# Custom built semi-hollow by Zeryab Guitars in Edmonton



## Hired Goon (Mar 4, 2008)

Would like to thank my luthier and instructor (I'm taking his guitar building course) Main Mahd for this gorgeous semi-hollow. It will be on display at the upcoming Edmonton Guitar show on Sept. 25th. Was on display at the Folk Fest last month.

Benedetto A6 and PAF pickups, Gotoh tuners, and Jason Schroeder stop tail - all in black chrome (sort of a gun metal color) Special thanks to Jason Schroeder (http://www.schroederguitars.com/) for custom plating the stop tail hardware to match the color of the pickups and tuners. Five different types of wood in there, but I can't remember them off the top of my head aside from the neck being Ebony. Abalone inlay, and Main's Zeryab logo on the headstock. If your in the Edmonton area check him out on Jasper Ave. Here's a vid of Main in his shop: http://www.zeryabguitars.com/Media.htm


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## Ti-Ron (Mar 21, 2007)

I love the combo of wood and this color! A really good looking guitar!
Enjoy!


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## al3d (Oct 3, 2007)

GOD DAMN that is NICE man. Can you show some shots of the head stocK?....


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## Bruiser74 (Jan 29, 2010)

Killer guitar!!


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## Hired Goon (Mar 4, 2008)

Thanks guys. These are just pics from the builder's web site. I'll put some up with headstock. It's actually nowhere near as red in real life - more of a violin/wine color in person. I think the camera flash against the black background made it seem more red.


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## John Watt (Aug 24, 2010)

Please, let me say this first, it is a beautiful guitar, but the template and construction method are so old.
And if you want to surprise yourself, if you ever play it loud, it will sound better with the f-holes taped off.
This is a semi-hollow-body, not a semi-solid-body, probably with a block of wood down the middle,
for the pickups and neck, not built "empty" inside, with no bent wood, like a semi-solid-body.
If I was sitting on the hood of a '69 Mustang fastback for a photo, I'd pose with this guitar,
even if I had to play it right-handed for a while, not my best handed way to play.


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## Hired Goon (Mar 4, 2008)

Dear J. Watt.

My guitar and I aren't entirely offended by your sabotage of my post to shamefully plug your famous "Semi-solid" guitar that has become all the rage. Maybe I deserved it for bragging too much. Your right though, old techniques for building guitars are terrible...those old luthiers didn't have a clue. Whoever liked the sound of all those ES-335's, Thinline teles, Rickenbackers, and Gretsch's anyways. It's not like any professionals used them on any famous albums or songs right?

How's the "semi-solid" business working out for you? Tell you what...there's this guy named Reitze in various forums who's done some fabulous work in the field. He's into blending acoustics and electrics in a hill-billy engineering sort of way but he's a demon when it comes to graphic design. Perhaps with your combined abilities you could, you know, bust a nut and take the guitar world by storm.

As an aside...please don't ever sit on the hood of a '69 Mustang.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

Gorgeous guitar, I hope it plays as good as it looks (I'm sure it does).

Mr. Watt - get a life!


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

That is one good looking guitar. Must sound very good accousticly. And if the weather is good on the 25th, a good reason to ride to Edmonton. 
Now if I was to sit on the hood of a '69 Mustang Fastback again I'd pose with a cute little 18 yr. old blonde in a black bikini. Stars in the sky, stars in here eyes, Beach Boys on the 8 track.....ah, memories. And tape off the f-holes.....that would be like putting a Honda sticker on my Harley.


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## Hired Goon (Mar 4, 2008)

Electraglide said:


> That is one good looking guitar. Must sound very good accousticly. And if the weather is good on the 25th, a good reason to ride to Edmonton.
> Now if I was to sit on the hood of a '69 Mustang Fastback again I'd pose with a cute little 18 yr. old blonde in a black bikini. Stars in the sky, stars in here eyes, Beach Boys on the 8 track.....ah, memories. And tape off the f-holes.....that would be like putting a Honda sticker on my Harley.


