A special NGD - BM01

GAD

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Quick and dirty phone pic.

Yes, it was stupidly expensive. Yes, it's an amazing guitar. Yes, it's damn-near mint. No, you can't have it Steve. :playful:

IMG_6965-1600.jpg
 

chazmo

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Wowser, Gary. There sure aren't a lot of these around. What a cool axe!

You are the champion... my friend.... :)
 

Westerly Wood

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wow, that is really fine. what up with all those switches?
 

GAD

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That video is a good one, though the interviewer is clearly not a guitar person.

In short, each pickup has an on/off switch and a phase switch. The pickups are wired in series which is different than a Strat where they're wired in parallel.
 

GAD

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what does that do GAD?

We're getting into the world of electronic theory a bit. It's simpler to think about with two coils: one wire connects to the in of both coil-A and coil-B and another wire connects to the out of coil-A and coil-B. With serial, the out of coil-A is wired to the in of coil-B. This has other effects like the impedance being quite different along with

Here's an article on it: https://www.haloguitars.com/store/guitar-wiring-series-vs-parallel-explained

Here's a pic from the article for those who don't like to read:

series-parallel-guitar-wiring.jpg


This is further compounded with three coils like in the BM01 and the individual switches allow for a wide variety of tones not possible on a normally wired Strat.

FWIW, the Guild Liberator Elite I reviewed has a similar switch layout but uses 3-way mini-toggles instead of six slide switches. It is further complicated by an on-board boost and the bridge pickup being a humbucker, but the controls are similar in principle. The Liberator Elite has its pickups in parallel, though.
 
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HeyMikey

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That sure is a killer safe queen. Seriously nice guitar GAD.
 

GAD

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Congratulations!! that must have been from that guy Scott


It was. Total fluke. I had been talking to him and realized while I was typing a message that I was just outside St. Louis and he had listed the guitar as being in St. Louis. I managed to meet him at his office since my class ended early which is where I took the pic in this thread: http://letstalkguild.com/ltg/showthread.php?197022-Look-what-I-got-to-fondle-today!

We were talking about value and offers and stuff and he mentioned someone asking about fret sprout. I replied with, "That must be Steve in NY" because you had written that about another guitar in a post somewhere. He thought I was some sort of clairvoyant. :05.18-flustered:

Super nice guy who really loves this guitar but sold it because he's not playing it. I gave him right of first refusal should I ever sell it. If I ever sell it and if he then refuses it, then I'll let you know if you haven't already found one by then.
 

GAD

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I have only a few complaints about the guitar.

1) The neck is not huge like the Red Special. It's nice and wide, but but it's not deep like the real thing.

2) The way the tremolo arm attaches is not great and also not like the original.

3) The switches are black while the original's are white. From what I can tell this is largely random across guitars and it certainly doesn't make the guitar work any differently, but it makes the switches harder to see in the dark.

The guitar itself is amazing. It plays like a dream and even unplugged has a bit of "that" sound to it. It's also superbly made like any Westerly Guild.
 

mavuser

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ooh super nice one GAD, shes a killer queen indeed, get on yer bike and ride! congrats!
 

txbumper57

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Beautiful example of a BM GAD, Look forward to the review!

TX
 
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