Details & History
I purchased this guitar in October of 2003. It was pretty well-used. I always wanted one of these guitars but I could never get one just the way that I wanted it. Anyway - when I bought this, there was some pretty nasty paint chips taken out of this. Not one of them affected the body wood in anyway. Plus - the paint was dirty and worn out looking. I sold the original set of tuners, locking nut, Edge Tremolo and the pickups out of this and rebuilt this guitar my way. This model was a two-humbucker model to begin with. Not the more-common Humbucker-Single combination that you will see more often on these. There was no additional routing on the guitar for any of the upgrades done here. First off, I love a guitar that is white with gold hardware. I think it looks classy and I wanted to do that here. I had the body repainted in "Nuclear White" and I ordered a gold Edge tremolo (the Lo-Pro model) brand new. Gold Pickup rings, gold Schaller tuners (non-locking of course) and a REAL Floyd Rose locking nut.
Getting back to the neck...I play pretty fast licks for most of the nights that my band plays out (www.strongholdmetal.com - sorry, had to plug) and this guitar is ideal for it. I have never owned a bolt-on neck guitar before that has action this low on it. Most of my guitars are neck-thru and they are inherent for having low action. Amazingly, this 540P has ultra low action for many a fast lick. Gotta love it... Anyway, the pickups have been changed out to the highly versatile Multi-bucker. These pickups are awesome IMHO and here's why: they are two stacked single coils wrapped into a humbucker opening. They are a true quad humbucker and the sound is super thick yet unbelievably clear. I play out of a Line-6 POD Pro direct into the PA and these just scream yet playing a clean tone makes them shimmer. They distort and clean up with a perfect balance.
As you can see by the pics, the Multibuckers have been
wired in a very special way: Each quad-pickup is a Fast Track One and a
Chopper pickup together. Check it out at
http://www.dimarzio.com - they even have a SPECIAL wiring diagram for this
pickup. There are two mini-toggle switches side by side. They set the mode
for EACH pickup. For both of them, refer to this list:
- Position 1: Turns on only the "back" of the pickup - the Fast Track 1
- Position 2: Turns on the middle of the pickup - both the Fast Track 1 and the Chopper together
- Position 3: Turns on only the "front" of the pickup - the Chopper
I normally kept these in the middle so I could get the full thick sound out of them but once and a while my band would play a Pink Floyd song that I would use the Chopper portion of the bridge pickup with a clean setting. It sounds killer. Also - If you wanted to, keep in mind that you could add a push-pull tone pot to this guitar and split the chopper and the fast track 1 as well and get some spanking clean Tele sounds or Strat sounds. I used this for metal so this wasn't really a priority to me. However, it can be done. The pickup selector is simple - it's forward of the volume knob for easier pickup selection. I swear that John Petrucci and myself are the only two people that don't like the volume knob RIGHT UNDER THE BRIDGE PICKUP. I'm sure there are others that like it but that's the way this is set up so if you like that - cool.
The Ibanez Edge Tremolo is the only licensed Floyd Rose that I have ever owned and never replaced it. I have two Brian Moore's, a Washburn 29 fret EC29 and an ESP Maverick Custom Shop that have all Original Floyd's replacing the licensed ones. This is the only one that I don't recommend replacing with an Original. It is so smooth and stays in tune perfectly. The Washburn Floyd was a joke and the Brian Moore Floyds were okay at best. But even Brian Moore's custom shop uses the real deal when it comes to their high end models. I am also providing a generic Ibanez hardshell guitar case that I bought new. The guitar fits just fine but keep in mind that it is not the original case - it didn't come with one when I bought it. Also - the neck plate on the back is original to the best of my knowledge. Maybe some of you out there know how to verify this...
So that's about all the gory details I can shove into here. Hopefully the Pictures will do some justice to the guitar. Some local folks have been asking me why I'm selling it and it's just that I am getting more into playing my 24-fret models again. Sounds kind of lame I know but that's just the way that I get once and a while. I am looking to replace this with a Jackson Soloist SL2H (hint hint) 24-fret neck-thru USA Select in all of it's glory (doesn't matter what color it is because I am going to repaint in anyway). So I am going from an ultra-rare high-end guitar to a common high-end guitar. Sounds crazy, but I've been called worse.
