they are close. but I still feel the shadow is just a hair thick at its base. I took the V and shined a light on it to get an idea of how the actually shadow would look. Thats why it doesn't look right to me. thats all. If it was $4g I might buy one.

I have no doubt that your observations are correct. Maybe Tom felt more secure with having the shadow a bit thicker. Maybe for tone reasons? Maybe for looks? Maybe for strength reasons? Maybe all of these and more?

it wouldn't make any difference in tone. its all cosmetic for the most part.

@Rap Man 127: Diane did not mention any specifics about the music, whether it would be archived or new. For what it's worth, she said that Vinnie still plays and records, so we at least know there is the likelihood of something new existing.

When I asked Tom the question about whether Vinnie has played the guitars, I also found it odd that he hadn't played them. He did say that Vinnie and he have been in constant contact, and that Vinnie has been very involved and specific about he wants, and that he has sent photos, notes and design/spec information. So I am sure they have conferred quite a bit over the phone and e-mail.

This was my first NAMM show in five years, and I was just going for one day. So sorry...can't do anything about tomorrow. I really feel I could have gotten a video interview with Tom, so I am kicking myself for that. Maybe someone else will get one...

TJMonster wrote:it wouldn't make any difference in tone. its all cosmetic for the most part.

I was just thinking in terms of more wood =better resonance. Since that upper shadow wing is under the bridge...

I think of the famous Eddie Van Halen story of cutting up the Ibanez Destroyer. How he lost the magic tone of that particular guitar by cutting a chunk out below the bridge.
It's the "Women And Children First" guitar.

Chris Holmes from W.A.S.P. either loaned or gave Eddie HIS Destroyer for stdio use because Eddie was so bummed out.

Amazing, beautiful. I think I'm gonna work on those in miniature version. I can even make a gold leaf, I did it in the past. more pics

Seems to me Vinnie is even more of a recluse than I thought.....to have not be physically involved in the process of making these guitars is extremely odd to me. Surely if you're producing 'your' signature guitar you'd want to 'feel' it, 'touch' it, 'hold' it, 'play' it before unveiling it to the world. I'm no guitar player but surely how 'heavy' this thing is would be a consideration. These seem simply a VV guitar in namesake only. Especially more so that no-one seems to have ever played the damn things. I can underatnd you guys thinking these are works of art, but if they sound like shit, then I'm afraid that's all they'll be....works of art.....something I'd like to hang on a wall with all my other KISS related memorabilia.

It would take a true moronic fuck-up to screw up that guitar with those materials and components.
GOLD LEAF ?= FUCK ME!!! EMG'S, Screamin Demons( good choice !!!) Flyd Rose Pro,etc... Everything about these guitars scream quality.

Those are Vinnie's specs given to a trusted guitar maker and friend.Vinnie has played his guitar for almost twenty years now.

Thanks for the pictures. Great work. Wow the gold leaf is mental.
Really great guitars.
The think that pisses me of. Does Diane believe the box set if hatefull rumours ? Does she believe vv is also no a hateful message board member (like he was and is) . Yes lots of stuff on boards are garbage. But facts are facts and i would be happy to go back into this in fine details. I have only said 100% facts regarding the dv boad. She should also be very careful in suggesting out of court settlements were made with kiss because believe me , those people are watching and listening. No out of court settlements were made.
I love the guitars but Diane confirming he has never played them is a joke at these prices. Pictures, demonstrations, confirmstion of signed letter. Toms has transferred his copy of vvs signature that dates back to the pear days. Also whits the guitar going to say on the headstock? A for the guitar. F for price. F for transparency. F for cheating and lying all this years. A for doing something. D for amateur set up.
Just to ad. Vv fans want what vinnie used in his guitars not George Lynch pick ups and Floyd pro . AND LET ME TELL YOU IF THEY SOUNDED GOOD THEY WOULD HAVE AN AMP FOR PEOPLE TO DEMO IT AND WOULD DO A YOUTUBE DEMO. YOU TELLING ME PEOPLE HAVE TO RISK 9K FOR SOMETHING THAT YOU CAN NOT DEMO OR HEAR OR TAKE OFF THE STAND, AND THE ONLY INFO COMES FROM NON PERMANENT TEXT ON AN ALIEN MOVIE DIRECT RIP OFF AD ON YOUTUBE. I DON'T LIKE TO SWEAR SO I WONT. THIS GETS MY GOAT.

