FIREFLY Anyone?

brent

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
Just finished installing the new locking tuners, roller nut, and oiling the fretboard and stringing her up with some fresh strings. Got her all tuned up and intonated. Action set quite a bit lower than it was when I received it, with no fret buzzing or dead spots anywhere. I'll plug her in tomorrow and re-adjust the pickups now that the bridge is lower. She looks pretty good in the line up. The new tuners and roller bridge make a huge difference.

Line up.jpg
 

brent

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
Get one! My first electric guitar was a red Samick Strat style guitar. My son still has it. Ever since I gave it to my son, I've kinda wanted to replace it with another red guitar.

This thing is turning into a really nice guitar. I'm thinking about putting a Bigsby on it in the future. At some point, I'm going to have to address the electronics, too. There is something weird going on there. If I have both pickups selected and both volume knobs turned all the way up, it almost sounds like the pickups are out of phase? But, by turning one or the other volume knobs down a little bit, suddenly the sound is much fuller and slightly louder. Since I don't play both pickups together very often, it's not a priority to fix it, but eventually I'll tackle that problem.
 

brent

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
That blue Strat is a Carvin Bolt and the pickups are Carvin's own AP11s. Named for their 11 pole pieces, which are meant to keep the signal from dropping when you bend strings. They sound like beefier Strat pickups. Little more bass and mids, while still maintaining the bell like highs. Great pickups, I love em. This is the second Bolt I've owned, both with the AP11 pickups. The first one was Emerald Green with a Floyd Rose floating trem. I loved that guitar, but did not bond with the Floyd Rose trem, so I ended up selling it and getting this one built.
 

MarkDyson

Blues Hound Wannabe
Cool, thanks for the info! My go-to for single coils has been "Wilde" Bill Lawrence Twin Blades, but I'm always interested in expanding my horizons. :Beer:
 

brent

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
Carvin made some Twin Blade single coils, also. I've never heard them in person. I don't have any experience with Bill Lawrence pickups either, but I've heard good things about them. Most people that have played them have described AP11s as like "Strat pickups on rhoids."
 

Slofinger

Blues Junior
I got the Tobaco Sunburst one, and doing the same mods most of us did, I really like this guitar. If I didn't already have a cherry red 335 I would have gotten a red one. That is very cool looking.
 

Rancid Rumpboogie

Blues Mangler
If those sneaky little buggers come out with a green burst, they will tempt me BAD! I finally did find one teeny flaw in my blue burst Firefly. Just above the two pickups, there is a small indent in the wood about a quarter inch long ... like a quarter inch long line ... very shallow and nearly invisible ... I can't even see it unless I position the guitar so the reflection of a strong light is right over it. Even if I would have found it soon as I opened the box, I would not have sent the guitar back.
 
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oneLOCOman

Blues Newbie
Update to my updated update. This baby with the new pups has become my fav ax. My wife was in the kitchen and I tried my first improv solo to a utube slow rock backing track in Bm. She came out later and ask who did that song and I said me jamming she was like wow that was you. Amazed at how a guitar for $220 can sound so sweet. Heck I had to order me some Tex Mex pups for my vm70s strat cause she was feeling neglected.
 

MikeR

Guitar Challenged
Staff member
For those who want one, they're supposed to be back in stock sometime this week. Keep checking.
 

MikeR

Guitar Challenged
Staff member
That looks pretty cool. I was imagining a darker green. My previous Carvin Bolt was much darker. More like an emerald. That looks fun, though.

Well, they haven't even confirmed that they're going to make a green one, much less what shade of green, so who knows.
 

brent

Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.
Well, they haven't even confirmed that they're going to make a green one, much less what shade of green, so who knows.

That's okay, as you can see from the photo above, I don't need anymore guitars anyway.
 
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