Headless spot

This is Schecter's JOL Series OL-NV_HL headless guitar. You won't find any of these listed on Schecter's web page any more as they were spot models. They were there to test some things out so production was limited & terminal. If you wish for a headless Schecter now, the Synester version is the way to go. As for me, signature models are not my thing.

The guitar came in with a set of 10s in there which strangely felt normal for a 25.5" scale length, no extra tension felt. The action at the upper frets could have been better, all these before a re-string & set up.

As suspected, the neck tilt was already addressed at the factory. This is a factory default shim, it was not replaced with a thicker substitute. I merely added a thin layer on top of this one & it addressed the situation well.

My final set of DR 9s into this one. Will be getting more DRs once some sort of promo kicks in 😅 This is my personal headless guitar after-thoughts, you are free to disagree:

• The headless unit lacks counter-tension at the headstock to properly manifest that standard tension feel. That's right, once you lock the nut end of the strings, all tension related adjustments would be at the bridge end & it's a pulling mechanism, not a winding one like we are used to when re-stringing guitars with proper headstock tuners.
• There's play at the bridge which affects tension. I only discovered this after stretching each string & realized there's some wiggle space at the bridge each & every time a string is stretched. This is why, after stretching each string, it could be detuned to as much as a whole step down. This is true for all such bridge / tuning mechanisms. I've been through three thus far; Ibanez, Kiesel & Schecter. Each guitar manifested this same issue. So folks, if you wish to embrace thicker string gauges because you detune your instruments, best if you don't play a headless unit. 

PS: This guitar was actually mentioned here back in 2024: CLICK

ONPA T-Style

Good Tuesday morning. Played this yesterday & a little bit more this morning before leaving the house.

Saw mould forming on the hardware, decided to remove the strings to attend to that. A fresh set of Rotos for the next round.

I'm very impressed with the Seymour Duncan Five Two; very snappy at the bottom end. The top end, according to the manufacturer, had been tamed a tad but it still sounds very clear with good note separation.

Discolour

I was wondering why there's a discolouration at this part of the guitar neck (Ibanez S970).

Here's the reason - part of the neck is in contact with the hard case, the other is not. 😅

Deepavali 2026

Best wishes to those celebrating. There rest of us are celebrating the long weekend, of course. One more public holiday to go before the year turns.

Nut Job: LP

Last night's minor surgery - nut replacement for my LP Studio 60s tribute. Yes, I do nut replacements myself, I learned how to remove glued-on nuts carefully over the years & file the slots accordingly to suit the guitar.

This was what happened - I flicked the strings aside to lubricate the slots after re-stringing the guitar & it got chipped at two spots (blue arrow). There were also rusts embedded into the slots which could not be removed (red arrow). The guitar nut is an expendable item, we should not be too sentimental when replacement is due.

So my beloved P90 LP was good to go. When both pickups are activated, it sounds good (to me) for tapped notes. Also, nothing beats the P90 growl for doom.

ASAT Saturday

Enough of humbucking tones for this week, time for some single coil action. Glad I grabbed this before City Music moved out of Peace Center & the G&L brand calling it a day: Fullerton Deluxe ASAT Classic. I didn't realize those are brass saddles till I did a re-string 😅

I still have a few Rotos in the house & a set went into this guitar. Those MFD pickups are wicked in driven settings. I have no idea if this was meant to be as such because we normally grab a Tele-esque guitar for crystalline cleans. I'm not much a of a clean player anyway.