Let's help Dino round up and corral his fucking goats again !!!

TOM IS A GOOD MAKER SO IT LOOKS, BUT NO FAMOUS GUITAR COMPANY WOULD WORK WITH HIM . BURNING BRIDGES . TOM HAS LESS TO LOOSE.
just to add to Dianes comments about hateful forums. Her husband and tom are part of that. Tom was on the pyro andmy board posting history about him and vinnie on and off for years. V was more hateful than most on his board. So if they ultimately blame the internet and message boards they are also including themselves as they were 200% part of it too. So remember that guys.

We are well aware of the history. Let's not forget it yet let's move away from it and make things healthier for all involved.
That's the key of all successful relationships. If something I do pisses you off, I will do it away from you so we can maintain the greater good and keep smiling.

Let me clarify the "rumor/forum" comment. Again, she said it in regard to hateful comments about Vinnie, notably the rumors about him being homeless and being a female.

I didn't broach any other subject (box set).

Tim,please ask her more questions today. On camera if she would be so kind. sk Palecki as well.

Ok. Sorry. But what about the rumours and hateful comments about his fans he is spreading ? But I will calm down and I realise that I miss read what you said. She and tom will know you posted the interviews so it maybe intetesting to go back

shramiac wrote:Timstar78 = super genius!

Awesome photos. Thank you for all your hard work & an honest & fair review of the event. Very cool.

Vinnie hasn't touch them ? bummer

doublev wrote:Thanks for the pictures. Great work. Wow the gold leaf is mental.
Really great guitars.
The think that pisses me of. Does Diane believe the box set if hatefull rumours ? Does she believe vv is also no a hateful message board member (like he was and is) . Yes lots of stuff on boards are garbage. But facts are facts and i would be happy to go back into this in fine details. I have only said 100% facts regarding the dv boad. She should also be very careful in suggesting out of court settlements were made with kiss because believe me , those people are watching and listening. No out of court settlements were made.
I love the guitars but Diane confirming he has never played them is a joke at these prices. Pictures, demonstrations, confirmstion of signed letter. Toms has transferred his copy of vvs signature that dates back to the pear days. Also whits the guitar going to say on the headstock? A for the guitar. F for price. F for transparency. F for cheating and lying all this years. A for doing something. D for amateur set up.
Just to ad. Vv fans want what vinnie used in his guitars not George Lynch pick ups and Floyd pro . AND LET ME TELL YOU IF THEY SOUNDED GOOD THEY WOULD HAVE AN AMP FOR PEOPLE TO DEMO IT AND WOULD DO A YOUTUBE DEMO. YOU TELLING ME PEOPLE HAVE TO RISK 9K FOR SOMETHING THAT YOU CAN NOT DEMO OR HEAR OR TAKE OFF THE STAND, AND THE ONLY INFO COMES FROM NON PERMANENT TEXT ON AN ALIEN MOVIE DIRECT RIP OFF AD ON YOUTUBE. I DON'T LIKE TO SWEAR SO I WONT. THIS GETS MY GOAT.

Now Dino, that's what i like to see,,bravo. That's being honest. bravo .. The goat,, the black sheep, hey whats going on...It's Animal Farm here,,,Six Strings Good, Seven Strings better ...I'd still give him D for doing something, cause it sounds like Tom did everything...Vinnie hasn't even played it. P.S. Dino, I like how you when all CAPITAL LETTERS, on the last segment of your statement Very nice Vinnie touch there.

