Marcelo1281734115 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Sorry, it is not an Epi,...I picked up this guitar from Craigslist this week. I was curious about this brand and features this guitar had, so I bought it on an impulse, well not much of an impulse, I only paid $100 for it. Here are the features: - 7 strings - Floyd Rose bridge with whammy bar - HSH pickup configuration - Grover tuners - Coil splitting, turns into a Strat by lifting the tone button up The guitar is 10-years old, but it looks like new. I never seen so many features on a single guitar before, more than I know what to do with. Let me know what you guys think and what this guitar is good for. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stone1281734000 Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Not my thing. But nice find! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sinb Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Im not a fan of 7 strings but it looks nice. Probably good for metal. How r the pickups? Ive never heard of HSH. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Yeah Baby! Thats my kind of guitar! That guitar is good for metal, metal and metal. Its also good for metal. Just kidding. With the coil tap you can knock it down to a single coil and get some straty tones out of her. Watch that Floyd though. If you take all of the strings off of it at once, it will fall off it's posts and could ding the paint. And keep your eyes on the string blocks. They like to get lost in the carpet. But hey, you might already know this. Very nice. Let us know how she sounds! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcelo1281734115 Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Im not a fan of 7 strings but it looks nice. Probably good for metal. How r the pickups? Ive never heard of HSH. For HSH, I was referring to Humbucker-Single-Humbucker layout,... not the name of a particular company I am not good at making comparisons with the best pickups out there as the guitars I have all still have their stock pickups. But, I can describe the pickups on this guitar relative terms on how it compares to my 1997 Epi Les Paul Std and my beater guitar Peavey Predator USA Strat, while all guitars are on the same amp setting and all 3 guitars were tested on the bridge pickup only setting. Here is goes the side-by-side-by-side comparison.... The Washburn - sounds like a humbucker The Epi Les Paul Std - sounds like a single coil in comparison (I kid you not!) The Peavey Predator USA Strat - sounds like 1/2 of a single coil (this was expected) In relative terms, the pickup on the Washburn's bridge sounded like there were 4 coils there at the bridge instead of 2, it was this dramatic! I do not know for sure but either Washburn put good stock pickups in this guitar, or the previous owner upgraded them, but I cannot be sure until I dismantle the guitar to find out. I read somewhere that Washburn may have collaborated with DiMarzio or Seymour Duncan (I can't remember which company) for pickups in some of their guitars. Anyhow, the pickups have a lot of gain, in the 75 watt Line6 Spider II amp with Clean-Twang-Blues-Crunch-Metal-Insane models, I use the Twang, maybe the Blues model to get an AC/DC sound. With the Les PAul, I had to use the Metal setting to come even close. For the Washburn, I have to stay near the Clean channel as close as possible or the guitar starts to sound like "heavy metal" real quick as you apply some gain. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcelo1281734115 Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Yeah Baby! Thats my kind of guitar! That guitar is good for metal' date=' metal and metal. Its also good for metal. Just kidding. With the coil tap you can knock it down to a single coil and get some straty tones out of her. Watch that Floyd though. If you take all of the strings off of it at once, it will fall off it's posts and could ding the paint. And keep your eyes on the string blocks. They like to get lost in the carpet. But hey, you might already know this. Very nice. Let us know how she sounds![/quote'] Until this guitar, I never knew a darn thing about a Floyd Rose, so this was a huge learning experience. I bought this guitar without strings, so the Floyd Rose had collapsed into its cavity. I did not even know if the pickups would work as I could not test the guitar when I bought it. I had a set of 010 to 046 strings at home that I wanted to install on the guitar, even though I was told to use 009s with a Floyd Rose. Anyhow, I installed the set of 010s and I bought a 056 for the 7th string. The re-stringing was a nightmare, again, I was new at this, so I relied on internet posts and videos to show me how to route the strings. It took me over 2 hours to get the info from the internet and to get the strings installed. Then, the nightmare continued, it took me another hour to get the strings in tune as they kept going flat on me as I cycled through tuning all 7 strings. I first thought the Floyd Rose was damaged or something, but I later realized that strings stretch the first time you install them, but on a 7-string, this effect is multiplied by having that extra thick string. Since the guitar had no strings, the Floyd Rose had