The Vinnie Vincent Forum - Where Freedom Rocks!

AZGuitars

The wood on the Skull is Alder as was the original. The two Scorpions that I have are also Alder. I'm kind of slammed today but I will post some pics of them as soon as I can. One of them is black base color with overcoat of red pearl and the other is same base with gold pearl. Hardware is all black...

AZGuitars

Looks like the Skull is going into the spray booth tomorrow to get it's new coats 'o' paint. Going to start with a nice base coat of brownish yellow cream white followed by an over coat of intercoat clear with gold pearl in it. Next will be airbrushing the dark detail shadow color which will be blac...

AZGuitars

Doublev2,
I've got a couple of Scorpion guitars that have been sitting around for quite a while that I'm thinking of letting go at a good discount. I'll post some photos when I get the chance.

AZGuitars

I thought I'd post some of the guitar players that catch my ear from time to time. Here is a new guy and he's using a BareKnuckles WarPig in his bridge, say what the neck PU is. And I've recently discovered some other new players in the field that are doing incredible things with guitars now. I supp...

AZGuitars

Wait until you see the paint job on this one. I've gotten a lot more specialty paints in my stock since I built the first Skull so this one is going to really sing!

AZGuitars

More progress on the skull . . . .

AZGuitars

Since I started building in the mid 80's I've been using hot press double weight illustration board for my templates. I draw out the cavity outline, enlarging it by 1/8" to account for the router guide and 1/4" bit, then it's cut out with an X-Acto knife. This way they are fast to make and easy to m...

AZGuitars

I have no idea what TM1 stood for and I never asked. Even on the Company registration it doesn't say what it is. It's registered as "TM1 Holding Company, Inc."

AZGuitars

TM1 was Vinnie's Father-in-law's "Company" that was set up to sell the "Guitarmageddon Guitars" that never happened. I believe that was done to keep KISS or the courts from going after Vinnie.

AZGuitars

Skull guitar II

AZGuitars

Here's a bit of memorabilia from the big event . . . .

AZGuitars

I am at least very proud of my accomplishment in this regard but it also reminds me of the crash and burn of the German Hindenberg.

"OH THE HUMANITY"

That someone has them that shouldn't.

AZGuitars

They look HOTTER THAN HELL but I'm prejudiced anyway.

AZGuitars

Courtesy of timstar1 who photographed the Vinnie guitars I built for the show and who made this video.
Thanks, it's one of my favorite Vinnie tunes.

[youtube][/youtube]

AZGuitars

Onward and upward. A local newspaper interviewed me at my first shop in Pleasanton, CA about a few months after I opened it. Just found this clipping in a file folder yesterday and I hope it's readable.

AZGuitars

In that photo I thought the guitar in the foreground was the one we were talking about as it's an ugly whack job. The Rand does look a lot like mine but I had never seen one until now. Possibly a bit larger and some other different details but similar. I think the body on mine is a bit smaller than ...

AZGuitars

Oops, shows you how much I've followed all the more recent bands. I was thinking that the guitar in the foreground was the subject of the conversation. Yeah, the one in the back is a lot nicer design wise. I still don't like the one in the front though.

AZGuitars

Since I'm on the subject, here's a couple of shots of one of my Scorpion guitars . . . .

Closeup of the comfort carving on the back . . . .

AZGuitars

Post Script:
So much has been done in the world of design that the majority of it is derivative anyway. With my Scorpions I feel that I just made a silk purse out of a sow's ear so to speak.

AZGuitars

Sorry to Mr. Blaze but that design looks like S**T to me. I never liked it. Besides it looks like someone just wacked down the bottom horn on a strat body. Aaaarrrrgh! Some rockers have no taste at all! At least Vinnie was trying. It seems that he was treating it like a designer would. If he could h...

AZGuitars

Thanks Slayer. The ones you're talking about are my "Scorpion" guitars and here's how I got there with that design. There was another guitar out at the time, the "Alvarez Scoop", see photo. http://i.imgur.com/OUK6pCt.png More about that guitar here: http://www.myrareguitars.com/vintage-1994-alvarez-...

AZGuitars

Here's another fun photo . . . . this is my PEAR GUITARS display booth that I set up at a local "Good guys" car show in Pleasanton, CA. I had a good friend who taught guitar at the local music store come in to demo during the show. At one point I walked away from the booth down to the other end of t...

AZGuitars

I finally got a good shot of this "Mini"guitar. It's one of my personal favorites and it's Black Pearl on a Mahogany body with Ivoroid binding. The back of the body and neck are sunburst'd with the Mahogany showing through. Again it has a 23.5" scale and so far is the only one out of 6 the with othe...

AZGuitars

Probably would have to on the 12 string headstock. Or. Maybe banjo's on the inside and standards on the outside. The 6 string could just use standards.

AZGuitars

Possibly a custom designed steel rod to keep it from tweaking to the side. Also consider that the head stocks are joined together which would provide added structural strength for the 12 side as well. A metal or carbon fiber tie piece holding the headstocks together may be fine too.

AZGuitars

Hi Slayer, I still play a little bit but not much anymore. I had an opportunity to get in a band back in 72' but had already set my sights on going to Design College, (Art Center College of Design). But earlier than that I had seen a guitar that someone had painted for Eric Clapton and the seed was ...

