This is my Rifle, this is my gun, This is for fighting this is for…
Add comment November 20th, 2007
This is my Machine! There are many like it, but this one is mine!
For the last couple of months I have been seeing these machines this guy Andy has been posting on the forum I moderate and I have to say each one is a one off custom. When I mean custom I mean he takes a set frame design and then changes it to look unique without totally destroying the frame design that people love. He then makes them more then just cookie cutter mass-produced machines. He gives them style and flare building and setting them up to YOUR needs not the basic standards.
I have been using basic machines for my whole career. I prefer dependability to name and look. I’m not the greatest machine tuner but I know how to assemble and rebuild what is broken for the most part. The machines I have been using are ok but for the last week or two they have been turning Christine on me and not working. I tear them down, clean them; reassemble and they keep messing up.
Finally my shader broke and I don’t know if the coils are corroded or what but I said, “It’s time to have a good machine built by someone who knows what they are doing.” I’ve been having my machines stop working in the middle of appointmenst and it’s lame making people wait. They come to me because they are tired of artists charging them so much and then having them being distracted and not working through the time they are payiing for.
I poked around asking members that bought from Andy and they said it was the best machine they have ever gotten. I’m not going to knock the guy but I’ve messed with real Sharpz, Time Machines and even an Aaron Cain or two.
I e-mailed Andy and told him my situation and what I was looking for he called me and we talked for like an hour about things. He asked what I wanted the machine to do and he said he would set me up something for my style of Black and Gray. He asked what grouping, what do I run at and am I fast or slow when I work. WOW! This is like getting a suit tailored.
He told me he had to go see what frames he had (he gets them raw cast, these aren’t no swap meet junk) he said, “Bro I got a sweet walker frame I”m working on; he sent me the pics and said you want antiqued brass fittings? and I got some thing special in the way of coils. Pink snakeskin!
So he shows me and I say lets do it. He built it for me in a couple of days and then called me up telling me how great it runs. I believe the guys on the forum but some of the newbies don’t know what’s good or bad yet. He mails it to me and said it should get there Tuesday, well it gets here monday.
I open the box and a mess of newspaper falls out revealing the softball sized chunk of cling warp cocooning my Tattoo Machine. I unravel about 12 feet of plastic to find a bubble wrap core covering a tack rag holding my new friend.
I peel it back to the beautiful aroma of fresh lacquer and see my new machine. He told me that it was better in person then his photos he wasn’t lying. This looks like something from turn of the century with the distressed frame and dulled brass fittings set off by the one of a kind Snake skin coils.
He told me on the phone that it runs like a dream, so hoping it worked as good as it looked I set up and plugged it in. It runs better then any machine I have ever had or messed with and I’m including the above mentioned products prior. He said it sang at a low voltage he isn’t lying. My liner runs at 5 really well and I thought that was the great. I have the knob turned all the way back and the snake machine is singing. I’ve never had a new machine run strong under five volts; my power supply won’t go any lower then 4.5 and I had it all the way knocked back.
So this week will be D-Day and I get to test it out. I have to say Andy is the man; he never once talked his machines up. He said they would speak for themselves and he was right. You can blow a bunch of money to get an Aaron Cain and Mickey Sharpz but are they going to personally set it up for you NO! Are they going to talk with you about it before hand NO! Is it going to be custom, not unless you want to give Aaron 1200 dollars.
Feel free to give your money to a huge name machine builder, OR! You can talk to a guy who cares and knows what he is talking about. No nonsense, no hassles and he guarantees his product lets see the rest do that.
Thanks Andy.
I know this isn’t a big deal to non tattoo artist’s but to me it’s like getting teh bike I always wanted on Christmas.