collapsed from its posts when I bought it. I released the pressure from the tremolo springs to make it easier to install the strings. Then, I screwed-in the posts fully and began to unscrew them to get the bridge to rise from its cavity, which it did. Then, I re-tightened the tremolo springs fully as this was the point the bridge's base became parallel with the body of the guitar and it all balanced. I still have to set the intonation as the strings I used are one size up from what is recommended, but I think that will need to wait until I get my courage up to try and tweak that Floyd Rose again. There were moments where I began to think that I was over my head on this Floyd Rose bridge and that I was going to have to pay a visit to my tech to get the strings installed, but I eventually succeeded. After a few days, I was surprised on how well the guitar stays in tune. After this experience, I figured out why I got this guitar so cheap,...the previous owner did not have a clue on how to re-string this guitar, so he decided to dump it on Cragslist. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 I'm glad you got it all figured out. I was going to offer some advice on restringing it, but you have it covered. After the first time, its pretty easy...still time consuming, but easy. Intonation is going to be a pain though. No advice on that. I havent ventured into the intonation on a Floyd yet. Been putting it off for obvious reasons. I got mine (6-string) under similar circumstances. The guy had no clue how to set up the bridge. It was actually wedged under the bridge posts in the threads. Egads. The bridge was sitting at a 30 degree angle and thats how he played it. And at some point he took the saddles off and put them back in the wrong order. They are different heights to match the curvature of the neck. It took me about a month to figure out why my A string was buzzing like mad. Then I noticed that every string was a different height...in no particular order. Doh! Well, its an awesome guitar and I hope you find that you like playing it. Floyds and (especially) 7-strings arent for everyone. And yeah, they stay in tune really well if you dont bang on them too hard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zombywoof Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 I have enough trouble with six strings. I am thinking about taking up the Uke or tenor guitar. Congrats - finding something that makes you happy at a great price always makes for an extremely nice day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JefferySmith Posted February 6, 2009 Share Posted February 6, 2009 Not my cup of tea, but Washburns are nice. It's a bit too over the top for a gray-haired man. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcelo1281734115 Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 I'm glad you got it all figured out. I was going to offer some advice on restringing it' date=' but you have it covered. After the first time, its pretty easy...still time consuming, but easy. Intonation is going to be a pain though. No advice on that. I havent ventured into the intonation on a Floyd yet. Been putting it off for obvious reasons. I got mine (6-string) under similar circumstances. The guy had no clue how to set up the bridge. It was actually wedged under the bridge posts in the threads. Egads. The bridge was sitting at a 30 degree angle and thats how he played it. And at some point he took the saddles off and put them back in the wrong order. They are different heights to match the curvature of the neck. It took me about a month to figure out why my A string was buzzing like mad. Then I noticed that every string was a different height...in no particular order. Doh! Well, its an awesome guitar and I hope you find that you like playing it. Floyds and (especially) 7-strings arent for everyone. And yeah, they stay in tune really well if you dont bang on them too hard.[/quote'] I have been too chicken to adjust the intonation, especially after dodging that bullet the other night when I got the strings on the guitar successfully. I am trying not to press my luck all at once in the same week. Eventually, I will adjust the intonation, I will need to search for how-to threads on the internet again. As of right now, I have not a clue what those bolts under the string (just in front of the saddles) will do if I loosen them or tighten them. But, once I figure it all out, I don't mind letting you know how it is done. I have enough trouble with six strings. I am thinking about taking up the Uke or tenor guitar. Congrats - finding something that makes you happy at a great price always makes for an extremely nice day. Thanks' date=' I find it that this 7-string guitar is so difficult to play at first, that a 6-string becames super-easy when you pick it up soon afterwards in the same session. You can blast through a 6-string neck after you have been playing the fat neck on the 7-string. My son had been bugging me to get a Bass for months now, just because he was curious to play one. Now he is 1/4 of the way there with that extra string, lol. He has stopped bothering me for now. Not my cup of tea' date=' but Washburns are nice. It's a bit too over the top for a gray-haired man.