AZGuitars

Now here's an interesting beast. I don't remember why I got this one from a friend of mine who also built guitars. It may have been a trade of some sort but anyway I ended up with this thing. I totally did not like it and it had a neck like a fence post so I went to work on it big time. I first rewo...

AZGuitars

Hi Dino, Using Alder instead of Soft Maple may have been fine but I did like the way the Maple behaved while cutting those chamfers. I guess that's why Jackson used it to begin with. It most likely lent a bit brighter tone to the guitar as well. The alder would have cut down the highs a little. I te...

AZGuitars

I was going to post the Black Pearl mini but I don't have a good photo of it yet so today I'm posting the guitar I'm building for myself. Figured Maple on alder body to have a tobacco sunburst when done. Probably gold hardware too. Not sure yet what pickups I'll use. This is also a Mini by the way. ...

AZGuitars

I really didn't get much of a chance to play them as the show was coming up within days and I had to get the display components constructed. Basically I tested each one just make sure they were working ok and actually didn't notice much in the way of tone differences. The third knobs were for a rota...

AZGuitars

Hi Guys, I thought just to help keep this ball rolling I'd post some of my photo's of builds I did way back when. I also thought I'd post like 1 a day to build the anticipation as the days go by. My first post is a photo of 2 of my first what I call "Mini" guitars. The bodies are derived from the bo...

AZGuitars

I'll check around in here again and see if I can find it.

T.

AZGuitars

And ankh lives in my favourite city.. Naples! Yes I guess asking a guitar maker to build the guitar they want to build is a great idea. I am a big fan of weird stuff so maybe that's at least interesting. I guess copying fender and gibson designs gets really old. I was already sick of cookie cutter ...

AZGuitars

Hi Tom, I'm not sure you're aware but I will be doing my first trip to the US late next month to attend the Kiss Kruise in Miami and then drive through the US back to California. Along the way I'd like to visit with you to meet up, see your shop and whatever you're building at the time. I've sent y...

AZGuitars

Great post Ankh! All I can say is Amen.

AZGuitars

Not real exciting but progress none the less . . . . Do-in the Glue-in.

AZGuitars

Did you consult vv on the double neck and basses that were also advertised at namm? Tom do you have any plans for other v shaped guitars not in vv design? Actually I do. As I was fooling around with one of my drawings of Vinnie's double V, I mirrored 1/2 of the guitar lengthwise and removed the sha...

AZGuitars

To Ankh, I'm actually not certain that the shape has much to do with the tone. As for my guitars over the years I've had several people mention that my guitars have much better acoustics than normal when played unplugged. The only thing I do and prefer is that I use lacquer primer which breathes mor...

AZGuitars

Gee Wolfi it would be an honor to see you for real. If it looks like plan let me know so I can clean up the shop before you get here. By the way, I'm one quarter German from my mom's side and came from the Rauch and Wagner families out of Wiesbaden. From my dad I'm one half Polish and back on my mom...

AZGuitars

OK, one member on my side and counting.

Thanks Slayer.

AZGuitars

Hi guys, Just wanted to know if there's any opposition for me to invite one or all of my
customers to come here to watch their builds in progress and / or join the forum for posting
here? Take whatever pot-shots you like. I can take it!
Thanks, T.

AZGuitars

There's probably a zillion skeleton themed guitars out there. It would be fun to be able to see a full collection of them.

AZGuitars

Slayer, If I had to choose one from the group you sent I have to say the last one, the Flaming Skull. I still do though like the simplicity of the PEAR Skull. At the time I was working with a band called Murder Bay for which I did a their band logo that includes a red lipstick kiss on the side of th...

AZGuitars

I'm working on a new guitar for one of Beca's old high school friends. He is giving the guitar to his daughter this coming Christmas. This will be a copy of one of my first customs that I built in my garage before I got into my first shop in commercial space in 1991. I had seen several iterations of...

AZGuitars

The last I heard from him before he moved to Smyrna was a hurried phone call from a phone booth somewhere and he was all out of breath. He told me that "I could make more of the 92's and sell them". So I put a photo of #1 in my PEAR advertisement flyer to hand out and I also ran ads for it in BAM Ma...

AZGuitars

Top of the Post: "Yes I did mean 1991". I keep trying to keep myself younger but it hasn't been working to well. As for Wesley, we had a falling out about a year ago and I haven't talked to him since. He has a penchant for taking junk parts and old bodies and necks and putting together some really c...

AZGuitars

I met him at NAMM 2001. He was at the Dean Markley Booth signing posters as he was endorsing Markley's strings at that time. I was with my cousin Wesley and he saw Vinnie first and started dragging me over to the booth while telling me it was Ace. So we get over there and Wes says hi Ace and Vinnie ...

AZGuitars

Doublev2
Yes, I did consult on the other guitars which are the Double Neck and the Bass. So I basically drew up the designs but that's as far as they went. After the 2011 NAMM the whole business concept crashed and burned.

AZGuitars

For PoserBoy, I can direct anyone that is interested in a lot of my past builds to my blog that I started a good while back. The address is http://www.azguitars.wordpress.com Incidentally, I started building guitars in earnest after I was laid off, from the coolest job I ever had, at Atari. I was th...

AZGuitars

Yeah doublev2! And the shadow fins were shot with a brownish gold tinted clear coat to get the antique effect. Might be neat to do a gold leaf with an overall darker clear coat. In fact this gives me a thought for the Arrow guitar that I mentioned a while back. Hmmmm.

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