You know, I really want to eat your new Z3-T. Why does it seem like people always want to eat your guitars? It reminds me of strawberry-chocolate fondue...with a grahm cracker crust. I like how you used the Paduak for the fretboard dots and the string ferrules. You must love what you do. Too bad those nameless fuck-heads on the Internet could never conceive of such a beast. I've seen some of the guitars these "award winning" fools have made and they all look...well...like every other unbalanced design I've ever seen. Congrats on another good one...oh wait...they're all good. ZF (RI)

Alex, It's close enough to the Fourth of July for me. This latest brilliant little axe of yours was born on the day before my favorite holiday. Independence Day rocks! Surely there is no deliberate correlation between my favorite holiday and your guitar, but it is a wonderful coincidence. I love the dark red fret markers and body, the lighter neck and fretboard and the black tuning keys. Perfect contrast, flow and balance; all things perfectly coordinated.

On the other hand... it really don't matter what the guitar looks like. You could stain the guitar blindfolded in thirty different colors so it looks like a complete disaster and all turns gray, have no fret markers at all, have a different color for each tuning peg, e.g., florescent pink and green and blue and red - whatever you wish, and mix chrome, gold and black hardware all over the place, close your eyes and start to play - and there's no mistaking it; it's a Zachary.

You don't need to see these guitars to recognize them. Just by looking at this guitar, I already know how it plays. It's all in the feel, the balance, the action, the arrangement and the tone - not in how the guitar looks, though they always do look great. It is not possible for you to do a bad job on any aspect of building a guitar. You would never allow yourself to get away with an error of even a fraction of an inch. Well, that's good for you - and it sure as hell is good for whoever buys one of your guitars! It amazes me how you put to work the simplest things that everyone else overlooks. Your touch puts every other solid body electric guitar I have played to shame and to waste. It is literally a waste of materials to build guitars any other way.

A perfect way to end a perfect day. I work all day and take the afternoon and evening off to take in some fireworks and have a couple of beers, and return to the Internet to find another masterwork by my favorite Master Craftsman. This guitar is stealthy, mean and brutal, a genuine war machine. Though I have not heard it, I am certain of it's beautiful tone. It sounds as good as the immortal, "Give me Liberty or Give me Death" speech by the immortal, Patrick Henry. Your way with assembling matter into a musical instrument is as great as Patrick Henry's way with assembling and speaking words. An independent guitar, one that stands all on it's own, apart from and above all the others, by an independent builder who stands apart from and above all the others.

Happy Independence Day, Alex. I hope you enjoy your guitar as much as I do!   Ted (NV)

Whew!
Rich earth tones! Looks very serious and heavy. I always like to see the shots of the neck joints where all the woods come together. This one is particularly striking in that regard. The paduak/walnut/maple/paduak plugs "sandwich" looks great. How does she sound? And play...with the new "no relief" set up and dual sized frets? Also looks like the new extra hard frets are shaped a little differently in general.   Eli (NYC)

Wow! Another incredible Z3 so soon? It looks like a sweet piece of Valentine's day candy! Chocolate dipped strawberries with Zach Attack pickups and a bad attitude. If a man ever longed for more that a hot piece of ass from his sweet valentine, this would be it! Imagine how it would feel to pull this baby out of a giant heart shaped guitar case. Love at first sight! It's time to go ask mom for that special ring she's been saving for you all these years... Congratulations!   James, the Zachary minion (AZ)

You really HAVE stepped up production! It's even more fun browsing your website these days. 030708 is a stonking guitar. Another classic - bold, assertive and yet elegant with the gold hardware that goes so well with the red. Paduak is such a gorgeous wood. The contrast with the walnut back is very striking, especially with the paduak inserts for the neck screws. I also love the matching paduak dot-position markers. A typical Zachary touch.

As you know, I'm a great fan of dual fret sizes. I stole the idea from you when I had one of my Overwater guitars refretted - I had them use big (6100) frets for the first octave and tall-narrow (6105) frets for the top octave. It was a massive improvement over the original low-wide frets. I also notice that you seem to be using ever-shorter necks - 25 frets on Holly and now 24 on the Red Beast. Personally, I really like the extended neck of your earlier designs. I like the possibility of 26 or even 27 frets, and I'm sure that the increased body-neck contact area of the extended neck is a factor in the remarkable sustain of your guitars. I also think that the more resulting backward positioning of the neck p/up gives it more "punch". I use the front p/up a lot on Gaia, especially when playing single notes on the high frets. Even at high gain, the neck p/up on Gai seems to have more definition and articulation compared to the neck p/up of say a Gibson LP or Explorer.

