Emperor Guillotine
The Almighty Ruler
Here is something truly special that you may not ever see again: an extremely rare, cream-colored Yamaha CV820WB Wes Borland signature model that has been personally autographed by the legendary Limp Bizkit guitarist.
Let's dive straight into the specs.
Specs:
• Body shape: Wes Borland designed “Takumi-Kezuri” carved body
• Body wood: alder
• Top wood: maple
• Body finish: gloss
• Scale length: 628mm (25.5”)
• Neck construction: bolt-on
• Neck wood: 3-piece maple neck
• Neck finish: gloss
• Fretboard wood: rosewood
• Fretboard radius: 350mm (13.75”)
• Fret number: 24
• Fretwire: jumbo
• Pickups: Yamaha Artist Services Hollywood (YASH) Custom33 humbuckers (neck & bridge)
• Controls: 3-way toggle pickup selector, volume knob, and tone knob
• Bridge: Yamaha Finger Clamp Quick-Change Tremolo System
• Tuners: Yamaha sealed tuners
Borland was intensely involved in every aspect of the design process for what was (at the time) his dream signature model guitar — from its conception to its completion. The unique, offset body shape designed by Borland with assistance from the Yamaha Hollywood shop incorporates Yamaha’s “Takumi-Kezuri” construction, in which the back, the sides, and the center block of the body are all carved out of one, single piece of alder wood.
“Takumi-Kezuri” literally translates into English as “skillful carving” or “masterful carving”. This labor-intensive method of careful construction was meant to become Yamaha’s future step forward in semi-hollow construction since Yamaha has always excelled in creating absolutely incredible, semi-hollow bodied instruments. However, this contribution by Yamaha to the guitar design industry never seemed to have made it further than the CV820WB model.
The guitar is fully bound with cream-colored binding around the entire body, the F-holes in the top, the rosewood fretboard, and the headstock, all contributing to a clean, sharp, polished aesthetic that is complemented by a matching, cream-colored, pearloid symbol designed by Borland and inlaid into the headstock. (What is the inlay? Hell if I know!)
The cream finish color is so rare that many folks (even experts in the gear biz) whom I’ve shown photos of this guitar to didn’t know that the CV820WB model was offered in this color. Even an astounding number of players who have interacted with me and told me that a CV820WB is one of their "bucket list" guitars (or "white whale" guitars, or "holy grail" guitars) don't seem to know that there was a run of the model made in this cream finish color. The black finish color is far more ubiquitous and far more commonly seen online.
From what little information I can gather, apparently the cream-colored CV820WB guitars were made in a tiny, singular run by Yamaha. I'm unsure of the exact number of units; but I've been told numbers as low as 10. (I need to contact someone at Yamaha to see if the company can confirm the number of units produced.)
The Custom33 humbuckers created by the Yamaha Hollywood shop are a split-field design akin to the popular “Wide Range” humbuckers but slimmed down into a traditional, passive humbucker sized housing. The pickups have a moderately contemporary voicing and contribute to the guitar having a big, clear, powerful sound by perfectly accentuating the open, airy tonal traits that you’d expect to be inherent of a semi-hollow guitar without being murky or muddy or dark in any way.
Yamaha’s proprietary Finger Clamp tremolo system allows quick string changes by stabilizing the bridge so that the tension from the springs doesn’t pull the tremolo back into the route/cavity while the strings are removed. Each of the six saddles has a small locking lever that you simply flip up in order to remove a string and then flip back down to lock/clamp the string into place in its saddle. Again, this helps keep the process of changing strings super speedy and efficient when combined with the Finger Clamp system's distinctive locking nut. Tuning and re-tuning are absolutely no issue; and even adjusting intonation is a breeze on the Finger Clamp tremolo.
Lastly, as a cherry on top, the control cavity plate bares Borland’s own personal autograph. A piece of laminate film has been gently placed over the autograph to preserve it.
"Keep rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin'..."
Let's dive straight into the specs.
Specs:
• Body shape: Wes Borland designed “Takumi-Kezuri” carved body
• Body wood: alder
• Top wood: maple
• Body finish: gloss
• Scale length: 628mm (25.5”)
• Neck construction: bolt-on
• Neck wood: 3-piece maple neck
• Neck finish: gloss
• Fretboard wood: rosewood
• Fretboard radius: 350mm (13.75”)
• Fret number: 24
• Fretwire: jumbo
• Pickups: Yamaha Artist Services Hollywood (YASH) Custom33 humbuckers (neck & bridge)
• Controls: 3-way toggle pickup selector, volume knob, and tone knob
• Bridge: Yamaha Finger Clamp Quick-Change Tremolo System
• Tuners: Yamaha sealed tuners
Borland was intensely involved in every aspect of the design process for what was (at the time) his dream signature model guitar — from its conception to its completion. The unique, offset body shape designed by Borland with assistance from the Yamaha Hollywood shop incorporates Yamaha’s “Takumi-Kezuri” construction, in which the back, the sides, and the center block of the body are all carved out of one, single piece of alder wood.
“Takumi-Kezuri” literally translates into English as “skillful carving” or “masterful carving”. This labor-intensive method of careful construction was meant to become Yamaha’s future step forward in semi-hollow construction since Yamaha has always excelled in creating absolutely incredible, semi-hollow bodied instruments. However, this contribution by Yamaha to the guitar design industry never seemed to have made it further than the CV820WB model.
The guitar is fully bound with cream-colored binding around the entire body, the F-holes in the top, the rosewood fretboard, and the headstock, all contributing to a clean, sharp, polished aesthetic that is complemented by a matching, cream-colored, pearloid symbol designed by Borland and inlaid into the headstock. (What is the inlay? Hell if I know!)
The cream finish color is so rare that many folks (even experts in the gear biz) whom I’ve shown photos of this guitar to didn’t know that the CV820WB model was offered in this color. Even an astounding number of players who have interacted with me and told me that a CV820WB is one of their "bucket list" guitars (or "white whale" guitars, or "holy grail" guitars) don't seem to know that there was a run of the model made in this cream finish color. The black finish color is far more ubiquitous and far more commonly seen online.
From what little information I can gather, apparently the cream-colored CV820WB guitars were made in a tiny, singular run by Yamaha. I'm unsure of the exact number of units; but I've been told numbers as low as 10. (I need to contact someone at Yamaha to see if the company can confirm the number of units produced.)
The Custom33 humbuckers created by the Yamaha Hollywood shop are a split-field design akin to the popular “Wide Range” humbuckers but slimmed down into a traditional, passive humbucker sized housing. The pickups have a moderately contemporary voicing and contribute to the guitar having a big, clear, powerful sound by perfectly accentuating the open, airy tonal traits that you’d expect to be inherent of a semi-hollow guitar without being murky or muddy or dark in any way.
Yamaha’s proprietary Finger Clamp tremolo system allows quick string changes by stabilizing the bridge so that the tension from the springs doesn’t pull the tremolo back into the route/cavity while the strings are removed. Each of the six saddles has a small locking lever that you simply flip up in order to remove a string and then flip back down to lock/clamp the string into place in its saddle. Again, this helps keep the process of changing strings super speedy and efficient when combined with the Finger Clamp system's distinctive locking nut. Tuning and re-tuning are absolutely no issue; and even adjusting intonation is a breeze on the Finger Clamp tremolo.
Lastly, as a cherry on top, the control cavity plate bares Borland’s own personal autograph. A piece of laminate film has been gently placed over the autograph to preserve it.
"Keep rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin'..."
