Hey Alex,    Just wanted to let you know how much I've enjoyed my new guitar, "Rosie". She's beautiful and plays like a dream. My wife is threatening to hide her from me. I've been playing her every spare moment. When I get some time, I'm going to put together some audio clips that you can add to your web site if you like. Everyone who's seen her so far has just been blown away.
Anyway, thanks again.    Roy (Texas)

Bobby Simcox besides being a great guy is one of the hottest players around. He plays professionally in the Bay area California and you should check him out. I know I want to. He wins all the Guitar Center contests and has shit load of free guitars as prizes. He uses them in the fireplace on those cold Californian nights. He will be playing at NAMM 2002 and I hope to be there. Bobby also owns Zachary guitar no. 260501. Bobby had some comments and questions about this guitar and I decided to answer them publicly.

Yo Alex! OH MY GOD,...Oh,Oh,Oh.....Holy Shit....Uh....I think I'll cry now!!! Damn, Bro, She's lookin' better than I ever imagined! That red w/ the gold hardware and black p-us, Shit, You've done it again,Bro!!! You, Alex, yeah You, are the SCARIEST guitar maker on the planet!!!

Bobby Simcox Playing "Baby" (260501) at a recent live show. Looks way Cool!

You know, I LOVE the dot markers that You normally use, but there's something about those smaller ones that really work on this guitar...I think it's the subtlety, yeah that's it. This is a VERY CLASSY lookin' axe!!!

I like the wood dot markers myself but since I started using these Aluminum side dots on my necks I had an idea to use them on top of the fingerboard as well. I am impressed with the look and will be using them again. Subtlety, simplicity and classy is what I am after.

 

So how does she play and sound compared to Your other axes? I'm sure she kicks some major ass, but knowing how critical You are, what's the inside scoop? Is she as good as You expected?

She is even better than what I expected. A local machine shop made some templates for me so that routing all the tremolo cavities will be faster and easier. I was not completely sure if the design and measurements were correct for these templates. I could have completely wrecked the guitar if something was off only by a millimeter. Thanks to the help of my friend Bob M. who did the drawings, we got it right.

The guitar does kick major ass. I see these various players on the cover of guitar magazines, some very famous and some not. They pose with various overhyped commercialized products. I am sorry that they miss out on such a great guitar. I say this sincerely. This thing plays effortlessly and it dive-bombs like crazy, the tuning is perfect thanks to the "Mission Impossible" nut. It will turn anyone into a firebreathing guitar player. The guitar is too easy to play. It is also versatile because as with all Zachary guitars, there are very usable tones, from thin single coil twang to the Van Halen brown sound.

All my guitars play and feel similar if set up to my specs. The best way to test an electric guitar's tone is to strum it unplugged. Even though this guitar is made of Mahogany and has a tremolo it is louder than the Canary guitar and the highs are more pronounced and defined. This is strange because the Canary has more high end than other Mahogany Z2s. I think the tremolo bridge has a lot to do with the tone. The tremolo is steel and the regular Zachary bridges are brass. There is absolutely no loss of sustain, if anything this thing sustains like crazy. It has a big sound. I would love to hear this guitar on a recording. I think it would really jump out at you. You would be able to tell that its not just a regular guitar. It has a big sound both acoustically and plugged in.

 

Why glued instead of screwed?

Well I admit, I like screwing better than gluing in more ways than one. I decided to glue this one because the Mahogany neck is a bit soft for screws. Maple and Walnut are harder woods and are perfect for screwing. I do like that word "screwing". I wonder if this word will be picked up by the search engines and I will all of a sudden have the religious types either complaining or really frequenting my site.

I have been trying to determine if I hear any difference in tone between a screwed and glued guitar. I can not. They both sustain the same and generally sound the same given the same woods. I do promise to be screwing more in the future. Which I haven't done for a while and not nearly enough.

 

Would it be hard to set it up w/ 10s?

It is set up with 10s. One of my customers asked me to set up his guitar with 9s and I was skeptical but the guitar played well. I set up guitars with 9s after that but I find that my fingers got weak. Because of the tremolo I wanted to go with 10s since I think tremolos work better with thicker strings. It took me two days to get used to the heavier strings but now I am completely comfortable with them again. You do get more tone with thicker strings.

 

How does the spring cavity affect the sound?

I can't tell any difference. It certainly did not diminish any of the sound even though half of the body is practically routed away. I designed this cavity myself and its a bigger hole than found on a Fender Strat. I like the tremolo to go up and down. The top of the body is even recessed so that the bridge can be pulled up quite a ways. I like a perfectly floating tremolo, you can do much more with it and be very expressive. Eddy is wrong about this one.

 

Am I boring You w/ all these silly questions? Oh well, guess I'm gonna have to get a part time job so I can save for one of these. As always,Bro, You and Your work are AWESOME!!!! Take Care!!!! Bobby

Boring me? Never. Thanks for asking the questions. I learn about my guitars this way. I would be honored to have you own this guitar Bobby. This baby is got to be played with vengeance.           Alex