Maybe Vinnie prefers those pickups over everything out ther. They are one of the better sounding pickups available to my ears.
As far as the Floyd Rose PRO, Didn't it say that Vinnie demanded that to be the bridge?

Preferences change.

Like I said, I'm no guitar player, but just because a guitar contains 'quality' components doesn't make it a great sounding guitar. I liken it to putting "Rolls Royce" engines on Qantas Jets.....sure, every one know Rolls Royce make quality engines, but hey, every time a Qantas plane engine blows up, sure enough, it's a Rolls Royce engine!
And someone has already said how hard these guitars are to paint. So let me get this straight, we see FOUR guitars that have pretty spiffy paint jobs, so as a consumer you're going to get the same? BULLSHIT! Once anything goes into production QC goes out the window. In almost every product produced, PROTOTYPES almost ALWAYS exceed the final product in terms of how it is finished. This is a 'ham and egg' operation being run out of someone's back-yard. Someone please wake up and smell the flowers because to me, they aint smelling all that rosey!

The sweetest smelling flowers are all fertilized with the stinkiest of shit.

Compliments of my friend Dr. Rudy Rouweyha. I asked him to get some close-ups of the headstocks.
THANKS Rudy !!!

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The Vinnie-inspired Rhoads reissue : Photos courtesy of Dr.Rudy:

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@vvv

@metaron

and my buddy tj--------


i agree with all of you this is a joke it took 4 yrs to make a prototype that cant be played and vinnie never touched it... how do you endorse a guitar you never played and charge 9 grand for ? total bull

and yea the guitar dosnt look right on the shadow v sideand the head stock looks small and stubby.

over all it looks great though i agree but it will NEVER be worth 9 grand

@ dino - never fear dino VV and tom and all the negativity came from the past was there doing ... ye athere were a few bad apples but it wasnt any of us ..

again he dosnt care bout us , only him self..

Sadly, I have to agree with the pricing negativity. As for the guitars, again,STUNNING !!!

The lynch " screaming demon" pick up sounds like sizzling chain saw very much like the dimebucker. too much out put and a loss of tone. At least emgs are warm.

if he was smart ( and i know your reading this vinnie so get your self a pen or pencil ) he'd email or call GFS (thats guitarfetsh.com) have them make you your own VV model pickup for you guitar then you could have your sound , since youd be the biggest artist theyd have ....im sure theyd work with you ... i mean i know there are a hundred pick up companys but this one is great and they are affordable and not only that they are hungry.

you know vinnie this forum and the people on here know what were talking bout ..

I guess it boils down to how you run your amp. Those Screamin' Demons are the right amount of rock for me. I set up my amp for a clean rock bite. It sounds like an acoustic guitar injected and infected with Lou Ferrigno's man-mustard.


You could place EMG's in a pile of puke and it will sound magnificent. No brainer there.

chris bickley wrote:@vvv
@metaron
and my buddy tj--------
i agree with all of you this is a joke it took 4 yrs to make a prototype that cant be played and vinnie never touched it... how do you endorse a guitar you never played and charge 9 grand for ? total bull
and yea the guitar dosnt look right on the shadow v side and the head stock looks small and stubby.
over all it looks great though i agree but it will NEVER be worth 9 grand
@ dino - never fear dino VV and tom and all the negativity came from the past was there doing ... ye athere were a few bad apples but it wasnt any of us ..
again he dosnt care bout us , only him self..

