Amp Mad Scientist
Ambassador of Heresy
Because of the wood. That is the reason.For a while now, I have gone headlong down the rabbit hole with YelloStrat.
$325.00 Warmoth Neck (not yet arrived), $140.00 custom DiMarzio humbucker, $75.00 custom pickguard, $85.00 for Gotoh tuning keys, $60.00 for Artec hum canceling single coils, $60.00 in genuine Fender screws, tremolo springs and $125.00 for brass saddles and brass sustain block, both hand crafted in Budapest.
The guitar plays good and it proved itself during this weekend's performances.
However, when I plug in my Schecter Hellraiser C1FR, it just blows this guitar away for tone. I mean there just is no way to compare the two.
I really tried to come up with something that could at least compete with the Schecter, but after spending enough to buy a second Hellraiser, I have had to realize that I am not even close.
The Schecter is more articulate stting-to-string, has much more gain and presence and just sounds very multidimensional, whereas the YelloStrat sounds very one dimensional.
I'm going to give YelloStrat to our guitarist (Mike) for his upcoming birthday as a surprise.
I just felt the need to be honest about this just in case anybody was following the build.
- Rob
People keep telling you that the "tone wood" doesn't matter.
And the reality is that the wood is the most important influence on the sound of the guitar.
Now you learned that, the expensive way.
I learned long ago, that no matter what Pickups what bridge, what nut etc etc...
if the wood sounds dead to start with, nothing will fix that.
Buy a mahogany body, put all the parts on, and bingo.
A maple neck will also kill the tone.


