Ricco Morialli
Member
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2004
- Messages
- 6
Hello! I am new to this forum and I didn't see any threads about truss rod adjustments. I have one of the most beautiful Axis guitars I have ever seen. The neck is full of birdseye, and the back of the neck is just covered in birdseye and flame maple. The top has the most perfect, Amber, straight, deep and curly flame maple from top to bottom, side to side that I have ever seen so far. Almost looks like a one piece top. I consider myself a connesuere (spelt wrong) of exotic woods, and I have been collecting maple top guitars for decades.
The control plate on the back was signed by Eddie Van Halen himself in 1994 ( was on a pre-94 EVH). I got this backplate from a very close friend's wife when he died in a motorcycle accident who actually witnessed the signature. She told me that he would have wanted me to have it. Everyone knows that Eddie does NOT sign guitars, EVER.....but this backplate was placed in a matted, bevelled picture frame without the glass, and that's how he signed it (that's how I received it). You couldn't tell it was a backplate. Well, I just HAD to put it on my guitar, so I had a Lexan plate made to put on top of it so I couldn't hurt it, it worked quite well.
I had it looked at by some serious collectors just in case. The signature has been authenticated by three different people who extensively collect Van Halen signatures and stage passes. It has Eddies signature (with the "laid down" first E and looks to be almost all one word actually. Then in the swirl of the "N" under the signature it has "V H 94" inside the swirl. There was still room at the end of the cover plate, so he wrote "5150" vertically and his recognisable swirl under it too. This was signed with what looks like a white "paint pen", so I am sure it is quite fragile. I was afraid to try and put a coat of Poly over it. I also have his signature on a file card as well from a Celebrity Golf Tournament Eddie played in in 2002. That one has an authentification certificate and a picture of him signing it and an album at the golf course. It is amazing how his signature changed over the years, and is easy to tell which era he signed certain pieces, besides the obvious year written in on a lot of the signatures (albums, cards, magazines, pictures, etc). This guitar (my AXIS) is dead mint perfect, and was built in 1996. I bought it from a friend that just couldn't get used to playing a maple neck, and was not an EVH fan (if you can believe that).....and hates Floyd Roses. He simply left it in the case for almost 10 years........I got very lucky. He has something like 12 guitars, and quickly gave up on the maple neck and Floyd Rose.
I had the frets hand honed and polished to 1/10,000 of an inch from dead perfect by Tom "TK" Keckler (who has been a Luthier for Billy Gibbons, Ace Freihley, Frank Zappa, and several others for over 30 years). This guitar plays better than my custom hand made Les Paul that I put over $3,000 wholesale into......a project that took over a year to build from complete scratch by "TK" (I even picked out each raw wood billett.....every single piece. My Les Paul has an African White Korina two piece back with custom carved neck joint for easy access to the 22nd fret, African Vermillion neck (oil finished), Pao Ferro fretboard, and medium jumbo frets, with LSR 40 to 1 locking tuners (incredible looking), and a PRS style headstock with the Les Paul Sticker under the Nitro Finish. I put a Kahler Tremolo on it because it keeps great tune and divebombs almost as deep as a Floyd, and you can rest your hand on it....been using Kahlers for years now.
However, "TK" told me that when you have a fine instrument like a EBMM with action so low that it melts in your hands, you need to make truss rod adjustments every time the weather changes enough to make a difference.
He is a very busy man, and he told me that this forum is a good place to get the easy instructions from. I am 49 years old, and I have been a professional musician for over 34 years. However, I ALWAYS took my guitars directly to "TK" for any adjustments needed (OK, I was lazy).
OK, here's what is happening..........the guitar has action so low and fast that it has to be set up perfect in order not to buzz.......thus the 1/10,000 inch level frets. Right now it plays the way I like it except I am getting buzzing from the 18th fret to the 22nd (where I play a lot). I will actually fret out completely when I bend a string (G B and high E mostly). Of course I can raise the floyd a little and it goes away, but I know this guitar plays perfect from the nut to the 22nd fret when the truss rod is right........I had it that way for months. HELP!!
BTW, I know you won't believe this, but I play that guitar about 4 hours a day trying to get tweeked on a Maple fret board...................and I have not had to retune this guitar ONCE since I had it set up! The srtings got so old that there was no harmonics left, and the strings were almost black............STILL IN TUNE..........and I use the Floyd extensively because I play a LOT of Van Halen.......his leads are great for the fingers and Floyd techniques........simply incredible.
I will post pics of the signature as well as the guitar as soon as I can! This is a real treat. In a way, I wish it was a Quilt top only because I think quilt tops look the best on this kind of guitar. My Les Paul has a flame top that you will not believe.....I will post pics of it if you want to see it. The AXIS top is really straight curl, where the Les Paul looks like it is more flames as opposed to deep rut-like curls.
Here is a shot of the Les Paul, I have to take new PICS of the AXIS and I will replace it as soon as I have it. (HAD TO REMOVE THE PIC SO I COULD POST THE AXIS PICS ON THE OTHER THREAD). Look how much fire that top has, and this PIC does NOT do it justice, it's much deeper in real life. BTW, those pickups are the new "Black Back" Neo Demium EVH pickups made in the Duncan Custom Shop.......they sound just like the pre-94 Dimarzio EVH's except they seem to have even better harmonics because of the new magnets. If you ever need new pickups for your Axis or EVH, you should definitely get a matched pair of these, but they list for $300 a pair. You can get them from Ed Roman for about $200, which is a darned good savings. I only tell you this because I understand that Ernie Ball doesn't sell the pickups seperate, right?