Whoops sorry - it's on the 26th which is a Sunday at the Mayfield Inn and Suites.
Edmonton Fall Guitar Show


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## Electraglide (Jan 24, 2010)

Sunday works too.


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## WEEZY (May 23, 2008)

Mannn, those are nice. I looked around the website too - beautiful guitars!

Congrats!


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## John Watt (Aug 24, 2010)

Please, hired goon and davetcan, don't think I'm sabotaging your thread, and you've got the wrong impression of me.
And while I use my real name for a user name, looking for some real self-promotion, please, call me John. That all I ever ask.
In real life, my semi-solid-body invention works. Online, last year, I had the most views and replies for the two threads I 
started at Harmony Central. But considering I got banned because others were upset and creating problems for moderators,
about me, I wouldn't call that being famous. 
And I never criticized other luthiers, and I can't. I'm not one. I've never built my own neck, getting them custom made.
I didn't mind taking time out from bands to build a new body and pickguard, being a non-smoker non-drinker, happy to get into other things besides the bar scene. But I've only ever had one electric guitar, my instrument, with parts going back to
my '64 Strat.
If my attitude is rubbing you the wrong way, that might go all the way back to when I dropped out of high school after 
seeing Jimi Hendrix, buying the first Stratocaster and Marshall with effects sold in my home town, and the Niagara Peninsula.
Just having that equipment created problems for me, obviously being into Jimi Hendrix.

I've been waiting to have the guitar totally finished with my video studio all set up, a week away now, later than I thought lately,
before I started posting in a Canadian domain. I began in Scotland, was invited to India, and visited different forums after that.
But listen to this. I was in Thorold, and this guy came up to me saying he wished he was playing guitar like me, talking about lessons,
and I said, what, you're into computers and you can't figure out guitar. I told him about Harmony Central, magle.dk and Mark Wein,
talking about guitar forums, all the haters and negators in The States, and said I never found a Canadian forum for guitar players,
describing my attempts to add a forum to my domain.
When I first registered here, I just popped on logged in, not having to visit my email and confirm things. That confused me,
knowing someone had to program that, and after looking around I saw the name and address of the owner here, and it was him.
Now was I coming from too deep a semi-solid-reality, or did that really happen? Only the owner here can be a witness.
So I would never sabotage anything about a Canadian music forum, especially when almost all of Canada has been local for me,
and I see so many local musicians every day.
So now that I'm living with the reality of being in a semi-solid-world, I'm coming at you from a new place for me.
And if you notice, all I do is try and describe it and put up photoes and videos, hoping to inspire other musicians.
My favorite semi-hollow looks like a puffy Stratocaster, close to what you've got there.
That's what got my interest, even if I have to qualify my perspective from a semi-solid point of view.
Isn't online, looking at what you're seeing on the screen, kind of semi-solid, real only if you print it out?
My guitar takes playing electric guitars into the new millennium, and it's dragging me along. How can I not love that?
Thanks for getting into it with me, and I know not everyone likes to create artificial effects or use feedback for sounds.
So your guitar would work for me as a jazzy guitar, and my guitar just has faux pas purfling.
I wasn't about to spend months of my life trying to build a neck and do purfling, and keep missing playing in bands.

I don't want to type this much. But you hit a nerve, and I'm not making it here in these forums... maybe... eventually.
At least I've figured this out enough to leave you with, on my computer, exactly a screenful to see, so you don't have to scroll.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

John,
I'm not reading all that, LOL. I've got no issues with you or your guitar personally. In fact if you'd like to start your own thread discussing it's merits I'll happily read it. 

But..... when people post pictures of their new instruments, and I don't care if it's a chinese strat/LP/whatever knock-off, or something as unique and beautiful as the guitar in this thread, all they're doing is sharing their excitement with the rest of us, and perhaps looking for a little positive reinforcement. This is not the place to say "huh, I don't like it" ..... If you have nothing positive to say, don't. It's just common courtesy.

Again if you'd like to start a thread discussing the merits of your new design over all others, bring it on. Should be an interesting discussion.

