Help: Re-Finishing Axis SS

[azazael]

Nice one.
You said it was first time but I think personally i woulda tried on a blank to practice a few times before taking the plunge on something as previous as the Axis.

[douglasspears]

something as previous as the Axis.

obliviously

[azazael]

i meant precious!

[kylem]

I can't stress enough, this guitar had to be painted, no choice, it was auful, paint falling off and someone prior to me had let it take some pretty had hits on the back (cracked body). I learned a lot but would not advise someone new to paint work trying it out this on a nice guitar. Oh, and I do have really pretty slab of plywood (maple veneer) in my shop I shot before doing the guitar. Cabinet grade wood dealer gave me some scrap to practice on, well worth the time. I bought a guitar to paint just to learn but the paint started falling off this axis, it looked really bad so I went for it with the axis, the cheapy still sits undone. Did I mention I've been painting cars for 25 years professionaly for some years and then as a hobby? That helped. It probably was a bad idea to jump into this with an axis but I'm happy with it. I rushed it big time to play it at church for Christmas Eve (worth it), the paint was 1.5 days old when I buffed it and assembled it, so it will have to be buffed again but that's ok with me. I expect the paint to die back/shrink over he next week or two but I can take care of that.

As for the acoustic thing, I have a nice (soon to be sold) 1998 Parker Fly and a Taylor T5, the T5 is OK as an acoustic, the Parker is pretty good, this ghost bridge from Graphtech kicked their buts big time. I put in the switch to go from mag to piezo or both and their push pull (pop out) acoustic volume, I didn't end up with a tone control though but really a little eq and its great. I run a POD X3 live (which I love), I just did a mild eq, but it sounded great direct in. These saddles went right in place of the eb's saddles. I did however have to buy a carbide drill bit ($15) and use a drill press to drill holes in the bridge under the saddle to run the wires so they would be hidden. I found you can't effectively drill a hole in one of their bridges with a nice/new drill bit from the hardware store and don't try to use a carbide bit without a drill press, you will break it, ask me how I know I routed a small pocket under the bridge (small as I could) to handle the 6 piezo wires.

If you've looked at the graph tech site Products&Ordering - Graph Tech or watch the video [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhGA1c3E47c"]YouTube- Introduction to Graph Tech's Ghost Pickup System[/ame]you'll see this can be just acoustic (as I did) or you can snap another small board on and a new output jack (midi) and go midi with this deal. I just don't need midi. One thing I havn't really decided on, the output of the magnet pickups goes to the ghost bridge circuit board and sound goes out from there, so you have to trust the ghost bridge not to change the tone of your pickups. Havn't figured a way to check it out but I will, so far it seems to be fine thogh.

I do love this guitar though. I tried to keep the general look of a factory axis piezo, close enough.

[jamminjim]

That is just stunning. Beautiful, excellent work. Is it possible for you to become the official painter for the Knuckleheads?

[beej]

Wow, fantastic work!

One thing I havn't really decided on, the output of the magnet pickups goes to the ghost bridge circuit board and sound goes out from there, so you have to trust the ghost bridge not to change the tone of your pickups. Havn't figured a way to check it out but I will, so far it seems to be fine thogh.

I installed a Ghost system in my Morse years back, just took it out a few months ago (wanted to go to different saddles).

Didn't find much of a tonal change with their preamp, but I did find it hissy when you crank up the gain (I went through several preamp boards and everything was shielded). In the end I wired up a toggle switch so I could use either the passive magnetic output or piezo output from the board. Just FYI.