Mad Science Guitar Works

Mad Science Guitar Works Building bad ass axes for no reason other than the hell of it. My name is Tyler. I'm now down to my two most faithful machines.

I've been playing guitar for around seven years and have helped many close friends start, or further their journey in guitar playing. After about a year or two of playing mediocre sounding axes, I decided to start modifying them. My collection of somewhat unusual instruments peaked at around ten before I started selling them off. A pair of Squiers, one which was wired entirely from scratch with a

Seymour Duncan JB, and the other a work-in-progress with a 1979 DiMarzio SDS-1 sitting pretty in the bridge. Along with my brothers in arms, we will strive to build you the best instrument we can, for a fraction of the price that even a frugal company would charge.

Maleficent. 1998 Chinese Affinity with EMG HZ H4/H4A set.
09/08/2015

Maleficent. 1998 Chinese Affinity with EMG HZ H4/H4A set.

Building an axe from scratch (except for the neck). Can you guess what it'll be?
09/08/2015

Building an axe from scratch (except for the neck). Can you guess what it'll be?

Melody-Dean. Black on Black strat copy with all nickel hardware including a nickel Seymour Duncan JB.
09/08/2015

Melody-Dean. Black on Black strat copy with all nickel hardware including a nickel Seymour Duncan JB.

Scarlett, 2002 Hot Rail loaded Affinity Strat.
09/08/2015

Scarlett, 2002 Hot Rail loaded Affinity Strat.

As soon as it arrives in the mail, there'll be a double humbucker white pearl face plate on this beauty. Got a pair of e...
22/03/2014

As soon as it arrives in the mail, there'll be a double humbucker white pearl face plate on this beauty. Got a pair of evil EMG-HZ (H4 & H4A) to load into her.

And now that I've finally gotten off my ass and posted photos of what this beast looks like with the EMG's in place...I'm gonna rip 'em back out and put 'em back where they belong - in the Warlock.

It's done!

With the help of mentor, Martin Reynolds, and my close friend Trevor Lachance, we turned Emma from a snarling, down tuned, pile driver - to an honest-to-God Church rocker.

The whole idea behind this guitar is tonal options: From the searing Lil '59 mini humbucker by Seymour Duncan in the bridge, to the classic, quacky single coils in the middle and neck positions, if you can think of a tone, this axe will make it a reality.

Working on pickups had either glorious...or disastrous outcomes.
17/03/2014

Working on pickups had either glorious...or disastrous outcomes.

You think you're dark? You've got another thing comin'. Once upon a time, my good friend Denis Walsh and I were doing so...
25/02/2014

You think you're dark? You've got another thing comin'. Once upon a time, my good friend Denis Walsh and I were doing some repairs on a friends guitar. We were using "The Beast" to figure out what connections we needed to make when him and I noticed "The Beast" itself also needed some work. Not wanting him to be unable to play for the night and most of the next day, I loaned Denis my baby, Stella. I didn't think he'd like a single pickup guitar, but he proved me wrong an hour later over the phone shouting "You gotta build me one of these!" So that's what we did. Denis got together all the money he had, we went to music go round and then the story gets REAL interesting. We somehow just happened to stumble on an H pickguard (exactly what we had just started looking for that day) at Music-Go-Round and Denis snatched it up on the spot. From there, we found a suitable Squier and a pickup that Denis fell in love with - a vintage X2N. He took the pickguard to Marcia Hauer and she created a piece of demonic artwork the likes of which would make even the devil shake in his boots. That's HAND PAINTED kids, not just laser scanned on. Now, the pickguard is all that remains of the original axe, but then again that's where the soul of it always was (forgive my pun). Now, it's bolted to a Starcaster, and don't let the name fool you - this axe gives NO QUARTER. In the bridge is a "Decimator" humbucker - in reality, that's just my bad ass name for it. Its the original bridge pup from the Vindicator. Oh, and a little present to Denis from myself: locking tuners.

A few years back, I helped my good friend Denis Walsh start playing guitar. Turned out he liked it a lot. When it came t...
25/02/2014

A few years back, I helped my good friend Denis Walsh start playing guitar. Turned out he liked it a lot. When it came time to go and buy him his very first axe, there was only one six string that would get his money - a B.C. Rich Warlock. For a good long while, it was a sexy little thing in high heels and a little black dress, but when Denis saw another Warlock beginning to lose it's paint - he took a load of sand paper to his bitch. The result? Nothing anyone could have guessed. A stunning two tone wood finish. Now, Denis is the kind of guy that likes things his way, and that's something we respect at MSGW, so when it came to turn the volume on the Beast up to 11, we were all to happy to oblige. Denis had an Honest-to-God 1979 DiMarzio X2N PowerPlus pickup which is now sitting pretty in the bridge position. In the neck? Well, we don't really know what the hell that is. MSGW likes to refer to it as "The Equalizer". It's the original neck pup from the Vindicator. You may be noticing a lot of knbby things on the lower bout of the guitar. Well, Denis loves to chase tone, to that end, he asked us to do a Volume, Volume, Tone set up - backwards. The silver k**b is master tone, while the two black ones provided volume for each pickup. And that button? It's a kil-switch. Your argument? Yeah, it's invalid.

Wish I hadn't sold this absolute beast. 1998 Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster. White on White on White pearl. Hell, e...
25/02/2014

Wish I hadn't sold this absolute beast. 1998 Squier Affinity Series Stratocaster. White on White on White pearl. Hell, even the PICKUP BOBBINS were white pearl. The reason being this had a bad ass, Texas-built Rio Grande Muy Grande humbucker sitting pretty in it's bridge position. It was hot. I was fat. It was crunchy. Just like the food from Texas!

Tyler Arndt's first time "building" a guitar. This beast is his baby. The original electronics were a bottom-of-the-barr...
18/02/2014

Tyler Arndt's first time "building" a guitar. This beast is his baby. The original electronics were a bottom-of-the-barrel FirstAct Humbcuker and Pot. He later replaced this set up with a Seymour Duncan JB double coil handwired to an All Parts 500k pot. This axe is a real rocker.

Ian Radloff's baby.
20/01/2013

Ian Radloff's baby.

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22 Acacia Drive
London
NW86

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