Blackie's Coming Home!

Call it a quarter-life crisis, but I recently felt the desire to re-connect with what got me interested in Electric Guitar in the first place. In the Mid-90's, I had a late-80's Peavey Predator. It was a black Strat clone with a Maple neck, just like my guitar hero Eric Clapton's "Blackie." This is what attracted me to it initially. It was beat up, and it has pretty crappy electronics. But it was my first Electric Guitar. I loved it. And I learned on it. I learned quite a bit on the guitar.

Recently, I was reading the Harmony Central Forums and the Peavey Predator was brought up as a "Great value for a USA-made guitar." I went on e-Bay to see what my old flames were going for, and found that they were still selling for less than $100 in some cases! After doing some research, I found out that the Peavey line back then consisted of the Raptor (a somewhat pointier Strat clone made in Asia with a rosewood fretboard), the Predator International Series (a straight-up strat with a rosewood fretboard), the Predator USA (a USA-made Strat with a Maple fretboard), and the Peavey Falcon (a custom-shop quality USA strat available with a Kahler or standard Tremolo, and higher quality pickups and electronics). My Predator, as it turned out, was a solid instrument, but I just didn't know how to set it up and do the necessary fretwork to make it GREAT.

Now, of course, I do. It started me thinking, what if I HAD used it as my main axe all these years? When I reinvented it, the neck was already showing wear, and the body was already beat up. Nowadays, that's called a relic. :-) I started imagining how nice and broken in the guitar would've looked had I kept it.

So I put in a bid on one, and won! The guitar above will be arriving to me in a couple days, and the beatings will begin! I plan on accelerating the aging process by re-creating the dings and chips from the finish on the body and neck, using whatever aged parts I still have from my old Predator (pickup covers, knobs, etc), and wearing the finish on the neck thinner, especially around the places I play most often. I plan on first wearing the finish thin and even wearing it out at the notes of the A, D, and E minor pentatonic scales. Then, after I level and polish the frets, there should be plenty of grime working its way into the wood.

Some would say that it's conceited to make your own tribute guitar, but this isn't about any tribute to myself, it's about reclaiming something I lost. Something I've missed. MY Blackie's coming home.

Pickup Upgrade for Les Paul

As I mentioned, the stock Epiphone pickups weren't exactly impressive. The neck was really muddy, and the bridge sounded really thin. I was planning on putting GFS Vintage '59's in it like I had used on my Dad's Epi Les Paul, but in the meantime, I discovered ToneRider pickups. Please check them out.

I emailed them regarding their humbuckers, and though they're not available yet, I got a pre-production set for an incredible price. When I put them in, I couldn't believe the tone. Each note has a clarity I've only heard on Seymour Duncan, EMG, and other more expensive pickups. The tone was pure fat, drippy, PAF excellence! I'm duly impressed with these pickups at any price. I would recommend them to anyone. They are priced below average, and they are definate competitors with the most expensive pickups I've played.

In addition to installing the pickups, I also took the opportunity to replace Epiphone's electronics. The switch wasn't working right, and 2 of the pots were burned out. So, in keeping with what I did on the Maple Strat, I wired the two tone controls to be a master Treble and Bass control. Cutting the bass is great for getting single-coil sounds out of the Les Paul.

More pics and details can be found at my website.