NYNGD: New Year's New Guitar Days! NYNGD #2020-13

Thanks for the kind words and comments on yesterday’s NYNGD #2020-12!

AND THEN THERE WERE TWO! OK, we’re almost at the finish line. Today’s NYNGD is a stunner… the most unique EBMM in my entire collection. This Axis Super Sport Semi Hollow BFR is a very interesting guitar for me. My first EBMM Semi Hollow. My first EBMM hardtail (besides my Silhouette Bass Guitar and my Bongo Basses). My only single-pickup EBMM.

Let’s talk about the looks first — a great flame maple top in a great yellow finish, complete with the Semi Hollow “M”. A white bound maple neck with ebony fretboard and amazing inlays. The neck really makes this guitar for me. Just great!

Sonically, this guy is interesting. Acoustically (not plugged in), it sounds warmer and breathier than a normal Axis. Pretty much what you would expect from a Semi Hollow guitar. Plugged in, the custom-wound EBMM humbucking pickup is located in a strange place — it’s not a neck pickup, and it’s not a bridge pickup. But it’s also not halfway between those two normal pickup locations, nor is it halfway between the bridge and the neck. It’s closer to the neck than halfway. And so it delivers a unique sound that isn’t bright like a bridge pickup and isn’t warm like a neck pickup.

It also seems like this pickup responds differently to different amps. Clean on one amp sounds totally different than clean on another amp. One one amp you think to yourself, “Man this pickup is weak and has no balls” and then on another amp you’re like, “Wow, listen to that clean channel breaking up a little! Hot little pickup!”

And the tone knob is interesting. Rolled all the way down, it’s like a bass. Super deep and zero treble. But then as you dial the tone knob up, it gets warm but still soft/quiet and not driving the amp too hard; roll it up a little more and it gets brighter AND louder; roll it up more and then it’s more bright and EVEN LOUDER. All on the tone knob. Interesting. On clean channels the tone knob almost a second volume.

So this is one of those guitars where I sit and PLAAAAAAYYYYY for an hour just noodling and playing and doing stuff I normally wouldn’t think to play because these tones just bring out a different thing in you. And you wouldn’t say, “Ah, that’ll be my go-to guitar for X…” because it seems to behave very differently depending on the other variables like the amp. Instead, it’s more like “Lemme see what I can come up with using the Semi Hollow BFR and my Music Man RD50 head.” “I wonder how that fingerpicked lead would sound with the Semi Hollow BFR on the clean channel of a Vai Legacy II?”

I think it would have been interesting to equip this guitar with a piezo pickup and a blend knob between the magnetic pickup and the piezo.

This is definitely a Top 2 guitar and could even be #1, right? Just on the fact that it’s so different to all my usual guitars and it evokes new things from these tired old fingers…

Anyway… I’ll be back tomorrow with the final NYNGD: New Year’s New Guitar Day for 2020 to ring in 2021! Thanks for looking everyone!

Past Days:
#2020-1 | #2020-2 | #2020-3 | #2020-4 | #2020-5 | #2020-6 | #2020-7 | #2020-8 | #2020-9 | #2020-10 | #2020-11 | #2020-12 | #2020-13
#2019-1 | #2019-2 | #2019-3 | #2019-4 | #2019-5 | #2019-6 | #2019-7 | #2019-8 | #2019-9 | #2019-10 | #2019-11 | #2019-12 | #2019-13 | #2018-14 | #2018-15 | #2018-18 | #2018-19
#2018-1 | #2018-2 | #2018-3 | #2018-4 | #2018-5 | #2018-6 | #2018-7 | #2018-8 | #2018-9 | #2018-10 | #2018-11 | #2018-12 | #2018-13 | #2018-14 | #2018-15 | #2018-16 | #2018-17
#2017-1 | #2017-2 | #2017-3 | #2017-4 | #2017-5 | #2017-6 | #2017-7 | #2017-8 | #2017-9 | #2017-10 | #2017-11 | #2017-12 | #2017-13 | #2017-14 | #2017-15 | #2017-16 | #2017-17
#2016-1 | #2016-2 | #2016-3 | #2016-4 | #2016-5 | #2016-6 | #2016-7 | #2016-8 | #2016-9 | #2016-10 | #2016-11 | #2016-12 | #2016-13 | #2016-14 | #2016-15 | #2016-16 | #2016-17
#2015-1 | #2015-2 | #2015-3 | #2015-4 | #2015-5 | #2015-6 | #2015-7 | #2015-8 | #2015-9 | #2015-10 | #2015-11 | #2015-12 | #2015-13 | #2015-14 | #2015-15 | #2015-16 | #2015-17
#2014-1 | #2014-2 | #2014-3 | #2014-4 | #2014-5 | #2014-6 | #2014-7 | #2014-8 | #2014-9 | #2014-10
#2013-1 | #2013-2 | #2013-3 | #2013-4 | #2013-5 | #2013-6
#2012-1 | #2012-2 | #2012-3 | #2012-4 | #2012-5 | #2012-6 | #2012-7

(The back story in case you’re new to my NYNGD: For the past couple of years I’ve done a fun thing that most of you I think enjoyed, and I thought I would do it again this year. Every year, I am a slacker about keeping my Guitar Gallery up to date… So, as a fun holiday thing, let’s launch a guitar in the Guitar Gallery each day leading up to New Years Eve! In the past I’ve received PM’s about my collection and whether I play all of these guitars. 🙂 The same question came up during my NYNGD posts a few years ago and my answer was pretty detailed and well thought-out, so please check it out here!)

(Also, in case anybody gets any funny ideas — these guitars are not at my house. They are all in my very secure and alarmed studio facility. I usually only have two guitars floating around the house…)