Thanks Chris appreciate that. To me, if I tally up the sore, Vinnie Vinnie & Vinnie Vincent 'the brand' has failed. Yes I love the guitars. Yes I would to have one. But I am not going to pay $9000 and $12500 (plus $650 for case) for pretty much any guitar, unless it is going to be an investment for my portfolio. This guitar is simply not worth it. Prince's guitar had real gold hardware on the thing & it was $25000. That's Price, know through out the world in the mainstream media & pop charts. Remember your not buying a Fender Strat or a Gibson Les Paul. Gibson Les Paul, the names Led Zeppelin, Jimmy Page, Guns & Roses, Slash, KISS, Ace Frehley, come to minds. Monster bands that have millions of sales under there belt. Then Fender Stratocaster, huge names associated with this brand. Jimi Hendrix Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton, Yngwie Malmsteen, Mark Knopfler. Man this list goes on for these two manufacturers. Now lets pick Vinnie Vinnie. He is an artist with four albums worth of material. Five if you count the Euphoria EP. I say 4, 5 albums because before that, he was Vinnie Cusano,,,basically a nobody. If he likes it or not KISS made him what you & I love. If it wasn't for KISS, he may have never been as known as he is. In a lot of ways Vinnie is more Infamous than famous. To most everyday KISS fans he doesn't exist. So what has he done, taken a another large step to alienate his true fans, by pricing a guitar at a entry level price of $9000 (without a case). Not only that, it's a guitar made by an unknown, lutheran. Look no disrespect to Tom, but I don't know him from a bar of soap. And Tom, you don't make life easy for yourself when people are trying to contact you to find out purchase information about your products. The last thing I'd like to point out about the guitar is, well it's a pointy guitar. Not only a pointy guitar, but a (for most people) a radically pointy guitar that is only played by one person, Vinnie Vinnie. A lot of people don''t like them. Once again , we, the true fans, (fans that will never be able to afford one) love them, but they are not priced for the fans. I don't understand the logic. Make it for the fans, then price yourself out of the market you made if for,,totally nuts.

TJMonster wrote:aaahhhh hmmmmm. "Q: Has Vinnie played the guitars yet?
A: No, he's only seen pictures."

Im really biting my lips.............Seriously..........really.............really.... OH FUCK IT!
HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU PUT YOUR NAME ON SOMETHING YOU HAVENT EVEN TOUCHED!!!!! Sorry, i have had a bit to drink tonight...... He Paid for the NAME! VINNIE DOESN"T ACTUALLY PLAY THIS GUITAR EITHER!

Yes, that's over-the-top retarded. And Lynch Screamin' Demons?? I wonder what George has to say about this. Oh wait, let me ask him...

With the way this was rolled out, you would think Vinnie is dead.

Reminds me of how the Rhoads family turned out for the latest RR model presentation. Maybe that was the templet for the marketing.

At least we know Randy actually PLAYED his guitar.

VVV wrote:With the way this was rolled out, you would think Vinnie is dead.

i was thinking the same thing ..why is he still hiding ?

yea vvv and it was and still is a jackson !!!

i was referring to the rhoads V.

Streetbeat wrote:

VVV wrote:With the way this was rolled out, you would think Vinnie is dead.

i was thinking the same thing ..why is he still hiding ?

" Weekend At Vinnie's 2"

TheGoodDr wrote:Like I said, I'm no guitar player, but just because a guitar contains 'quality' components doesn't make it a great sounding guitar. I liken it to putting "Rolls Royce" engines on Qantas Jets.....sure, every one know Rolls Royce make quality engines, but hey, every time a Qantas plane engine blows up, sure enough, it's a Rolls Royce engine!
And someone has already said how hard these guitars are to paint. So let me get this straight, we see FOUR guitars that have pretty spiffy paint jobs, so as a consumer you're going to get the same? BULLSHIT! Once anything goes into production QC goes out the window. In almost every product produced, PROTOTYPES almost ALWAYS exceed the final product in terms of how it is finished. This is a 'ham and egg' operation being run out of someone's back-yard. Someone please wake up and smell the flowers because to me, they aint smelling all that rosey!

Im a luthier, with all hard maple and ebony, its really a 1% chance it will sound bad. As long as he use hard maple and not soft there shouldn't be anything wrong with the guitar. I said they are hard to paint because I have painted a few of them. These guitars in my eyes, are worth $3k to $4k. The gold leaf, $5k. Tom really did an awesome job one that guitar.