[/quote'] I just met a guy yesterday who plays a late 80s 6-string Washburn that looked almost exactly like mine, except, in those days, they were made in the good old USA. What a nice guitar that was. It was like all the possible guitar types all rolled into one. It was one guitar that can do just about anything. I am not getting any younger either, but this guitar has been a lot of fun to play with my teenage kid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Those allen screws under the strings are how you set the intonation. Once you loosen them, they slide back and forth...which is why I havent touched them. I cant imagine them easily sliding any way but forward with full tension on the strings. And how you would adjust them ever-so-slightly to set something as touchy as intonation is beyond me at this point. Yep, time to google for some help =D>/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcelo1281734115 Posted February 7, 2009 Author Share Posted February 7, 2009 Yeah, I figured that if I loosened them, the string tension would pull the saddle forward too. I need to google for some help, but so far, I think that you can pry the Floyd Rose forward from the underside and support it with a wood block wedge where the tremolo springs are and then make the adjustments to the intonation, then remove the block and test the string with a Korg tuner. I see myself having to loosen the tension on the tremolo springs many times too. If this is how it is done, I can expect it to to take a few hours to do it for all 7 strings. BTW, the close up of my guitar's Floyd Rose above is probably the best picture that you will ever find on the internet. I wish I had a picture like that when I was stringing the guitar the other day. I looked everywhere on the internet, but could not find a close up shot that showed me how to route the strings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ef_in_fla Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Do yourself a favor and drop one of these babies in the bridge spot: EMG707-7String-Guitar-Active-Pickup Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fenrirlupus Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 oh... washburn... yeah, they pretty much specialize w/ that type of guitar. i got a hollowbody from them, but i don't think it's as good as what epiphone has... of course, if i was looking for that kind of guitar, i'd go to washburn... but i'm not really the 7 string floyd rose metal-ish strat copy kinda guy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 oh... washburn... yeah' date=' they pretty much specialize w/ that type of guitar. i got a hollowbody from them, but i don't think it's as good as what epiphone has... of course, if i was looking for that kind of guitar, i'd go to washburn... but i'm not really the 7 string floyd rose metal-ish strat copy kinda guy.[/quote'] If I was actively looking for that type of guitar, I'd probably go for a Jackson. But no way would I turn down a great deal on a Washburn like that if I came across one. Personal preference aside, that is still a mighty fine guitar. Marcelo, StewMac has some decent Floyd Rose pics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bender 4 Life Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Back around '89 or '90 I bought a Series 10: 6 string,Strat body. It had the Floyd Rose locking unit, and HSH with individual mini toggles for tapping both Hummers, and a 5 way selector. The paperwork listed the construction as: Ash body, Rock Maple neck,Rosewood fretboard. I paid $200 for it, NEW, and it sounded GREAT! My cousin kept hounding me for it until I sold it to him (5 yrs later, for $200) I've no idea who made Series 10, and I can't find one now, maybe i'll look on "thebay". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobinTheHood Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Back around '89 or '90 I bought a Series 10: 6 string' date='Strat body.It had the Floyd Rose locking unit, and HSH with individual mini toggles for tapping both Hummers, and a 5 way selector. The paperwork listed the construction as: Ash body, Rock Maple neck,Rosewood fretboard. I paid $200 for it, NEW, and it sounded GREAT! My cousin kept hounding me for it until I sold it to him (5 yrs later, for $200) I've no idea who made Series 10, and I can't find one now, maybe i'll look on "thebay". [/quote'] My local mom & pop shop has one of those Series-10 guitars. Its a red strat-type with a red finger board. It has a locking system on it, but the bridge is the same type I just removed from my S-500. It looks Floyd-ish, has fine tuners and is made for a non-recessed Floyd routing, but it seems more closely related to a standard modern 2-point with the string-through-block setup and more standard type saddles. I ended up replacing mine with a Lisenced Floyd Rose Speed Loader from Guitar Fetish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcelo1281734115 Posted February 8, 2009 Author Share Posted February 8, 2009 This post will probably get me banned. Here it goes anyways, another non-Epiphone Craigslist find (lol)..... I found this guitar 4 month ago. I was curious about Strat-type guitars, mostly to learn on, but I did not want to dish out the bucks for a Fender, then