Conference napalm::guitar

    -1
    
    Ask Poul Sandgren...he's got one, and from memory, methinks it's
    a great guitar!

	Hee hee, Buck, you're about learning it...;^)

	Yes, it's a GREAT guitar (of course)! Mine is an R3 model,
	white with black hardware, ebony fingerboard, build-in preamp.
	It has to pots, one volume and one tone control.

	One thing that first come to your mind when playing this gui-
	tar, is the finish of it and the playability - it has a very
	slim neck, almost flat fingerboard and high frets - exactly
	my taste. The sustain of this guitar has to be heard!

	The preamp switch has three positions - one that bypasses it
	(for vintage sound), the other with boosted bottom and highs,
	the third with boosted mids. It's possible to adjust it on the
	backside of the guitar, two pots for the low/high amp and one
	for the midrange.

	I'm currently trying if Fender Lace Sensor pickups will do
	better on this guitar - I'm not sure, except for the hum on
	those conventional pickups, will go away with FLS's. It'll
	propably end up with a FLS silver on the bridge position (I
	like this, gives a very smooth trebled sound, as opposed to
	the gold, sounds to harsh IMO) and two FLS golds on the mid
	and neck positions.

	The newer Blade guitars are delivered with new developed
	pickups, guess they are something like the FLS's. Also, the
	ones they sell in the states have a pointed headstock - they
	are not allowed to make it like a real strat - Fender stopped
	it with a lawsuit. In Europe, you can buy it with the strat
	form headstock.

	The R4 models are the real expensive ones - I think you pay
	your money for the beautiful laquer finish and gold hardware
	on these models - they are extremely beautiful to look at, I
	haven't seen Fender guitars with a design like this...

	Poul

    Poul,
    
    About that preamp...any added gain characteristics happening there?!?
    Also, in the "Boosted Mids" mode, does it sound at all like Brian 
    May's tone??
    
    Buck, who wants a tone somewhere between Sykes/Lynch and Brain May

    
    Buck,
    
    Well, in the low/high boost position, with both the pots turned up,
    you get a glass-clear sound, very well useable for solo playing. The
    boosted mid position gives you a sort of 'humbucker_on_a_strat' 
    sound...I recall Brian May's tone as somewhat dark, singing - I don't
    really know if the Blade can do this... with 5 p/u positions, 3 pre-
    amp positions and 3 trimpots with stepless adjustments you have end-
    less possibilities, and I haven't tried them all!
    
    Anyway, I think Brian May designed his own guitars, and they're de-
    finitely of another shape than a strat - which has great influence
    on the tone - and his amp might add some other considerable effect
    as well.
    
    Poul
    

    Brian credits a great percentage of his tone to be the lead and middle 
    pickups used together in out-of-phase mode.  That and his heavy-mid 
    boost.  I like that clear, stinging/, sustaining tone for leads, but I 
    also like the "the amop is going to blow up" sound that John Sykes and
    George Lynch get for their rhythm playing.
    
    Things that make you go Hmmmmmmm...

    re .1:
      The lace pickups are really nice but they do have a bit of hum though
    it is somewhat less than most single-coils...I'm using the silver and
    blue on my guitar and am impressed with the over-all performance of
    them. My bridge pickup is a D'marzio stacked double-coil which I have
    switchable to double/single coil and series/parallal and phasing with
    the other two. It makes for interesting tone capabilities.
    
    re. .8 & .9....I like the feel of the Ibanez (not sure of the spelling)
    but the sound isn't anything to get all too choked up about.