Also if Tom is hand making these, or atleast putting them together after a cnc cuts the parts, he's a luthier, its in his nature to make the next guitar better than the last.

chris bickley wrote:if he was smart ( and i know your reading this vinnie so get your self a pen or pencil ) he'd email or call GFS (thats guitarfetsh.com) have them make you your own VV model pickup for you guitar then you could have your sound , since youd be the biggest artist theyd have ....im sure theyd work with you ... i mean i know there are a hundred pick up companys but this one is great and they are affordable and not only that they are hungry.

you know vinnie this forum and the people on here know what were talking bout ..

Don't let him ruin the price of GFS pickups.......

Personally, I think the close ups look excellent. The gold leaf is too much for me but a great idea. I think tom has shown his worth. I hope vv bought one. I only have an issue with the branding on the headstock. I would love to have tom make a non vv model.
I hate the look of the new duncans with the logo by the.way. I also think that they need to have a warmer tone body wood than maple to counter the high end. Mahogany or walnut would have worked but thats my opinion. Vinnie used to use paf duncans, I wonder why he switched. I believe that none of these guitars will be sold but I hope they are. They must must must have a YouTube demo of this guitar for it to sell anything.
If I ordered (in my dreams) I would have black flake front and silver flake or dark grey flake back. 2 bare knuckles.. maybe the dirty fingers one. And I would put my non fine tuning Floyd that I was going to send as a surprise to vinnie on it. I actually like the soubd of msple boards but i would take ebony for looks. It's only a dream as my side would leave me if I paid that kind of money for a guitar. It's a great mid life crisis buy.
I am so sad seeing this and knowing all the friction between most fans and vinnie. It's a shame someone can not mediate honestly between him and his fans.

Thanks Tim, great info as always.

Yes great work

What's funny is that I also have one or two non-fine tuning Floyds that I was going to send Vinnie.
Either he has a new preference OR he put the PRO on there because he thinks people would want the ease of fine tuners on their locking system..

As much as having a non fine tuning Floyd on there for authenticity, for practicality I am glad it's a real Floyd and with Fine tuners. I do prefer the standard Floyd, but the Pro is cool with me.

If I had a guitar tech to tune my guitar with a non fine tuner then I probably wouldn't care either way.

poserboy71 wrote:What's funny is that I also have one or two non-fine tuning Floyds that I was going to send Vinnie.
Either he has a new preference OR he put the PRO on there because he thinks people would want the ease of fine tuners on their locking system..

oR Maybe he hasn't touch the guitars at all

Yes, thanks for the posts and info. Tim!

Great work Tim!
As for the headstocks......no-one can take away the fact that they are original! I personally like the reversed Jackson style but can see why they went this route. And it does kinda suit the body style. Even Ed Roman likes the twin headstock the best. As for the shadow fins, to me the guitar was two vees on top of each other. That means that the angle of both shadow fins should be equal. I don't think any of the guitars over the years have got it right! Either one of the fins was too long or short, or in most cases the bottom fin was a little stubby!

i didn't think i would like the twin headstock.. but it looks good on the AZG's. I think the neck looks good too. Yeah, maybe the shadow is stubby but it still looks good to me. i think the streamlined Pear is on offer and thats not stubby I don't think.

These guitars look a lot better than Ed Romans.. wholly cow!!!

doublev wrote:
These guitars look a lot better than Ed Romans.. wholly cow!!!

We have always thought the Roman guitars were shit.

There is no comparison here. To talk about the two is unfair to Palecki.

Ed does have a good beard though!

ed must have stopped by vv's booth. he is good friends with tom. i wonder what he said.. most likely he would say tom didn't make them.. they were made in some factory in Saipan. He says that about ever guitar that challenges him.

Ha ha! You could be right!