2008-2-24 20:51
purplefire
Alan Holdsworth, Ibanez AH - 10 Guitar
[b][i][font=Times New Roman][size=5][color=#4b0082]IBANEZ AH-10, Alan Holdsworth: Deep Red solid body, designed by Alan Holdsworth, built by Ibanez. 25 1/2 in scale, bolt-on neck, with 22 large frets, ebony fret board. Has one bridge humbucking pickup, wound to AH's specs. The vibrato is combined with a small Aluminum block for added sustain. The Basswood body is light weight, & stratoid in shape, with a tone chamber under the pick guard. The Maple neck has big, wonderful, nasty frets on the fingerboard. Combining the rather flat fingerboard radius; with the somewhat rounded neck profile, plus BIG frets, makes for effortless string bending.
The AH-10 neck profile is a curious combination of being rather slim, yet wide: despite this, the curve is as rounded as possible, along lines that would run parallel, behind the first & sixth strings. There are no thin sharp edges where the fingerboard and neck, meet. All this shows his departure from the standard mentality of the time: that a very thin neck somehow allowed for faster playing. True: shorter distances take less time to cross, but accomplishing motion while playing on a guitar neck involves: gripping, bending strings, leverage, hammer ons/pull offs, creating vibrato, inflecting notes, physics, nuances: you're acomplishing lots of tasks, myriad micro & macro tasks. Guitar pickin' ain't a sprint, boys, it's a cross country outing. Some make it look easy, but it isn't...is it? :-) [/color][/size][/font][/i][/b]