I found someone selling this guitar for a measly $60, so I knew this was my chance to get my first Strat and use it as learning tool about things like the pickup configuration, tremolo bridge, 5-way switch and all the things that make it so different than my LP. This Peavey Predator Strat is USA-made (whoo-hoo!) and was made in 1991, so it is the oldest guitar I now have. The wood work on this thing is top-notch, it rivals the $1000 Fenders. As far as the electronics, they could use some help. What I like about this Peavey is that on the parts that cannot be upgraded, Peavey did these right. Since it has a low-end price, they have to save on something, so they only cut corners on the items are easy to upgrade by their customers, things like pickups, maybe tuners. I like that!. So, if you do a few upgrades, you can have a Strat that rivals a Fender, and this one is made-in-USA, just like theirs. This guitar was in poor-looking shape when I got it, it had been stored in a moldy garage and there was a layer of crud all over it. I tested it before I bought it, it sounded like a banjo, but I still bought it anyways. I took it home, cleaned it up and I found that the neck looked like it had never been played, no string scratches on the fretboard at all, all glossy just like it left the factory. There was some major paint missing from the strap attach point at the bottom of the guitar, which looks like it was damaged by a metallic strap of some sort. Someone used a small brush with black paint to cover it all up, so it looks a bit sloppy down there. Also, at the back, there is a spot of belt rash (visible in a picture where the paint is missing, about 1" long). The whammy bar was missing, but I found one from All-Parts that seems to fit. I used this guitar for about a few weeks after I bought it, then gave up on it as it sounded like crap, much like a banjo, when compared to the LP. I asked around this forum and people told me that Strats sounded thin in comparison to a humbucker LP, so I thought that was the way things were. I did not use the guitar for 3 months since that and had thoughts of listing it on Ebay to get rid of it. Then, my son bought a cheaper version of a Peavey Strat for himself that sounded a lot better than my Predator Strat, ...this made me think. So, one day, I decided to tap the posts of the the pickups as I moved the 5-way switch only to find that there was no pickup switching going on as I moved the switch, all pickups were on at the same time, no matter what switch setting I chose. I took the guitar apart one day, looked in the internet for a wiring diagram and verified all my wiring. I was surprised to find that the previous owner had soldered all the pickup leads to the 5-way switch together by adding a wire that connected all the switch posts together (WTF?), I also found that the 2 tone pots were not grounded. So, I re-soldered the switch properly and grounded the pots and tried it all out again on my amp. It now sounded really nice! So much so, this guitar became my main guitar, .....my beater guitar. I also was suprised that Peavey had used 500K pots under the pickguard. I am going to install some GFS pickups on this guitar, when I get a chance, perhaps changing the pickguard to a perloid finish to dress this guitar up as it is getting close to being vintage (I am leaning towards the red tortoise shell color pickguard with beige pickup covers and beige knobs, with an HSS configuration). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordy01 Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Yeah' date=' I figured that if I loosened them, the string tension would pull the saddle forward too. I need to google for some help, but so far, I think that you can pry the Floyd Rose forward from the underside and support it with a wood block wedge where the tremolo springs are and then make the adjustments to the intonation, then remove the block and test the string with a Korg tuner. I see myself having to loosen the tension on the tremolo springs many times too. If this is how it is done, I can expect it to to take a few hours to do it for all 7 strings. BTW, the close up of my guitar's Floyd Rose above is probably the best picture that you will ever find on the internet. I wish I had a picture like that when I was stringing the guitar the other day. I looked everywhere on the internet, but could not find a close up shot that showed me how to route the strings. [/quote'] It looks as though the allen heads in front of the bridge are there for locking purposes only. Doesn't it adjust with the screws at the back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcelo1281734115 Posted February 8, 2009 Author Share Posted February 8, 2009 I think that you are correct, the screw at the back of the bridge must move the saddle forward/backward and the bolt under the string in front of the saddle must lock it, but I won't be 100% sure until I try it. Here's a how-to that I pulled from the internet on getting the string intonation on a Floyd Rose below. It looks like, for each string, you test, loosen the string, move the saddle, lock it, tighten string and re-test and repeat. This probably takes forever to do, LOL. Check the intonation: Step 1: Tune all the strings on