It's interesting that you chose maple for the fretboard. Personally, I HATE the laquered maple of so many Fenders (I'd always chose rosewood for a Strat), so it was educational playing on the unlaquered maple of YUF's superb Simba. Compared to the pao ferro of Gaia, the maple fretboard felt "stickier". It was better for anchoring the fingers, especially when shredding, but not as smooth for slides and glissandos. As I tend to use glissandos a lot, my own preference is for the hard, slick woods like ebony, purpleheart and pao ferro. Best, Ludwik (UK)

My My Hey Hey, Rock And Roll is here to Stay! Took a while for me to write anything about your 2 new babies, I go away for 3 weeks and there you go building masses of new guitars. Mass production, baby! ;-)

170606 is pure SEX to me. That guitar is too sexy for it's own good. The pristine snowy Holly wood top and the Rosewood neck with Ebony Fretboard should provide the summum of sensual experience in guitar playing. Man, I can just imagine stroking that 26" Rosewood neck.... All I know about Holly is that it is an ancient species of tree, which grows very slowly (I spent my childhood in a garden with a Holly tree in it, it has hardly changed in 35 years time), and that it is supposed to have magical powers according to Celtic lore.

The Red 030706 guitar looks much different to me, but every bit as good in it's own way. That is one hot chili pepper of a guitar. Spicy! Like Ludwik, I had noticed the neck pickups getting higher up. I like that. It should make for a darker, more soulful sound. I love playing the neck pickup with that sweet and mournful warm sound.

Anyway, congrats on the 2 new babies, they look killer.         David (Belgium)

Hey Alex, I just thought I would let you know I got the guitar yesterday in perfect condition, and I am very pleased with it. It truly is amazing how well this thing stays in tune. It's insane. I can do all sorts of dive bombs and other whammy tricks, and this thing just will not go out of tune. It feels different than any guitar I've ever played also. I'm very happy with it... Thanks for everything man... I'm going to go play it some more! I won't let you down ; )   Ryan (FL)

Hey Alex,
I've had some more time to play the guitar. It took a little getting used to to be honest. The neck is fatter than my old ESP, and the finger board seems to be wider. This is great because I can do complex chord fingerings easily. On my old guitar my hand would get very cramped trying to do chords over a 4 or 5 fret expanse. Still the most astonishing thing about this guitar is its tuning stability. I can dive bomb forever and it just won't go out of tune. I've played other tremolo equipped guitars and they all just have horrible tuning... And I don't want to deal with all that locking nut bullshit. That's why I've never owned a guitar with a tremolo. I've always loved the idea of the tremolo, they are great fun to use, but if the guitar can't stay in tune- what's the the point? So I've been having a blast with the trem. It's also just a beautiful instrument. Great feel... It's not flashy... It doesn't have any useless frills or gimmicks. It's just elegant funtionality. The way the woods contrast each other is beautiful as well. This is the last electric guitar I will ever buy. Quite a statement coming from someone as young as me isn't it? I'm serious though. This meets all my needs. It's perfect.

The pickup configuration is great as well. I actually did know how to use the switches, but thanks for telling me anyways. It's obvious you want me to get the most out of the guitar, and that's great to hear from the person who made it. I am very careful when I handle this guitar. I make sure not to bump it into walls, doors ect... and I only lay it on soft surfaces (bed usually) when I have to put on my strap or something. Other than that it stays safely on its Zach stand. So rest assured, I'm very careful not to do anything stupid. I understand you care alot for the guitars you make, and I completely understand that. This guitar is going to be played alot, and it will bring me many hours of joy, so I thank you for entrusting it to me. And if you're ever in Florida and have a desire to check up on her, drop me a line and we'll arange it... When I'm able to get some more funds, I'm also thinking about getting that pedal you offer to go in juntion with my Crate tube amp, because as I think I mentioned in one of my past writings to you-- the overdrive channel sucks on my Crate. Bit of a depressing note to go out on, but just as well.
Thanks again, Ryan (FL)