(and if your guitar will make me a better player I'm in)


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## John Watt (Aug 24, 2010)

davetcan! Thanks for that. I decided to log in to look one more time before I go out. Now I'm glad I did. 
And I didn't say "huh, I don't like it". I did try to start a thread about my invention the third time I looked here,
but I couldn't do pictures and although it got views, it got no replies. I'll try when I'm ready.
Considering your polite and positive reinforcement, and your obvious musical excitement,
let me ask you about your forum use. Do you consider your avatar and user name as a persona?
I'm not suggesting faking anything, but just like a stage presence, what is the meaning of your presentation?
Are you just having a good time, promoting yourself or a band, or dealing financially with equipment online?
You might be working up to being a music columnist for your local paper, and these are all good musical things.
It took a lot of serious thought to just be myself, using my real name, considering what most people think about identity theft.
In real life, in Scottish Highland terms, I don't own home property, never married or had children, so I'm not a sir.
All I ever ask is to be called John. That's just my name, not a persona.

What I like about the accelerated acoustics of my guitar that I know you'd get into right away, is how the frequencies get focused around the pickups, so that now when I play with them all on, I'm playing background and rhythms over the two single coil pickups, wired together phased like Jimi did, and leads over the P.A.F. Humbucker by the neck, and I don't have reach to change volume or pickups, catching it all through my fingers. It was work. I had to change my picking positions to be more accurate over the pickups, catching a range of tonal differentials, not simply switching from one pickup to others.
That's what makes me think of it as a symphonic-electric instrument, and that's a new category of instrument too.
Imagine if symphony stages were plug-ins, and believe me, a symphony already works in harmonic ways greater than stereo or quadraphonic sound. If symphony conductors and musicians got into recording in a dense, spatial sense,
we'd all be hearing something new, and incredible, maybe Electric Symphonyland.
I'd want a big rock drum kit right in the middle, and I'd recompose Beethoven's 5th for back-beats right away.
Using a big Hammond three-spring reverb unit, with someone kicking it hard, would be way better for the storm section,
than standing offstage waving sheets of metal, or finding out that local bylaws won't let you use your cannon onstage any more.
My one girlfriend was a bassoonist in The Ottawa Symphony. Sitting up there during rehearsals might have been a mistake.
I can't buy that sound with the name Marshall on it.

How about a few more pictures of the guitar? It's hard to tell how big it is.


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## Guest (Sep 11, 2010)

Is this it here?

[video=youtube;mP_wUfvKL3M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP_wUfvKL3M[/video]


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

Errr .... no persona, I don't think about that stuff. I like music, at least what I consider music, and love talking and reading about gear, simple as that. I go through a butt load of stuff because I can't stop looking for "that" tone. This is a great forum, I've made a lot of friends here and bought and sold some great stuff over the years, it's a great place to hang out.


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## davetcan (Feb 27, 2006)

Is that dog actually choking in the background. LOL.



Mogwai said:


> Is this it here?
> 
> [video=youtube;mP_wUfvKL3M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP_wUfvKL3M[/video]


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## John Watt (Aug 24, 2010)

davetcan! You talk about being friendly and genuine musical enthusiasm,
and seeing reitze (right-see) here shows me one of my online friends.
He was getting killed on other forums but I liked his attitude and his powered bike,
and I still get off on him riding around town playing it.
If I was a ride-by riff-shooter you'd know it for sure.
And not to be contradictory, but just choosing an avatar is getting into being a persona.
It's nice thinking about these Zeryab guitars. I spent four months in Edmonton in 1970.


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## wintle (Mar 25, 2008)

Beautiful guitar Hired Goon. That custom bridge is awesome.

