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Body Style	Body Wood	Neck Wood	Fbd. Wood	Scale	Tuners	Frets	Pickups	Switching	Neck Joint	Strings	Weight	Price
ZT	Korina (Limba) (two piece)	Maple	Pau Ferro	624 mm Gibson scale	Kluson-style vintage	24 Large/Medium *Dual Size	Neck: Fender Twisted Bridge: S. Duncan STL-1 54 reissue REWOUND	Master Volume; 6-way pickup sellector switch	Screwed	ZOG 10+ RW or 9+ RW	7.3 lb	$2700 with case

Pickup Selection:   1- N;   2- N+B parallel;   3- B;   4- N+B series;   5- N+B parallel out phase;   6- N+B series out phase;

 

Viral YouTube Video   120712_01

 

Here is another ZT. I created this one because I had the urge to make one from Korina/Limba. This is a wonderful wood and as all those of you who know your guitar history it was first introduced by Gibson in the late 50s when they decided to make the original Flying V, Explorer, Futura and Moderne. I wonder why they went to Korina. Its quite a soft wood and great sounding, light weight and very nice to work with.

I know detail does not escape you and I must come clean. Something just does not look right about the bridge pickup. The bridge pickup is a Seymour Duncan 54 reissue, which I found unbalanced in terms of string to string volume balance. This is because the pole pieces in the 50s were originally staggered for flat wound strings and a wound 3rd. As some may know, strings have variable magnetic pull and are also at various heights, therefore certain Tele pickups are not volume balanced with round wound strings and a plain 3rd. This would not bother or even be noticed by any circle jerk replacing their Mexican Tele pickups but it does bother me greatly. So I proceeded to manually raise and custom stagger the pole magnets. Since the wire coil is not shielded from the magnets, I broke the coil and shorted it in the process, making the pickup dead. I then sent it to my pickup maker and had him rewind it to the original specs with my custom and correct pole stagger. That made the pickup perfect. Do not tell Seymour Duncan about this. He is trying to please the circle jerks who would not buy this pickup if it was improved in any way. Circle jerks are a powerful lobby group and I can understand why Seymour is afraid of them. Seymour does not want to be hated on the internet.

What's cool about this guitar is the Korina body and the shorter vintage Gibson scale length. In terms of aesthetic harmony and correctness in execution, I know that all you detail freaks are feeling uneasy, since your OCD is torturing you constantly. You crazy bastards. I know what you are thinking and saying. "Alex how could you mix a Chrome neck pickup cover with the rest of the all-Nickel hardware? How could you do that to us Alex? You think we will let you get away with it? Think again! That is just pure amateurish and not artistic on any level. Just because Leo Fender did not give a shit and the world famous Fender Custom Shop makes certain to create the most accurate of reissues for the dentists, which means copying all of Leo's mistakes and design compromises, that does not mean that you cannot look after these details Alex". We thought you were different....
No worries, I would not commit any such atrocity, worthy only of a tinkerer and hack. I went though all the trouble and time spent to scrape off the Chrome plating from the neck pickup cover and then I polished up the Nickel cover underneath the plating. Its now a perfect match.

Now, you are saying,"but Alex why would you do something so disgusting as to mix the shiny plastic tuner buttons with all the rest of the matte finished black parts? Are you not able to perceive detail? Maybe you would be best working for the government instead Alex". That is very low and offends me greatly. To imagine me being a civil servant is the worst thing you could ever say to me. However, I am way ahead of you on this one also. I took the high polish off these tuner buttons to make them match the rest of the black parts. Nice try you exacting detail freaks. All you pathological materialists. Maybe you should concentrate more on your personal human relationships and learn to love people, not things. People are beautiful don't you know? You make me sick.

"OK, we see that you were contemplating our scrutiny and did not just put a cheap chicken head knob on there as a real luthier would. You actually used a genuine rare antique radio knob made of Bakelite. You were lucky here or we would have bitten your head off had you not done that. If we wanted anything less, we would visit a guitar boutique and buy a reissue Telecaster that all of our heroes play. None of our heroes play your guitars anyway. There is one of these boutiques in every major city and they certainly do not have your stupid and offensive qualification criteria. Why would anyone go through the indignity of paying money to qualify to buy a guitar?"

Then you say this, "but Alex, wouldn't it not been very cool and historically referenced if you were to make the pickguard from Bakelite impregnated fibre board, same as used on the Broadcasters and Nocasters in the first four years of Telecaster production? The same material used for vintage pickup bobbins. Now that would have proven you to be a totally original and unique individual talent Alex." Yes, you bunch of neurotic nut jobs, you read my mind. Just relax, I used the same fibre pickguard as on those first Telecasters and yes, it does look very cool and appropriate with the theme. I did not want to disappoint you. Remember I am in competition with Mexican Teles, so I better get things right, they only sell for $300.

