Strings
Tuning
Gauges
Drop B Riffs
This will also explain exactly what we did with the OLP guitars.
If I had retopped them they would have been far more expensive than an Ernie Ball Van Halen Model. MAKING THEM NON SALEABLE !!!
3, We hard mounted Seymour Duncan premium pickups which are usually superior to the less expensive Dimarzio's that came spring mounted in the more expensive 'real' Ernie Ball. We also offered EMG's but there were only a few takers.
(Better Pickups) The Duncan's decimated the Dimarzio's in the EVH & Axis. To this day I feel that those OLP conversions were better sounding, than the expensive model Ernie Ball )
(Better Tremolo)A real Floyd is always better than a copy. The Ernie Ball EVH & Axis came with a less than adequate copy. When I delivered an LSR Guitar to Eddie in 1998 I played one of his Music Man Guitars & One of his New Peavey's. Both guitars had been changed to real Floyd Rose Trems. (what's up with that) They stayed in tune better and they felt much better than the stock Ernie Ball Model !!!!!
Summation, The real German Floyd trem ran circles around the licensed Ernie Ball trem !!!
(Better Tops) The Maple top on the OLP Guitar had more quilt and/or flame than most Ernie Ball's !!!
(Matching Paint) The Color on the Ernie Ball models rarely matched the color on the headstock, The lower cost OLP's not only had more figuring & brighter colors they actually color matched the headstock & body better.
We Set Them Up Better, With Tighter Neck Joints, the fret ends were more precise, each one was built specifically for the actual customer who ordered it. Some of them right out of the box came in so good we barely had to do much work to them. As I mentioned above these were great little low cost guitars.
I only copy products when they are no longer available, what would be the point of copying something that you could still buy the original. My handmade copies sell for more money than the originals, people who own them can tell you why.
They even had a left handed OLP but no lefthanded Ernie Ball ever got released.
I thought & I still think that was a foolish thing to do. All they had to do was call me & voice their displeasure. Instead they hired a lawyer and had me served. Unfortunately this happened at a time when I was in the process of selling my company to some investors so I called Ernie Ball's Lawyer and settled the whole thing in a 4 to 5 minute conversation with their attorney. The case never got past that, I agreed to write an apology for modifying their guitars and they dropped the case. I had all but forgotten about it when one of my good customers forwarded a thread from some stupid forum to me where it looked as if there was a federal case involved around the situation.
I could have easily fought the case at no cost to me because I am insured to the hilt for this type of thing. Frankly I have better things to do than help my attorneys prepare motions for discovery and depose every single one of Ernie Ball's employees and anyone who was remotely associated to their complaint.
I visited them several times at NAMM shows and their snotball slimey bespectacled little sales manager pretended I was invisible. Occasionally they would still call me and ask me to buy their strings and accessories. But they were holding the guitars for ransom.
Some of the stories are made up completely and some of them are half truths mixed with different guesses.
These people have far too much time on their hands. I actually feel sorry for most of them, because they will never make anything of themselves and they will always be jealous of anyone who has worked hard and enjoyed success.
Ed Roman