Kiwi

I'm really curious to know who might be making them. There are only a handful of Chinese companies that do quality builds. I've found the rest of them just rush things and try to get away with sometimes school boy errors. Having said that, the parts are pretty simple and if he's finishing them off by hand and assembling then quality might not be such a problem so long as the wood is seasoned properly.

It's not bad, you can definitely get Richie Blackmore sounds out of it. I wouldn't say it's high gain either - more medium gain with fuzzy tendencies. The voice control will take you into more modern territory as well (which is what I'm after) but it really needs a TS type pedal (I'm using the Mosky Silver Horse) in front of it to kick things squarely into the 80's. I got it to see whether I could get the Def Leppard thing happening, which it does after a boost from the Mosky. BTW my first JF14, which I've had for about 6 years, has developed a persistent scream at extreme settings. So there may be a shelf life to the op amps they use but I'm far away from anyone who could tell me for sure. It was actually cheaper (given they're 13 quid each where I am) for me to get another.

OK phase reversing is a different thing altogether and involves the frequencies shared by both pickups cancelling each other out to get that Peter Green thing. I'll be looking into something similar for a project I'm planning - recreation of an Aria RS Esprit but with middle pickup. I've been advised that phase cancellation will get me in the ball park of positions 2 and 4 on a strat even though I won't be relying on reverse wound reverse polarity in the middle pickup for hum cancellation (each pickup will have a dummy coil and be self sufficient). I think combining splits and phasing on the same switch is way more complicated than it needs to be, assuming that you have found a push pull pot that can offer all the necessary connections. Probably better to leave phasing and coil separate but also you'll need to consider whether how the coil splitting will interact with the phase switching. Are you going to end up in a position where using the phase switches in coil split mode will be like a kill switch due to earthing? I dunno but it's something I'd be checking. Anyways, back on topic: Have you heard of the site Guitarelectronics.com? Some useful stuff on there once you've navigated your way past all the product placement. https://guitarelectronics.com/guitar-wiring-resources/2-pickup-guitar-wiring-diagrams/ For my Esprit project I'm pretty clear about what I want but it needs a rotary switch to keep the number of knobs under control and also because it's the easiest way to make sure that each setting won't interfere with the others. Something along the lines of: Posìtion Bridge only Bridge and middle out of phase Bridge and neck in phase Middle and neck out of phase Neck only

Polarity comes from the orientation of the pickup magnets, it can't be changed via switching. Neither can the direction of the windings of the pickup. I have a master split on my Yammie MSG's which works well for me as the only time I ever use single coils is for both pickups at once. You'll probably need to decide what you need specifically and how much extra complication you want in terms of wiring. There are some schools of thought that say part of the sound of a Les Paul comes from the wiring harness and there are a load of companies that specialise in recreations of the LP wiring. Pots are a complicated thing in terms of inductance and I know that better quality pots do make a slight difference to clarity. https://www.mylespaul.com/threads/whats-the-go-to-wiring-harness-now-that-mssc-is-gone.436264/

I believe they're still being made, but it's a bit of a rabbit hole to go down. In any case a lot of these details just end up being hair splitting and make little difference to things to an on stage mix. I had a set of authentic replica 57 single coils in my Nile Rodgers strat made by some guitar fetishist in Russia. They had period correct windings and aged Alnico magnets...in fact they were so authentically weak and scratchy that I replaced them with some Fender vintage noiseless. Be careful what you wish for.

Various youtube videos that have dissected them to reveal a plain old normal resistor under the orange packaging. A bit like this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eek0azC6JV0

Ah...he sounds like a reseller rather than a manufacturer.

Who was the supplier? Chinese manufacturers can be highly variable

All you really need IMHO for a Gibson is some decent PAFs unless you have something specific in mind that needs high output or specific character (like djenting). As for wiring, I think the sprague orange drop caps are a con and I'm not a fan of twin volumes generally...but there again, I like active guitars so...what do I know? lol

To be an appreciating asset, music gear generally needs some kind of cultish or nostalgic appeal, or bragging rights. A sleb name and rarity often isn't enough.

Tom Scholz from the band Boston set the company up. He's a bit of a lectroniks wiz. X100's were headphone amps set so you could have gain, chorus delay and compression in a single unit that could fit on your belt

The price of Rockman X100's has exploded in recent months. They used to be snaggable for a hundred quid but now asking prices are around £350-500. A quick search on YouTube will reveal a slew of videos posted in the last 6 months by vloggers which will have probably been driving demand. Why? Def Leppard used them to record their Pyromania and Hysteria albums at the behest of producer Mutt Lange. Interestingly Mike Shipley (RIP), the engineer on those albums, has publically slated the sound quality of the units. He emphasised how much eq-ing was needed to get them to sound right. Phil Collen didn't recommend them for use live use either and this was all years ago. But nevertheless those prices have climbed... ... as will anything else seen as quintessentially top 40 eighties rock. Hamer Steve Stevens signature models for example. Prices of Fender Stratocaster Elite, Plus and The Strat models are climbing despite well documented tuning issues on the earlier versions.

Exactly and even more of a sense of achievement if you can manage to get close to your fave guitarist!

The cheaper end of the Ibanez SA range is worth looking at. Some great value guitars with fast necks and the whammy still stay stable even with dive bombs.

I agree with Dad3353, control and quality of playing is more important than speed. So yeah, slow it down, work on your notes, get control of the piece and then play slightly faster until you make mistakes. Once you make a mistake, stick at that speed for a while until you get control again.