re: The Tom Anderson / Vai / EVH Connection!

Originally posted by BigDaddyD:
Tom doesn't make a habit of doing replacement necks, but when he agrees it is for a good reason and it will and should be on his terms.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">While I certainly won't argue the merits of T.A. and his guitars, I do believe the "we keep your neck as well as your $500 policy" is bullshit, and that he's really smart enough to know that most people will balk at that and simply order another guitar. And I do understand his not wanting to have random necks floating around...

One thing people might not know is that the necks are not simply interchangeable between guitars....he builds the neck pockets on the bodies specific to the size of neck...an 1 11/16 neck will not just slide right into a neck pocket that previously housed an 1 5/8...sure, it can be made to work, but not without some effort...

Having owned 4 Andersons now and knowing what I know, if it came down to replacing a neck - I would either sell the guitar, or keep it and spend another $450 (on top of the $500)and get a brand new GMW that in all honesty is every bit as nice in fit and finish as the Andersons...there's a reason T.A.'s custom paint work ( read anything wild) is farmed out to GMW and Dan...

Anyway - all this is what keeps it interesting. there's waaay more choices available now from lots of different people.

Steve E

[txcharvel]

Re: The Tom Anderson / Vai / EVH Connection!

From the same thread, this is classic. I would do the same thing [img]graemlins/laugh.gif[/img]

that was a charvel body, heavy ash, made from the tooling that dave schecter set up for wayne. had a quartr under the floyd, maybe to make it sit level. the bridge was a full quarter inch too far back, never could have intonated. i moved the bridge up to where it should have been, i left the quarter. we made a hocky stick neck for it. benny painted it to match the old one. when we put the guitar back together, i read the pickup to see what it was. it read open on an ohm meter. i about died, i thought i had broken the famous pickup. turns out it was fine, really weak, really bright. we took turns trying to sound like ed playing through my 410 bassman. we didn't get close

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