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Thanks for your interest BGP56!!

I should be able to post some pics this evening when I am done with work, thanks Garrett. The guitar is complete and now I am going to sell ALL my other strats as they are sooo inferior. If I can raise the cash, I plan to start up the hollow T project or what I'm leaning towards is another USACG strat, but with an alder body this time-both ash and alder are no nice in their own ways.

Here she is! Check this wood!!! This is whay you'll get if you ask Tommy for a nice flame neck, what a guy!!!

Many thanks for all the compliments! Really Tommy, his crew, Ty and the folks at Roxy deserve 90% of the credit. A sincere thanks to all the active FIB posters also.

How does it play?
The neck is a texas blues profile with a 9.5-12 radius, and it plays fantastic. Every aspect of this neck is perfect for me; the fretwork, fret size, profile, finish, and most of all the unique radius. I use .011s, and this neck did not even shrug the first time I strung up. It felt a bit beefy before I put it on the guitar, and honestly I was a bit concerned-after all my hands are not the largest in the world. After assembly and strings, it was evident that I had found what really feels good for me. My hand was instantly more comfortable than ever before and this neck with 6105 frets is much easier to do those tough SRV bends than a warmoth neck with a standard C shape and 6100 frets. I am truly impressed with every aspect of the neck and would order another the exact same. No need to mention the sick flame of the maple, but what is really awesome is that this is a cathedral cut neck with awesome flames, really special indeed. The rose wood has all the colors-green, purple, black, brown. Neither part of the neck photographed well enough to really appreciate what it truly looks like, Tommy is the man guys!! The body was about 3.6 pounds, swamp ash, one piece, contoured heel, and perfect also. It has a really unique grain that the flash seemed to kinda drown out. It is striking though the mary kay white finish. One thing I did that I can recommend is to recess the strap buttons with a 1/2" chisel bit, and cut out a suede button to go between the button and body-easy, and looks much better than the typical "dime on a ping pong ball" thing goin on. Just go slow and be careful.

How does it sound?
This guitar does have the antiqued Callaham harness with the 3% underwind Fralin singles. This was a pricey rig, but it sounds incredible and looks cool IMO. I recommend the Callaham aluminum pickguard shield to everybody. It makes the controls feel very solid and allows you to crank down on the mounting nuts with no fear of ripping though the typical foil stuck on the back of the pickguard. I don't know what to credit, but the usual 60 cycle hum on this guitar is much much less than another guitar with Fralin vintage hots. I can barely notice the hum even with a 50 watt amp cranked-no BS. Maybe it's the cryo treatment , maybe not!! I don't but into that business, but these are fine sounding pickups and I'll leave it at that. Acoustically this guitar is very loud and resonant. I get a great "pop" and very quick attack from the ash body. This guitar has much more bass than other S.ash guitars I've owned and played, which is very nice. Plugged in, we're talking heaven. There is plenty of powerful twang on tap with the bass strings, and a wonderful sting on the plains. With a good clean amp, I can get a stellar clean tone that is very woody and deep. The in between positions sparkle like no other while 1,3, and 5 offer killer blues and jazz tones. Rolling one of the tone conrols back a bit yields Hendrix tones ala Wind Cries Mary, or Long Hot Summer Night. Chords ring very loud and even. With some tube grind, I can absolutely nail SRV's Texas Flood tone (not all the licks ). You can get the neck pickup squeal at will(SRV at El Mocabo). The real surprise is the bridge pickup tone-really chunky and BIG, Ritchie Blackmore, Hendrix, Bad Company no problemo. Don't mistake me for saying I am a great player, however, this guitar really helps me get the tones I want, and almost plays itself.

So far, I could not be happier and I highly doubt things will change. Another sincere thanks to all my friends on this forum, Tommy, Ty, and Nocaster.

OK guys, here is what you've been waiting for--the trem block comparison!!

To recap, I put the Detemple ti trem and ti saddles on the USACG body and neck shown in the pics with a mammoth ivory nut and fralin singles wired very conventionally. I have switched the trem assembly with a Callaham steel model strung up with the same make of strings, played for about a week and here we go.......

The first thing I can tell you is that the Ti trem does sound better on this guitar, and the difference is noticable to me. This is not to say the steel trem sounded bad at all.

With the ti trem, the acoustic tone was a bit louder and focused. Playing with fingers only you can really hear the ring of each string and rich tone of the ash. Going back to the steel trem, the guitar sounded a bit "harder" with a bit less of the richness previously heard. We are talking 15% maybe.

Plugging in was much of the same, the ti trem just gives the guitar a heavenly response and a different articulation. The ti trem seems to round out the characteristics of the ash body giving it a very full bodied response. The mids are still scooped, but maybe the treble is just a bit rounder and smoother. The biggest difference is the bridge pup tone, this is the biggest benefit of the ti trem with this guitar. I seemed to lose some volume with the steel trem, and the tone was not as chunky when strumming with some force. The steel never sounded bad, but it was as if something was lost when compared to ti. The ti seems more dynamic and reactive. Sustain was about the same (great) with either model. The ti trem just sounds softer, warmer, and a bit more "plunky". The quack positions seemed extra well......quackey.

My impression is that these trems seem to help an ash guitar or in other words kinda enhance the good properties of ash and nullify the typical drawbacks to this wood. Smooth the high treble, warm up the bass, and provide lots of power. I could see the steel actually being just as good if not better on an alder maple/rosewood guitar--giving that wood combo a nice edge and some more crispness.

In my brain I imagine the ti being a softer, lighter metal with much more strength than aluminum and that is how the tone is altered. Where steel would be harder, heavier, and brighter. The ti tone is rounder due to the softness, and the attack it more "poppy" due to the light weight where with steel, the tone is a bit brighter due to hardness both with great sustain. Make any sense?

At $360 I cannot freely recommend this part for every person's money or for every guitar. Just the opposite really--in very specific cases. The guitar I put mine on was an expensive one, and in this case I can sleep with the decision. I really think the ti likes ash. Since this guitar is a lifetime keeper for me and the ultimate ash guitar for me, I feel like I am getting the full value. For my next USACG, which will be 2 piece alder and less expensive but still totally righteous (straight grain maple, pau ferro, BL 280s (already got em!!), I will install the quality Callaham steel trem and likely not buy another Detemple. It would be nice for another company to offer a ti trem at a more reasonable price because I do think it's a good idea and can offer some benefit. $360 is about $160 too much IMO.

I am glad to entertain questions or clarify any thought I tried to express.

Good questions!

1) Although this guitar does play very easily, I did not notice much of a difference in the feel of the guitar between the two trem units. That particular claim Detemple makes about string tension is crazy. I don't understand what the basis of that claim could possibly be. I would love to hear his explanation. If anything, that type of claim reduces credibility and deters sales.

2) Mahogany is already so warm I would think the steel would be fine and the seemingly bright properties of steel should be a plus. it may be cool to try a brass trem with mahogany.