Yeah! New guitar time again!

[gingataff]

Today I picked up a Fernandes clone of the Charvel Allan Holdsworth model, it was made in 1985 I think but can't find it in their catalogue of that year.
It's not a particularly accurate copy; Alder instead of basswood, the neck is chunky but not as huge as the original, no skunk stripe and a Gotoh 1088 instead of the DiMarzio vibrato... But., I think it looks the business (It's very RED!), it's comfortable, sounds pretty good and it didn't cost the earth.


I've got some techy questions that some of you might be able to help with:

This is my first non-floating trem guitar and the bridge clunks against the body when you let go of the arm, is this normal?
Also I think the nut is cut poorly as the D, A and low E are closer to the centre of the fingerboard than the high E, B and G.. you can see them in relation to the fret marker.

I presume this isn't normal as the locking nuts on my other guitars have equal spacing between strings and the same space from the edge of the fretboard on both high and low side. Neither of these have a big effect on playing but I am a nitpicker 8)


Sorry about the big pics, photobucket is a POS.

[TwilightOdyssey]

Is that a 24.75" scale neck?

[Davey]

nice. i like the colour

[Philly Q]

This is my first non-floating trem guitar and the bridge clunks against the body when you let go of the arm, is this normal?

Yep.  If you slacken the springs a bit or fit heavier strings, you can set it so the back of the trem is raised above the body when it's at rest.  At the moment you have an "EVH" setup!

Also I think the nut is cut poorly as the D, A and low E are closer to the centre of the fingerboard than the high E, B and G.. you can see them in relation to the fret marker.

I've seen some guitars where the nut is cut so the gaps between the strings are equal - so the bass strings end up slightly further apart (centre to centre) than the treble strings.  Or they may just have cut it badly.  

It's a very cool looking guitar!  Strangely enough, I used to have a Squier Strat that looked exactly the same - except it had a black headstock, which I sprayed red and fitted black tuners.  And I added a mini-switch and tone control.  Spooky....  :?

[gingataff]

Is that a 24.75" scale neck?

It's a Fendery 25.5". Strangely the neck feels wide at the nut but measures just 42mm, I thought it was 43mm or more.

[gingataff]

nice. i like the colour

Cheers! It's much redder in real life than the photos, more like this in fact http://usacharvels.com/charvelgallery/3748-13.jpg

[gingataff]

This is my first non-floating trem guitar and the bridge clunks against the body when you let go of the arm, is this normal?

Yep.  If you slacken the springs a bit or fit heavier strings, you can set it so the back of the trem is raised above the body when it's at rest.  At the moment you have an "EVH" setup!

Also I think the nut is cut poorly as the D, A and low E are closer to the centre of the fingerboard than the high E, B and G.. you can see them in relation to the fret marker.

I've seen some guitars where the nut is cut so the gaps between the strings are equal - so the bass strings end up slightly further apart (centre to centre) than the treble strings.  Or they may just have cut it badly.  

It's a very cool looking guitar!  Strangely enough, I used to have a Squier Strat that looked exactly the same - except it had a black headstock, which I sprayed red and fitted black tuners.  And I added a mini-switch and tone control.  Spooky....  :?

Cheers Philly!
I've measured the distance from the edge of the fretboard to the centre of the nut slot and the low E is 5mm whereas the high E is 3mm, this difference continues with each "pair" (A&B, D&G) so I think I may get around to having a graphtech nut fitted sometime. I've also been looking at KTS Titanium bridge saddles and DeTemple Titanium Trem Block...

As for the BKP, I have an idea but I may need a chat with Tim

[hunter]

:good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good: :good:  :gne:  :stupid:  :crazy2:  :good:

[noodleplugerine]

Looks very nice.

Play well?

[dave_mc]

that's nice- I love superstrats. No real idea about your setting up questions, though, sorry. I normally consider it something of an achievement when I get in tune... :lol:

[the_bleeding]

alder sounds better than basswood anyway =P

but yeah, smoe guitars have the high strings further into the middle to make bends easier... i bought a used BC rich V and they previous owner modded the shite out of it and didnt even play it once... he threw in emg kfk set, sanded the neck down, and offset the neck ever so slightly to get the high strings closer to the middle... and kinda made it so the e string fell off the fretboard around 15th fret...      back to the point, bends on the high string are easy has hell with so much fretboard to work with.

[BloodMountain]

hot guitar.

it's simple in it's layout, and i bet it plays well!

[WITH FULL DISTORTION]

HOLY shite Gingataff
Awesome piece of gear man
Q:p
I love strats
JP
Thank´s for the ADD