Cheers


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## al3d (Oct 3, 2007)

Wow...talk about Tread hijacking..LOL


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## al3d (Oct 3, 2007)

Mogwai said:


> Is this it here?
> 
> [video=youtube;mP_wUfvKL3M]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP_wUfvKL3M[/video]


Thanks for making me pee in my pants man..LOL. one day his kids will show him this flick and go..Dad...you see why you're in an institution now?...you understand right?...LOL


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## John Watt (Aug 24, 2010)

reitze, with his self-made, self-amplifying guitars,
playing while riding around. Over 45 vids on Youtube.
reitze is very generous, letting us into his house, backyard,
playing with his dog, showing us the inner workings of his inventions.
We're watching him.


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## ajcoholic (Feb 5, 2006)

Hired Goon said:


> Would like to thank my luthier and instructor (I'm taking his guitar building course) Main Mahd for this gorgeous semi-hollow. It will be on display at the upcoming Edmonton Guitar show on Sept. 25th. Was on display at the Folk Fest last month.
> 
> Benedetto A6 and PAF pickups, Gotoh tuners, and Jason Schroeder stop tail - all in black chrome (sort of a gun metal color) Special thanks to Jason Schroeder (Home | Jason Z. Schroeder Guitars) for custom plating the stop tail hardware to match the color of the pickups and tuners. Five different types of wood in there, but I can't remember them off the top of my head aside from the neck being Ebony. Abalone inlay, and Main's Zeryab logo on the headstock. If your in the Edmonton area check him out on Jasper Ave. Here's a vid of Main in his shop: Zeryab guitars media


Sweet, sweet guitar. How do those Benedetto pickups sound? ANything to compare them to?

I love the colour of that. Is the back finished the same as the top?

AJC


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## Hired Goon (Mar 4, 2008)

Haven't logged enough time with the guitar to really describe how the Benedetto's sound. Decent output, but certainly sounds different of course than a solidbody electric. Maybe the difference is more from the acoustic properties of the guitar rather than the pickups. As you'd expect it is certainly louder unplugged than a solid body. The guitar needs a bit of set-up adjustment, but Main (the luthier) wants me to just break it in more before he does any adjusting.


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## ajcoholic (Feb 5, 2006)

Hired Goon said:


> Haven't logged enough time with the guitar to really describe how the Benedetto's sound. Decent output, but certainly sounds different of course than a solidbody electric. Maybe the difference is more from the acoustic properties of the guitar rather than the pickups. As you'd expect it is certainly louder unplugged than a solid body. The guitar needs a bit of set-up adjustment, but Main (the luthier) wants me to just break it in more before he does any adjusting.


Yeah, typically when I make a guitar it takes at least 2 to 3 months after it has been strung up to finally settle into where the neck stops moving. Then once a final set up (mainly truss rod adjustment and fine tuning the action/bridge ) is done it stays that way for a long time.

I really like semi's and that is a classic looking guitar. Great color.

AJC


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## Jaybo (Jun 3, 2010)

That is a very sweet looking guitar. I didn't know there was going to be a guitar show in Edmonton either. I def. want to check that out.


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## reitze (Feb 13, 2010)

Hired Goon said:


> Dear J. Watt.
> 
> My guitar and I aren't entirely offended by your sabotage of my post to shamefully plug your famous "Semi-solid" guitar that has become all the rage. Maybe I deserved it for bragging too much. Your right though, old techniques for building guitars are terrible...those old luthiers didn't have a clue. Whoever liked the sound of all those ES-335's, Thinline teles, Rickenbackers, and Gretsch's anyways. It's not like any professionals used them on any famous albums or songs right?
> 
> ...


Hi Guys!
I love your guitar. Nice bridge-piece and I like the redish wood-grain.


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## John Watt (Aug 24, 2010)

I'm going to explain my attitude before the typing of others gets out there more than my own.
And besides, no-one else can explain a semi-solid-body attitude. I'm the only one.

