For the XTRR fans

[neilli]

..if there are any Today is the first time I've had all my XTRRs in the same place (long-ish story) so I decided to grab a few pics of the group together. Believe it or not, they're all pretty different in terms of tone and neck profile, plus two are Gibson scale length. My first XTRR was sold a couple of years ago, but now I wish I'd still had it here! So anyway, left to right they are:

Trans red flame top (signed by Delores Rhoads on the back of the head)
AMIC era 'prototype' with 'Skate' graphic (NAMM)
CS purple quilt-top (my order)
USA Select
TMNT replica (my order)
Spitz's quilt top (from the 'Married with Children' episode and the 'Live Noize' VHS)
Captain USA

[Larz]

Great shot.....none more metal than the black one though.

[toejam]

Great collection, Ian! Was this one of yours, too?
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6.jpg

[Grim]

Assuming this is Dan Spitz's XTRR (Anthrax), I'm fairly certain he used either that one or one very very close to it in the "Got The Time" video.

Did you know Scott Ian plays a Surfcaster in "Only"? I did a doubletake too.

[Tmoran]

I will give you my soul for the purple one. Purple is my fave color and that guitar is exactly what I would want in a CS jackson.

[neilli]

Great collection, Ian! Was this one of yours, too?

It was supposed to be. It's my guitar, but they put the switch in a stupid stupid place, so they agreed to rebuild it for me with some tweaks. I did loads of mockups trying to work out if it could be saved by adding a pot and putting the switch in the normal place, but it just looked like shit, plus the control route was tiny so they'd have had to reworked that too, so all in all, it'd have been a real mess of a 3k+ guitar. So that's how the purple one came to exist (differences are rev head, abalone, inlay orientation swapped, no switch at all). The trans amber works better with the cherry back though, at least to my eyes.

I still really like the trans amber, but that switch position doesn't work in any way - notice how there's no trem arm in the pics? How the fuck would you get to the switch (easily) with the arm in place?

[neilli]

Assuming this is Dan Spitz's XTRR (Anthrax), I'm fairly certain he used either that one or one very very close to it in the "Got The Time" video.

That was his solid flame guitar -that's 25.5 scale, and had a flame maple centre section. He put a fairly ungainly set of extra pots on it, which kinda spoiled the look for me, which is why I passed on it a couple of years ago. Plus, the quilt was a holy grail of mine...

[toejam]

Yeah, that switch is in a real weird spot. I didn't even notice the purple didn't have one.

[Jack Napalm]

That is a damn fine good looking collection of guitars. Very nice.

[jk2171]

My favorite of that group is still the Captain America. Great collection!

[DonP]

I love love love reverse sharkies.

Headstocks, not so much

[neilli]

Yeah, that switch is in a real weird spot

Well the story is - I requested the switch to be in the 'standard position' for an XTRR, with the smallest control route possible. Someone decided that there wasn't a standard position for a switch on an XTRR, so they did a 'sausage' route parallel to the strings rather than parallel to the bottom edge of the guitar. And obviously, that 'swung' the switch up into that position. I was soooooo pissed. But after some back and forth, they did right by me and the purple one is awesome so it's all good and hats off to 'em for that.

[toejam]

Cool. I guess it's push/pull or is it push/push like Caparison uses?

[Hellbat]

That trans red one is just so classy looking. I could see it on stage at a jazz or blues club even though it still looks metal hehe.

[neilli]

Cool. I guess it's push/pull or is it push/push like Caparison uses?

Push / pull. Push / push would be easier at shows, but when you're dealing with a wall of noise, I like to be able to see what pickup I'm using, just in case lol