Funny Vinnie Stuff

[AZGuitars]

I don't remember whether or not I've shown this photo before on the forum but I built this one during the construction of the original Vinnie VVV in 1992. It's a stereo guitar with pickup switching that allows 48 different tone combinations.










So while I was working with Vinnie building the Fab 4 in 2010-11 I thought it would be funny to do some Photo Shop work on the ST-V to show to Vinnie. Well I thought it was pretty funny (I crack myself up sometimes) but when I showed it to him he didn't think it was funny at all. I called this one the Mini-Vinnie.

[tukoztukoz]

Too bad Vinnie lost his sense of humour. A good laugh every day would be the best cure for him.

Nice guitar, I like it. Those lines remind me of 80's designs (Ace's AF-40, "Delorean automobile"...). Do you still have it? Do you plan to do Mini-Vinnies for real?

[AZGuitars]

I hadn't planned on building any Mini-Vinnies but I would make some ST-V's if it were worth my while. I do still have the prototype. It has a few little features that I'd like to modify some time when I get some free time.

[Genebaby]

Did Vinnie explode at you?

[doublev2]

vinnie either laughs or blows his top. he has that attitude of a terrible dictator. Thank god he never had power over people.

[Streetbeat]

lol what was his reaction?

[AZGuitars]

Regarding the Mini-Vinnie his reaction was just silence. He may have said something too like "I don't think so" and that was about it.

[Genebaby]

That's fairly casual for Vinnie.

[1031]

Pretty cool design I could see MAB playing something like it. I notice you source a lot of your necks, whos did you use for the Vinnie set. I have used quite a few USACG and few Warmoth when custom strat builds were all the rage.

[doublev2]

He made all necks on all 5 vv guitars. I think tom has bought warmoth in the past from memory

[doublev2]

If I am not mistaken I believe vinnie liked the neck on his carvin the most so he had tom copy it for pear and azgs but tom would be able to confirm that. I guess his carvin neck was sare as all other carvin necks from late 80s.

[AZGuitars]

Hi 1031 / doublev,
I definitely used the Carvin dimensions on all 5 guitars. Started using it too for some of my own stuff. I've used replacement necks over the years from Warmouth as well and several from StewMac too. I changed the dot inlays on the StewMac necks by milling out the inlays on my mill then replacing them with Abalone doing a bar at the 12th fret with half dots on the ends. When I photograph the 80's scorpions I'll do some closeups of the inlays.

I did a neck for a guy once who wanted me to replace just the fret board with a Birds Eye Maple one. I had made a jig before that I used to shave fretboards off on my table saw so that's what I did but sometimes the new boards feel a little odd before they settle down and fly right. Anyway this one was acting up so I told the customer to just put some pressure in the opposite direction, just kind push and pull on it until it seats up better. Some truss rod adjustments help too. So he starts yanking on the neck like real hard when we hear a big snapping sound which was the truss rod going south. All I could say was "that was a bit too hard". He ended up with a brand new Warmouth neck with a Birds Eye fretboard. In the end he still got what he wanted.

[poserboy71]

My TJ Monster VVV has a Carvin neck blank. NICE !!!!

[doublev2]

I wonder if those new carvin blank necks are similar to their 80s ones?

[AZGuitars]

Maybe you could contact them and ask them that same question. I've got unlimited long distance maybe I could give them a try. You've got me curious now. Are those necks bolt on or through?

By the way, as you'll see when I post the Scorpion pics, I also changed the shape of the head stocks a bit. I'll do a close up of the headstocks too.

[poserboy71]

Basically THIS: