Adrian, Janick and Dave's guitars and Steve's basses
Makes sense that it was a Kahler Steeler, because in some early pictures of it, you can see that there is no retainer bar after the locking nut, because the Kahler stringlock had (and still has, as they are making the 2700 series, the Steeler (2760) being one of them) that feature built into it.
I'd love to get my hand on that document! Thanks for sharing that little tidbit.
matic22
Ancient Mariner
That info might be wrong. During Blaze years, I am almost sure that one of the Raising Hell Strats was converted to a Hot Rails Strat. Also, there is no info that the vintage-white strats were refinished from 3 tone sunburst and blue sunburst, which in fact they were.
Kahler Steeler info, however makes sense.
sea.of.madness.1986
Educated Fool
Cool pics mate, thank you, I love this guitar.
sea.of.madness.1986
Educated Fool
Oh ok, I didn’t know that, anyway, thank you for the info mate.
sea.of.madness.1986
Educated Fool
By the way, the white Jackson had a Kahler Steeler as well? Or did it have a standard Floyd?
About the pickups, I’d assume the white Jackson had at first PAF/SD or so and during FOTD tour the neck pickup was replaced with a black DiMarzio PAF Pro, my assumption about that comes from the fact that I don’t see screw polepieces on the guitar’s neck pickup when I see the photos of it, and PAF pros don’t have those screw polepieces, they actually have black hex head pole pieces (like super distortions, but super distortions have silver ones)
This is the PAF Pro, and there’s also a picture where the neck pickup can be seen.
edit: still wondering where’s this guitar and the red one…
About the pickups, I’d assume the white Jackson had at first PAF/SD or so and during FOTD tour the neck pickup was replaced with a black DiMarzio PAF Pro, my assumption about that comes from the fact that I don’t see screw polepieces on the guitar’s neck pickup when I see the photos of it, and PAF pros don’t have those screw polepieces, they actually have black hex head pole pieces (like super distortions, but super distortions have silver ones)
This is the PAF Pro, and there’s also a picture where the neck pickup can be seen.
edit: still wondering where’s this guitar and the red one…
^^
Probably somewhere where they store their gear. He could obviously have gifted it to someone/somebody but I wouldn't have been surprised if it'd have eventually been for sale somewhere if that had happened, so I'm going to guess that it's simply in storage with his other gear. Like I mentioned before, he doesn't seem to be the nostalgic type (unlike Adrian to a small extent, since he brought back the two Lado's and the Destroyer, as well as playing his Holy Grail Goldtop fairly regularly), and with his new Andy Hicks custom-shop job, as well as his trusty old California Series Strat (The two-tone sunburst one), I don't really think there's a chance that we'll ever see his old guitars onstage again.
Probably somewhere where they store their gear. He could obviously have gifted it to someone/somebody but I wouldn't have been surprised if it'd have eventually been for sale somewhere if that had happened, so I'm going to guess that it's simply in storage with his other gear. Like I mentioned before, he doesn't seem to be the nostalgic type (unlike Adrian to a small extent, since he brought back the two Lado's and the Destroyer, as well as playing his Holy Grail Goldtop fairly regularly), and with his new Andy Hicks custom-shop job, as well as his trusty old California Series Strat (The two-tone sunburst one), I don't really think there's a chance that we'll ever see his old guitars onstage again.
sea.of.madness.1986
Educated Fool
Yeah that’s right, the white Jackson should be dinged up but still at Maiden’s warehouse.
Ascendingthethrone
Ancient Mariner
I might be controversial here, but I have never had any interest in seeing the guys bust out old guitars onstage. I can watch old videos from the 80s if I want to see Adrian’s original Jackson.
At their age, I just want them to see them playing something comfortable, that stays in tune and sounds great on stage. In this day and age with the array of customisation options available to pro guitar players, I’m sure that’s exactly what they are aiming for with the guitars that they are using.
And no, vintage guitars do not sound better. 99.99% of people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in a blind test or even watching and listening in a stadium.
And yes, my rant is over and it is somewhat inspired by a debate I had with a colleague earlier in the week!
At their age, I just want them to see them playing something comfortable, that stays in tune and sounds great on stage. In this day and age with the array of customisation options available to pro guitar players, I’m sure that’s exactly what they are aiming for with the guitars that they are using.
And no, vintage guitars do not sound better. 99.99% of people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in a blind test or even watching and listening in a stadium.
And yes, my rant is over and it is somewhat inspired by a debate I had with a colleague earlier in the week!
Mateus256
Trooper
I don’t think Mr. Smith quite agrees with you about the comfort or the killer tone of his old guitars
Ascendingthethrone
Ancient Mariner
That’s a cool interview. I am glad he still has a passion for his old guitars.
I don’t think Mr. Smith quite agrees with you about the comfort or the killer tone of his old guitars
matic22
Ancient Mariner
BTW... Indentifying a Paf Pro from other DiMarzio humbuckers is quite easy. Both coils have hex screws, however, the pole pieces are bigger than your standard DiMarzio humbucker and are almost always black.
There's nothing controversial about what you said/wrote as far as I'm concerned. I remember watching a video of Metallica playing, James Hetfield broke a string (the sound of the video was the soundboard recording of that show) on one of his ESP Explorers (which had/has a Mahogany Body & Neck) and he had to change to one of his Gibson Explorers (which most likely had a body made of alder and a neck made of maple with Ebony fingerboard), and there was no perceptible change in tone at all (not that I expected to hear a change). Cork sniffers might convince themselves that they hear a difference, but that's all nonsense as far as I'm concerned. Those minute differences in tone/responsiveness are only perceptible to the person who actually plays the instrument(s) in question, as you pretty much automatically (Subconsciously) adjust to whatever guitar you play in order to get the sound that you want; if one guitar has a little less "bite", you'll just hit the strings a bit harder, and so on..
Dave has always been about functionality as far as I'm concerned, once he got the Floyd Rose for example, he's pretty much stuck to that bridge/tremolo ever since, the only other mods are minute (ie, pickups, stainless steel frets, FU-tone parts for the floyd etc), but all in all, he's been pretty darn consistent for the last 30 or so years. Same with Janick..
So although I wouldn't mind seeing some of Dave's 80s/90s guitar live, I don't sit around and hope/wish for it. If it happens, cool, if it doesn't, then that's cool too.