Your impossibly high standards just simply keep coming. Then you say, "but Alex why use nickel or non-matching chrome plated steel neck screws. We know that its much easier and cheaper for you to do so and be like every other goof who attempts to build a guitar but we expected a bit more from you, since you are such an arrogant bastard about your abilities. Why are you not clever enough and more exacting Alex and use Stainless Steel neck screws, which will never rust from the natural moisture of the wood and the plating will never chip off to make the screws rust even more? Furthermore Alex why can't you be smarter than Leo Fender and be more conscientious in your work? One more thing Alex, we know that most Stainless screws do not have the high polish of nickel plating and would not match the rest of your hardware on this guitar, so why would you not polish the head of these screws to make them shine like the rest of the hardware? Might as well do a complete job and not something half ass."     You guys just kill me. Luckily I was way ahead of you on this also.

There are a lot more details I have addressed which are not visible but there is no point in bringing them up. Just rest assured that its better than a Mexican Tele or even a Chinese Tele.... I hope

Oh, one more thing Alex, "are you not perceptive enough to throw out the cheap and badly designed dome shaped bridge mounting screws that these bridges come with and replace them with flat headed stainless screws, which are not only more durable, better designed and allow for more saddle adjustment???"   Yes, luckily I though of this also.

You guys just drive me mad and you really should relax your brain and get some medication form the doctor. If you keep this demanding and judgmental behavior up, you will alienate everyone around you and have no friends at all; you freaks you. Now lay off! The pressure is unbearable and extremely stressful and I cannot live with such constantly high demands on me. I envy all the CNC owners who make Fender and Gibson copies and sell them through guitar boutique shops, to I have no idea who. They can at least enjoy life and even be considered true luthiers, master craftsman, and innovative guitar building icons. They are rich, famous, successful and respected world wide and they even use conventional strings on their guitar-looking-objects. I want to be an inspiration to people as they are. They are all loved and revered universally. Pros of all types play their products, while I am hated around the world and must suffer in obscurity. This is the torment I must live under. Lord... what did I do to deserve this agony? Why am I cursed like this? I don't want to be unique any more. I want to be featured in a guitar magazine with fluff written about me. I am crying out for help. There is a real price to pay to be me. I hate my life. I just want to be normal ... and to be loved.

 

Great sound. The guitar is really bright as a T should be. I love the idea of a gibson scale Tele and actually think it is a great idea, but I'd likely put 10s on it. What speaker do you use with the amp? I hear a delay in there.
Is that part of the new Z-pedal?

Really this guitar is what Z vibe is like. There is a respect for tradition but some innovation there, a bit of artistic obsession to be respected in details that are non-functional but take it to the realm of more than just a tool. And the fact that no two Zs are really ever the same. And yes personally I think Korina is absolutely a killer tone wood. I have a couple Korina guitars and there is something about it for sure. This one is one of those keeper guitars, really someone needs to play the crap out of it till it needs refretting, then get it done and do it again. It will age well.

Just what are you going to do with all of those T types? Its getting to be a disease, they might have to put you away.        Frank B.

Well, what a great little badass guitar you have there! It is appropriately named, too. It's a real cry for help. I know, I'd want someone to help, me, too, if I found myself in the state you're in. You miserable bastard, you. I, too, only want others, especially the circle jerks, to be merciful and to love me and to teach me to love them and help me fit in. That secret wish for everyone to love me comes shining through in some of the lyrics I love to write. A friend of mine suggested I write a love song and break away from all my Blackened Bo Diddley Bluez type of lyrics. 'Funny', thought I, but I always thought all of my songs were love songs. What the fuck? Why don't anyone see that but me? Oh, well, back to the fuckin' drawing board! Sniffle, sniffle. I guess I'll never know and I'll never be loved and I'll never fit in.

"I walk forty-seven miles of barbed wire
"Got a cobra snake for a necktie
"Live in a house by the roadside
"And it's made outta rattlesnake hide

"Got a brand new chimney built on top
"And it's made outta human skulls
"Come and take a little walk with me Arlene
"And tell me who do ya love?" -- Bo Diddley

 

Oh, well. Fuck it. I'd rather pick my Blackened Bluez and hunt rattlers out here in the desert. The rest of the world, including the fuckin' circle jerks, can go hang. Maybe I can send you some rattlesnake hides and you can wrap them around the horns of your next Z3, Edweird Van Halen style. Come to think of it, some nice black Cottonmouth skins would be better. Come to think of it, a real cry for help is a bad name for that guitar. It looks deadly. That guitar definitely does not look like a real cry for help. Rather it looks like it could help itself, like a Cottonmouth. It looks like it could help itself to pretty much whatever it likes. Yes, that guitar should be named after a real killer, like my CA2 is made of the deadly limba and named after a real killer. Love it.

*******

It looks like you were hammering the strings pretty good with that new carbon pick of yours. I can't wait to get mine and give it a whirl. Should be here any day now. Gotta admit, I was a little worried. You described the pick as a rather fragile thing. But it looked to me like you were striking the notes pretty good and the pick sounds like it's got a good snap coming off the strings. Very nice tone.   Ted Noiz

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