Almost NGD

[mikealpine]

Very excited! Had a Tele up for sale and was hoping to find this specific model, a Flaxwood Voima. I found it on Reverb, and it was there for a little while. Eventually I asked if he'd like to swap and he agreed. I won't have the guitar until Thursday or Friday, so here's the link.

https://reverb.com/item/292982-flaxw...-with-hardcase

Anyone else here have a Flaxwood? Would love to hear about it!

[Dru Edwards]

Congrats Mike! It's a nice looking guitar. I like the finish on it.

I've never heard of Flaxwood before. Are they new? The guitar has some great Seymour Duncan pickups in it so it should sound great.

[mikealpine]

Dru, not sure how long Flaxwood has been around, but a friend has one, and has had it for at least two years, I think. They are from Finland, and use kind of a wood pulp/resin (almost like a bowling ball) material. It is very light and very resonant. His sounded great! I didn't necessarily want another guitar, and was hoping to sell the Tele outright, but this is such an interesting instrument, I thought it would be nice to have. It's resistant to humidity and temp, so if nothing else, it can sit out for easy access, along with my Rainsong. I'll post a review when I've had some time with it.

[moon]

Interesting - I'd never heard of Flaxwood before.

[mikealpine]

I don't think I would have either, if not for my friend. He ran a music school near my home, and is good enough to be a session player pretty much anywhere. I believe he met them at a NAMM show and they sold him one at an exceptionally good price, and he told me a number of times that this is his go-to guitar for just about any of his needs. It is a very cool material. Hope this one sounds as good as my friend's!!

[Dru Edwards]

Looking forward to a review when you get it, Mike.

[CFW]

I've got a Flaxwood Aija. ( there's umlauts in there...)

also, I found these recently:
http://www.byoguitar.com/Guitar_Kits...itar-Kits.aspx

I've got some P90's that I'm thinking of dropping into one of these.

It's interesting you say your friends Flaxwood is light. my Aija, while hollow, is not light. it does sound good and play well though.

[mikealpine]

Immediate impressions...the humbuckers sound fantastic. The center single-coil alone sounds pretty thin. I might play with pickup height. Overall the body is very thin and pretty comfortable, but I think I'm going to miss my tummy carve. I play the guitar pretty high up, am trim so have no meat on my ribs, and find that guitars without a tummy carve sit on one tiny part of one rib bone and leave a bruise. The tummy carve distributes the contact point along my rib cage and is much more comfortable.

The neck feels great! The unfinished/satin-feeling back is just smooth and easy on the hands. The fretboard is a bit flatter than I like, but I can get used to it. The feel of the fretboard is almost as smooth as Carvin ebony.

Soundwise, though, the guitar sounds great! Pickups are pretty hot, and one thing I really like is the neck pickup...warm but not mushy or muddy. If I can play with the pickup balance a bit or just get used to the thinner middle pickup (or maybe replace it with something a bit stronger), I'm going to love the guitar.

[Dru Edwards]

Sounds like it has great tone, Mike. Do you think the comfort factor may result in your returning it? I've found that in the H-S-H guitars I've never really cared for that middle single coil but then it might just be because I have the amp set so that it sounds best with the humbuckers.

BTW, for others, here are the pickups:
- bridge: Seymour Duncan SH-14 Custom 5 humbucker
- middle: Seymour Duncan SSL-2 Vintage Flat single coil
- neck: Seymour Duncan SH-2 Jazz Model humbucker

[moon]

Chisels and sandpaper ought to deal with any tummy cut problems.

It's possible the middle pickup might sound better on different amp settings - or even with a completely different amp/speaker.

[mikealpine]

Dru, I may swap out the single, perhaps even with a dual rail, effectively making it three, HB, or perhaps a hotter, but noiseless model. The HBs are really nice. Thanks for listing the pickups. As far as comfort, I won't know until I play it standing for a couple of hours, so the earliest will be Tuesday night at our band practice. The guitar is pretty light in comparison to past models (LPs) that left a bruise. Overall, the neck feels so good, that I think I'm going to try to get used to it, if it turns out to be less comfortable, even if I have to find some kind of thin neoprene (mouse pad?) material for that one spot.

Moon, I thought about doing that to my LP. This guitar is pretty thin, and I'd be very concerned about making the carve. It's not out of the question, though!

[Carbonius]

Originally Posted by Dru Edwards

I've found that in the H-S-H guitars I've never really cared for that middle single coil but then it might just be because I have the amp set so that it sounds best with the humbuckers.

Originally Posted by mikealpine

Dru, I may swap out the single, perhaps even with a dual rail, effectively making it three, HB, or perhaps a hotter, but noiseless model.

I just watched a Steve Morse clip the other yesterday regarding his guitar with 2 humbuckers and 2 single coils. He has the singles coils quite far from the strings and tends to turn down the volume a bit when he uses them. He saves them for when he needs a clean, laid back tone.

There is a pretty simple mod you can do where the humbuckers splits in positions 2 & 4 when mixed with the single coil, thereby cancelling the hum. You still can go to the single coil alone for that tone if you need it. I also find that stacked humbuckers sound quite nice.

Another thing I really like about these Flaxwood guitars is the nut width. Strangely enough, they list 1st fret width rather than nut. I expect that the difference between the 2 measurements is almost non-existent. They list a 43.5 mm width for almost all the guitars. That puts between 1 11/16 and 1 3/4.

Nice acquisition!!

[mikealpine]

Been a while since I posted about the guitar. Got it back from a good setup. The pickup height is now good and the tone is much more balance. I'm finding that pretty much all the positions are now useful; the bridge alone is great for lead and classic rock crunch, the 2 and 4 positions have a little spank, the center is not bad for basic rhythm and the neck is warm without being muddy. It's interesting to see it next to other guitars because it really is a smaller scale guitar, but plays much bigger. Strummed unplugged, it is quite resonant, I think having to do with the almost resonator-like back plate.

All that being said, I'm going to be selling it. Played a Collings City Limits recently and fell in love. I'm planning on selling every electric except my Strat in order to buy one. It was that good.

So, if anyone is interested, let me know. It'll be in the classifieds soon, though.