your guitar to an electronic tuner with all the nut clamps released. Step 2: Determine if the intonation of the string you wish to change is sharp or flat by chiming the string directly over the 12th and checking the tuning. Then, carefully press the string down to the 12th fret and check the tuning again with the string fretted. If the fretted note is flat when compared to the chimed note, then the saddle must be moved toward the nut until the chimed note and the fretted note match. If the fretted note is sharp when compared to the chimed note the saddle must be moved away from the nut until the chimed and fretted notes match. To move the saddle: Step 1: Once you have determined which direction (toward or away from the nut) to move the saddle, loosen the string until it is limp. Step 2: Loosen the attachment screw holding the saddle to the bridge plate while holding the saddle in place. Move the saddle in the desired direction a small amount (about 1/16in on the first adjustment and your best guess on subsequent adjustments) and re-tighten the screw. [Note: If the saddle will not move forward because it is resting against the attachment screw, you can move the screw to the next hole forward on the bridge plate. This will give you more adjustment range. Also, if you need to move the saddle away from the nut to a position where the attachment screw can no longer clamp the saddle firmly, you can move the screw to the next hole back on the bridge plate.] Step 3: Re-tune the string and check the intonation again using the procedure outlined above (check the intonation). Step 4: Repeat this cycle until each string is properly intonated. When you’re finished with the intonation procedure re-tighten the nut clamps. This will not change your intonation setting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AyushPresley Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 it's not my cup of tea but a very good find..I have played some 7 strings especially Ibanez and they are really good.these kind of guitars have a very nice crunchy sound..really good for heavy metals.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bender 4 Life Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 I have enough trouble with six strings. I am thinking about taking up the Uke or tenor guitar. Congrats - finding something that makes you happy at a great price always makes for an extremely nice day. Sometime around 1980 or so, Keith Richards had a custom Tele made with Woody Woodpecker fret markers and only 5 strings.........he used this guitar quite a bit and still does I believe. Is this the Tenor guitar you're referring to? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcelo1281734115 Posted February 9, 2009 Author Share Posted February 9, 2009 I was playing the Washburn without an amp tonight and realized that the 3rd string was buzzing around from frets 2 to 9 (why is it that all my guitars always seem to buzz on the 3rd string, at the 9th fret? I cannot seem to get rid of this problem). I figured that I needed to give it a little bit of relief as it came with zero-relief when I bought it (I gave it about 1/4 turn counter-clockwise at the truss rod nut). I also lowered the bridge a bit to keep the action about the same as it was before as the relief I gave it raised the action, as expected. I managed to get rid of all the buzzing (yippee!) and I decided to finally test for intonation. I found the 7B to be really sharp when fretted at the 12th, so I knew I had to do something about it. Here is how the intonation went.....I loosened the nut lock for the 7B so that I could unwind the string with the Grover tuner until it went limp and had a bit of slack. I put a hex key into the saddle locking bolt located just in front of the saddle and loosened it a bit. I made a mental note on the approximate location of the 7B saddle in relation to the adjacent saddle (pick a line, a scratch or whatever so that you know how far you moved the saddle). I moved the saddle backwards (for intonation, sharp string = move saddle back, flat string = move saddle forward) until it felt like enough. I locked the saddle with the bolt and tightened the string with the Grover until it was again in tune. It was still a bit sharp, so I repeated the steps above and moved the saddle a smaller amount his time and re-tightened the string. I re-tested the string and it was just perfect this time. I then tested the 6E and it was flat, so I did all these steps for this string except I moved the saddle a bit forward. I tightened the 6E and locked the nut in place. The other strings seemed to be just fine as they were. PLEASE NOTE that I did not touch the bolts at the rear of the Floyd Rose for the intonation, these bolts are only there to secure the string inside the saddle and should never be touched (if you loosen them, the string will pop out of the saddle and probably hit you in the face). Anyhow, it was a lot less painful than I thought it would be. It took only 2 tries per string to get it right and I was lucky that I only had 2 strings to adjust and the other 5 were fine. There you have it, it's not as bad as it first looks! Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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