The control plate on the back was signed by Eddie Van Halen himself in 1994 ( was on a pre-94 EVH). I got this backplate from a very close friend's wife when he died in a motorcycle accident who actually witnessed the signature. She told me that he would have wanted me to have it. Everyone knows that Eddie does NOT sign guitars, EVER.....but this backplate was placed in a matted, bevelled picture frame without the glass, and that's how he signed it (that's how I received it). You couldn't tell it was a backplate. Well, I just HAD to put it on my guitar, so I had a Lexan plate made to put on top of it so I couldn't hurt it, it worked quite well.
I had it looked at by some serious collectors just in case. The signature has been authenticated by three different people who extensively collect Van Halen signatures and stage passes. It has Eddies signature (with the "laid down" first E and looks to be almost all one word actually. Then in the swirl of the "N" under the signature it has "V H 94" inside the swirl. There was still room at the end of the cover plate, so he wrote "5150" vertically and his recognisable swirl under it too. This was signed with what looks like a white "paint pen", so I am sure it is quite fragile. I was afraid to try and put a coat of Poly over it. I also have his signature on a file card as well from a Celebrity Golf Tournament Eddie played in in 2002. That one has an authentification certificate and a picture of him signing it and an album at the golf course. It is amazing how his signature changed over the years, and is easy to tell which era he signed certain pieces, besides the obvious year written in on a lot of the signatures (albums, cards, magazines, pictures, etc). This guitar (my AXIS) is dead mint perfect, and was built in 1996. I bought it from a friend that just couldn't get used to playing a maple neck, and was not an EVH fan (if you can believe that).....and hates Floyd Roses. He simply left it in the case for almost 10 years........I got very lucky. He has something like 12 guitars, and quickly gave up on the maple neck and Floyd Rose.
I had the frets hand honed and polished to 1/10,000 of an inch from dead perfect by Tom "TK" Keckler (who has been a Luthier for Billy Gibbons, Ace Freihley, Frank Zappa, and several others for over 30 years). This guitar plays better than my custom hand made Les Paul that I put over $3,000 wholesale into......a project that took over a year to build from complete scratch by "TK" (I even picked out each raw wood billett.....every single piece. My Les Paul has an African White Korina two piece back with custom carved neck joint for easy access to the 22nd fret, African Vermillion neck (oil finished), Pao Ferro fretboard, and medium jumbo frets, with LSR 40 to 1 locking tuners (incredible looking), and a PRS style headstock with the Les Paul Sticker under the Nitro Finish. I put a Kahler Tremolo on it because it keeps great tune and divebombs almost as deep as a Floyd, and you can rest your hand on it....been using Kahlers for years now.
However, "TK" told me that when you have a fine instrument like a EBMM with action so low that it melts in your hands, you need to make truss rod adjustments every time the weather changes enough to make a difference.
He is a very busy man, and he told me that this forum is a good place to get the easy instructions from. I am 49 years old, and I have been a professional musician for over 34 years. However, I ALWAYS took my guitars directly to "TK" for any adjustments needed (OK, I was lazy).
OK, here's what is happening..........the guitar has action so low and fast that it has to be set up perfect in order not to buzz.......thus the 1/10,000 inch level frets. Right now it plays the way I like it except I am getting buzzing from the 18th fret to the 22nd (where I play a lot). I will actually fret out completely when I bend a string (G B and high E mostly). Of course I can raise the floyd a little and it goes away, but I know this guitar plays perfect from the nut to the 22nd fret when the truss rod is right........I had it that way for months. HELP!!
BTW, I know you won't believe this, but I play that guitar about 4 hours a day trying to get tweeked on a Maple fret board...................and I have not had to retune this guitar ONCE since I had it set up! The srtings got so old that there was no harmonics left, and the strings were almost black............STILL IN TUNE..........and I use the Floyd extensively because I play a LOT of Van Halen.......his leads are great for the fingers and Floyd techniques........simply incredible.
I will post pics of the signature as well as the guitar as soon as I can! This is a real treat. In a way, I wish it was a Quilt top only because I think quilt tops look the best on this kind of guitar. My Les Paul has a flame top that you will not believe.....I will post pics of it if you want to see it. The AXIS top is really straight curl, where the Les Paul looks like it is more flames as opposed to deep rut-like curls.
Here is a shot of the Les Paul, I have to take new PICS of the AXIS and I will replace it as soon as I have it. (HAD TO REMOVE THE PIC SO I COULD POST THE AXIS PICS ON THE OTHER THREAD). Look how much fire that top has, and this PIC does NOT do it justice, it's much deeper in real life. BTW, those pickups are the new "Black Back" Neo Demium EVH pickups made in the Duncan Custom Shop.......they sound just like the pre-94 Dimarzio EVH's except they seem to have even better harmonics because of the new magnets. If you ever need new pickups for your Axis or EVH, you should definitely get a matched pair of these, but they list for $300 a pair. You can get them from Ed Roman for about $200, which is a darned good savings. I only tell you this because I understand that Ernie Ball doesn't sell the pickups seperate, right?
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