I posted here because I like this Zeryab semi-hollow and lived in Edmonton for four months.
But where does my advanced semi-solid-body sensibility differentiate me from Zeryabs' approach?
It's not because I'm typing I'm the best or have the best. I never typed that, or that I didn't like this guitar.
But it's not as acoustic a design as it looks, even if it has big f-holes. But I'll leave that for now.
Just look at the f-holes, and think of what traditional f-holes look like. We'll leave what they do for later.
When you look in them, you see wires. That's not traditional f-holes. And I don't care about the word traditional.
I'm just so used to looking into real f-holes, seeing wires, seeing areas of paint from other construction,
just doesn't look good. I'd break with tradition, however, seeing as how this isn't a fully functioning acoustic design,
and paint the interior, or stain it, black, for a better color contrast, and to hide various parts and wires.
The maker was very precise, making these f-holes to be seen, but he didn't get into it all the way.
The edges show various layers of construction, and I'd be painting or staining that black too.

Beyond the traditional, I'm also used to seeing crazed demons of hell rise out of soundholes and wreak musical hell.
But I don't see that here, and that's a nice thing. I think of Edmonton and the flat, flat prairies and big, big sky,
as a mellow place, everyone working steady days, a big social scene wandering around downtown at night.
And this guitar suits that, with it's semi-hollow acoustics. 
But if I was wandering around during Klondike Days, that whole week when they paint the street yellow,
and animals are walking the streets handing out free food and drink, and coupons for free food and drink,
and there are stands around the city giving away free food and drink, and everyone is out there partying,
I'd want to be strapping on a reitze self-amplified guitar, so I'd be playing and singing out loud tripping around,
with something I wouldn't mind using as a weapon. 
Some of the plains buffalo out there try to harmonize with more than just my goods and services.


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## bagpipe (Sep 19, 2006)

Thanks for clarifying.



John Watt said:


> I'm going to explain my attitude before the typing of others get out there more than my own.
> And besides, no-one else can explain a semi-solid-body attitude. I'm the only one.
> 
> I posted here because I like this Zeryab semi-hollow and lived in Edmonton for four months.
> ...


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## Swervin55 (Oct 30, 2009)

Hired Goon:

Thank you so much for posting. I live just below Zeryab Guitars (in the river valley) and have driven by a thousand times only to wonder what goes on inside. I will now have to make a point of stopping in. Looking forward to seeing you (and your guitar) next weekend.

Sorry about your thread being decimated.
Swervin


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## Duster (Dec 28, 2007)

Beautiful guitar (and VERY interesting thread!)

Did you design the shape yourself - how custom is custom with this particular luthier? It's a little PRS, a little Gibson, but all original. Nice woods and beautiful bridge. Would love to see the headstock!


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## Bruiser74 (Jan 29, 2010)

Yes more pics would be great!


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## al3d (Oct 3, 2007)

YES..more picts..specialy the headstock..


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## Hired Goon (Mar 4, 2008)

Will do...I've just been out of town for the week.


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## John Watt (Aug 24, 2010)

Yeah! I could use a few more new pictures too,
to help snap me out of my semi-solid-body reality.
It's not nice being stuck on an acoustic island all alone.


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## Hired Goon (Mar 4, 2008)

Ok more pics.


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## Hired Goon (Mar 4, 2008)

Woods - maple top, ebony fretboard, walnut back, mahogany neck, and padouk cavity cover.


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## Swervin55 (Oct 30, 2009)

Absolutely gorgeous!


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## Brennan (Apr 9, 2008)

Wow, that is beautifull.


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## smorgdonkey (Jun 23, 2008)

That is a thing of beauty!!



John Watt said:


> I'm going to explain my attitude before the typing of others gets out there more than my own.


"typing of others gets out there more than my own"? Come on man...nobody will type MORE than you but MANY will say much more with less than 1/10th of the words. You have constipation of the mind and diarhea of the mouth (or hands as it were). 


John Watt said:


> And besides, no-one else can explain a semi-solid-body attitude. I'm the only one.


Yeah...I saw your BS on Harmony Central too and they banned you because you are an idiot. Nothing more and nothing less. No conspiracy theories...that's just a fact. One that I hope will be repeated here. 

And be careful what you say about buffalo.


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## reitze (Feb 13, 2010)

*Power Guitars*



Hired Goon said:


> Ok more pics.
> 
> .IMGs...


Those are nice! :thu:
These where my best this year:


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