man o man.... this is a thing of beauty. first off the pics are here: http://www.mykaguitars.com/instruments/025/default.htm
here are my initial thoughts in an email i sent to David:
Played primarily through a mesa blue angel, through a 1x15 open back cab or 1x12 detuned cab. Sparkle drive was used for OD, v-stack for dirtier needs.
Build and feel: great work! Love the (minimalist) details. Love the color scheme and generally the guitar balances wonderful, nice weight to it, but not overbearing. I especially LOVE the abalone side marker that reflects light, it sorta lights up the fretboard in a way . Its weird that something like that can get me excited, but its almost like a roadmap when running solos sometimes, hard to explain but something magical there. The cocobola neck feels great, really smooth and fast. I asked for a bigger version of the fender V-neck, this delivered in spades, the sharp v really suits me to a T, and the added girth to the neck really helps me connect with the instrument. Oh yeah, this puppy just resonates like its life depended on it!
pu and the tone: sweet mother of god, the tone! As you know, the 1st time I plugged this in was when I was moving house, so didnt have much chance to test drive this baby. But man, the lollar P90s really do puuurrrrrrr. Clean tone is classic P90, and for some reason, it made me wanna play red house over and over again! Its truly high-cholesterol F-A-T! the babybucker is a good complement to the lollars, they are round and fat, but prob lower in output than I wouldve expected. Thats not a knock on the tone though, as its truly marvelous for my applications. With the v-stack on the raging marshall stack mode, the bridge just screams classic rock. For the more jazzy/fusion stuff, for now, I actually prefer the sparkle drive (used to go to a keeley ds-1 ultra for this), it complements the guitar well.
Should also mention that I generally find myself playing less runs.. but bringing out and accentuating more of the timbre of the notes. So I tend to play more with bends, vibrato etc. it just made me listen more.
hardware & electronics: the switching system worked out great. Variety of tones right on my fingertips. The mid control took a bit of tweaking to get used to. So far Im using it as either a treble booster to push the amp or (with vol rolled back) simulate stratty tones. With a distortion pedal in front kicked in (v-stack) it does a nice envelope filter effect when I turn it fast enough, quite a unique effect to have on board. it certainly does add to the versatility of the toness available.
The bridge.. Im so glad I went with the stetsbar. Im not just saying this because its still honeymoon period but this has added so much to my playing style. It opens up another dimension in my playing. Im usually all about subtle nuances, and fits perfectly (in fact, I have a slow jazzy piece where the bridge is feature quite prominently still not done with the track but its coming together well!). it holds the tuning well, and the motion is smooth as silk. Great stuff!
overall:
its such an inspiration to play. It just got me thinking and playing from different angles, and thats always a good sign. As I mentioned in my last email, and still agree with the statement, the neck feel is something to behold. Its not until I swap guitars that I realise how good the feel is. Well, I tell ya what, ive not met my new neighbours till this morning, and she asked if I was the guitarist that moved in next door, and proceeded to comment on the playing/ asking about type of music etc, that in itself it worth something!
here are my initial thoughts in an email i sent to David:
Played primarily through a mesa blue angel, through a 1x15 open back cab or 1x12 detuned cab. Sparkle drive was used for OD, v-stack for dirtier needs.
Build and feel: great work! Love the (minimalist) details. Love the color scheme and generally the guitar balances wonderful, nice weight to it, but not overbearing. I especially LOVE the abalone side marker that reflects light, it sorta lights up the fretboard in a way . Its weird that something like that can get me excited, but its almost like a roadmap when running solos sometimes, hard to explain but something magical there. The cocobola neck feels great, really smooth and fast. I asked for a bigger version of the fender V-neck, this delivered in spades, the sharp v really suits me to a T, and the added girth to the neck really helps me connect with the instrument. Oh yeah, this puppy just resonates like its life depended on it!
pu and the tone: sweet mother of god, the tone! As you know, the 1st time I plugged this in was when I was moving house, so didnt have much chance to test drive this baby. But man, the lollar P90s really do puuurrrrrrr. Clean tone is classic P90, and for some reason, it made me wanna play red house over and over again! Its truly high-cholesterol F-A-T! the babybucker is a good complement to the lollars, they are round and fat, but prob lower in output than I wouldve expected. Thats not a knock on the tone though, as its truly marvelous for my applications. With the v-stack on the raging marshall stack mode, the bridge just screams classic rock. For the more jazzy/fusion stuff, for now, I actually prefer the sparkle drive (used to go to a keeley ds-1 ultra for this), it complements the guitar well.
Should also mention that I generally find myself playing less runs.. but bringing out and accentuating more of the timbre of the notes. So I tend to play more with bends, vibrato etc. it just made me listen more.
hardware & electronics: the switching system worked out great. Variety of tones right on my fingertips. The mid control took a bit of tweaking to get used to. So far Im using it as either a treble booster to push the amp or (with vol rolled back) simulate stratty tones. With a distortion pedal in front kicked in (v-stack) it does a nice envelope filter effect when I turn it fast enough, quite a unique effect to have on board. it certainly does add to the versatility of the toness available.
The bridge.. Im so glad I went with the stetsbar. Im not just saying this because its still honeymoon period but this has added so much to my playing style. It opens up another dimension in my playing. Im usually all about subtle nuances, and fits perfectly (in fact, I have a slow jazzy piece where the bridge is feature quite prominently still not done with the track but its coming together well!). it holds the tuning well, and the motion is smooth as silk. Great stuff!
overall:
its such an inspiration to play. It just got me thinking and playing from different angles, and thats always a good sign. As I mentioned in my last email, and still agree with the statement, the neck feel is something to behold. Its not until I swap guitars that I realise how good the feel is. Well, I tell ya what, ive not met my new neighbours till this morning, and she asked if I was the guitarist that moved in next door, and proceeded to comment on the playing/ asking about type of music etc, that in itself it worth something!
