[rockabilly69]

Dru, the process was started on Feb 22. I was amazed at how fast National knocked it out.

Neal, I didn't know when they started with Villex, I just remember that National had a long wait time with the Lace mfd pickups and the next thing you know they had a new supplier, Villex. I bought one of the LACE slimlines for my tricone but it didn't fit that guitar (not enough string clearance), so I sold it to a buddy who used it on his Johnson tricone. I think it sounded fine. But the Villex seems like it has less output and it has way less than the Flatbucker. I had the gain pot on my ZED mixer about one third higher for the Villex to get the same volume as the Flatbucker. The Villex is very quiet, and the tone is good, but I think the string balance is not as balanced as I would like. When the bronze strings wear down, I'm going to put Messer nickle strings on in the same gauge to see if it helps with better balance/tone. But I will say that the Villex works better with bronze strings than the Flatbucker! I like having Bronze strings on the M2 for it's acoustic tone, but for gigging I usually prefer the nickel because they work so well with the pickups.

Teleplucker - I will give a detailed report when I swap strings on the M2!