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Hi guys,
I've had my tobacco burst San Dimas since March. With a bit of TLC and a severely needed proper setup the guitar plays great. A total shred machine.
I had been considering getting anther San dimas, preferably a Red burst, because that is my second choice of preferred finishes, when I found a tobacco burst body for sale online. I snatched it up along with a neck, etc. online All at very reasonable prices. I've been slowly 'piecing' it together for a bit over a month now.
It's almost done.
I figured I would share this with the JCF online community.
Because I already had a stock tobacco burst I decided to go in a different direction with hardware color, ie: black.
The guitar would be finished except for the neck pickup I was shipped arrived with Long legs,(rides far to high). So the kind folks at Seymour Duncan let me ship it to thier Custom shop for a base refitting, it's on the way to them as of this morning.
Here's the specs and some pics below:
1: Body, neck, electronics, tuning machines: from stock 2016 San Dimas
2: Nut and String tension bar: Floyd Rose original series, R3 nut.
3: Bridge and studs: Floyd rose Korean built floyd, taken from a 2008 San dimas.(I ordered original series studs in Black nickel, but I think the black just looks better).
4: Floyd trem arm: I believe this is a schaller arm,(it does not have the protruding pole piece protruding from the center near the threads), and I prefer it to the stock arm that came with my san dimas, It's much less "wiggley" when screwed onto the bridge.
5: Pickups: Bridge, Seymour Duncan RTM Trembucker, (this is the Warren Demartini sig pickup), black, 4 conductor, with logo. ( I had this pickup on hand and was going to use it in a super strat build, prior to buying my first San Dimas.
Neck, Seymour Duncan SH-1 '59 Model Humbucker Neck Pickup BLACK 4 Conductor with Logo - SH-1n
Few notes:
I originally intended to put a Gotoh ge1996t floyd in the guitar that I had on hand, ( I have 4 other guitars with this bridge and it really is a phenomenal bridge), as luck would have it the one I have has as 40 mm block, that is far to long to fit in the San dimas cavity. Rather than purchase a new block, I found the take off black floyd, with a 34mm block, (2mm longer than my stock san dimas floyd), for a reasonable price and gave it a shot. Incidentally the 34mm block fits without issue, and I have my floyd set deep into the cavity for a low shred action set up.
I may swap out the bridge for either a German made floyd, or Gotoh, depends on how stable this bridge turns out to be, I'll either go with black or (cosmo black/Black nickel). although right now I like how the black vibe works.
Out of the box, my first san dimas was not set up for shred, it was intonated properly. The action was set far to high, requiring the studs to be lowered truss rod adjustment, etc...
I took one of the 3 springs out of the cavity in order to introduce more stutter into the floyd equation, resulting in an obvious claw adjustment etc...
Also the neck, and nut needed to be tightened substantially. This is poor quality control in my opinion. This resulted in the floyd Never returning to proper pitch after using it rendering the guitar useless. I have noticed many returns of these guitars from a few online vendors and can only assume many folks were not happy with the stock guitar. Had I not known how to do the maintenance on my guitar, I too would have been unsatisfied.
With all that said the guitars are a great value once the kinks are ironed out and it has a proper set up. That's after all, why I decided to do this 'Parts-caster' build.
Cheers,
Tom
I've had my tobacco burst San Dimas since March. With a bit of TLC and a severely needed proper setup the guitar plays great. A total shred machine.
I had been considering getting anther San dimas, preferably a Red burst, because that is my second choice of preferred finishes, when I found a tobacco burst body for sale online. I snatched it up along with a neck, etc. online All at very reasonable prices. I've been slowly 'piecing' it together for a bit over a month now.
It's almost done.
I figured I would share this with the JCF online community.
Because I already had a stock tobacco burst I decided to go in a different direction with hardware color, ie: black.
The guitar would be finished except for the neck pickup I was shipped arrived with Long legs,(rides far to high). So the kind folks at Seymour Duncan let me ship it to thier Custom shop for a base refitting, it's on the way to them as of this morning.
Here's the specs and some pics below:
1: Body, neck, electronics, tuning machines: from stock 2016 San Dimas
2: Nut and String tension bar: Floyd Rose original series, R3 nut.
3: Bridge and studs: Floyd rose Korean built floyd, taken from a 2008 San dimas.(I ordered original series studs in Black nickel, but I think the black just looks better).
4: Floyd trem arm: I believe this is a schaller arm,(it does not have the protruding pole piece protruding from the center near the threads), and I prefer it to the stock arm that came with my san dimas, It's much less "wiggley" when screwed onto the bridge.
5: Pickups: Bridge, Seymour Duncan RTM Trembucker, (this is the Warren Demartini sig pickup), black, 4 conductor, with logo. ( I had this pickup on hand and was going to use it in a super strat build, prior to buying my first San Dimas.
Neck, Seymour Duncan SH-1 '59 Model Humbucker Neck Pickup BLACK 4 Conductor with Logo - SH-1n
Few notes:
I originally intended to put a Gotoh ge1996t floyd in the guitar that I had on hand, ( I have 4 other guitars with this bridge and it really is a phenomenal bridge), as luck would have it the one I have has as 40 mm block, that is far to long to fit in the San dimas cavity. Rather than purchase a new block, I found the take off black floyd, with a 34mm block, (2mm longer than my stock san dimas floyd), for a reasonable price and gave it a shot. Incidentally the 34mm block fits without issue, and I have my floyd set deep into the cavity for a low shred action set up.
I may swap out the bridge for either a German made floyd, or Gotoh, depends on how stable this bridge turns out to be, I'll either go with black or (cosmo black/Black nickel). although right now I like how the black vibe works.
Out of the box, my first san dimas was not set up for shred, it was intonated properly. The action was set far to high, requiring the studs to be lowered truss rod adjustment, etc...
I took one of the 3 springs out of the cavity in order to introduce more stutter into the floyd equation, resulting in an obvious claw adjustment etc...
Also the neck, and nut needed to be tightened substantially. This is poor quality control in my opinion. This resulted in the floyd Never returning to proper pitch after using it rendering the guitar useless. I have noticed many returns of these guitars from a few online vendors and can only assume many folks were not happy with the stock guitar. Had I not known how to do the maintenance on my guitar, I too would have been unsatisfied.
With all that said the guitars are a great value once the kinks are ironed out and it has a proper set up. That's after all, why I decided to do this 'Parts-caster' build.
Cheers,
Tom
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