Category: ♫

ok. well… here’s where we’re at. i think i hate it?

problem 1. i did not do nearly enough prep work on the headstock. the finish on it looks… not great. i’m really hoping with enough wet sanding and polish and then having the tuners and strings in place will camouflage most of it.

problem 2. i did not do nearly enough double and triple checking of the masking job i did on the fret board. i did a bunch of touch ups already, and if you don’t look too closely, it’s not THAT bad. but i will never be able to unsee the imperfections. hopefully, with some scraping, wet sanding and polish i can smooth out a lot of it and make it passable.

problem 3. i did not do nearly enough careful thinking and consideration before i chose this color. i don’t know what i was thinking when i chose orange. for real. can i plea temporary insanity? there really isn’t much i can do about it now. so i guess i better just learn to love it. on the plus side, the finish itself turned out way better than i was expecting. i do also have a plan for the face of the body which will cover up the orange almost entirely… but i’m not sure i can go through with it. we’ll see.

before i can do anything else, this paint and clear coat need to completely harden. that’s going to take a while. maybe up to 2 weeks even. it’s hot and muggy in the garage. if i try to rush the sanding and polishing, i’m just going to make it a million times worse. so, now we do the thing i love most in life… wait.

lastly, i still need to come up with a name for this guitar.

not feeling exceptionally inspired to write much today, maybe tonight that will change…

i do however really need to stop getting lambasted the night before band practice. oof. nothing like jamming at full volume with a raging hangover! brain splitting pain aside, practice was good today! p joined in for the second time, i think we’re all pretty much agreed that he’s part of the band now. unfortunately y choked at the last minute though… i guess it’s forgivable, he did just get back from portugal so he gets a pass. THIS TIME!

couple of new songs are coming together, we’ve almost got the pretender down, well other than the ending, that’s still a mess, but we’re almost there! we also played a few tracks from incesticide which we never jammed before and they all turned out pretty dang good.

j has big dreams about how all of this works too which is both adorable and annoying at the same time. he got all excited about recording our jams again, but he doesn’t realize that for every 5 minutes of recording there’s gonna be at least 2 hours of fuckery that *I* have to deal with to make it sound acceptable. none of these guys have ever even touched a DAW before, nevermind done any kind of audio engineering. i tried to explain to him how it works, but he didn’t get it at all hahaha. in his head it’s just plug the microphone into the computer thing and then press record, done! magic studio quality recording finished! god, i would love to sit him in front of cakewalk for an afternoon and watch his head explode, but i know he doesn’t have the patience for that. p actually said he would be interested in learning though, so maybe i can get some help there? we’ll see.

crusty glue cleaned up, grain filler applied, sandy sandy sandy and finally some coats of primer going on.

for color, i picked something i was not expecting to pick.

i still need a logo or something for the headstock. so… if you are one of the very few who know of this blog’s existence, please help me. give me some ideas. i was thinking of maybe doing something with the whole sad mac theme i have adopted over the years, like the logo for this site. but the shape of it doesn’t quite lend itself to the shape of the headstock. alternately it could be a word, or something, but i don’t know what. maybe this guitar should have a name?

it almost feels like trying to pick a tattoo. of which i have none, because i simply cannot bring myself to pick something so permanent.

i’ve seen a few of dev’s videos on her dev limes channel, in particular the ones where she tries to recreate popular songs, but with her computer on mute, and picking samples based on… well not much. as someone who has studied music production and who has dabbled in that world as a hobby for a long ass time now, what dev does is simultaneously hilarious and amazing all at once! her brand of humor is also right up my alley. i knew she made actual serious music too, but only decided to listen to it tonight, and i am blown away!

i’ve not gone through all of the songs yet, but plan on doing so tonight. you can check them out on her dev lemons channel.

here’s one song i really like so far

Baseball, But Better – Say Anything

One Eighty By Summer – Taking Back Sunday

Returning to the Fold – The Thermals

Waiting for the News – Midtown

i haven’t updated the AM playlist, i’ll get to it at some point. and i am not explaining any of these today. just listen for now.

clean-ish!

despite a less than stellar reaction to yesterday’s work, i motivated myself to continue, and i’m happy with the progress. it ain’t perfect, but it least 90% of the shit everywhere has been sorted. i still need to install that garage door opener, but it’s pissing rain right now and my car is clean soooooo….. yeah, it’s going to have to wait until the rain stops and i can put my car outside.

tonight i think i will be able to start sanding the body and neck and if all goes well, i’ll apply the grain filler too. if that happens, i’ll update this post with pics.

_{and yes, i said i didn’t want to put my car outside because it was raining. shut up.}

UPDATE: actual guitar stuff is happening!

all the bits that came in the kit. body has had the first sanding completed, i forgot to take pics but don’t worry, there is plenty of sanding to come! i don’t understand why, but this kit came with like 10 feet of copper shielding tape. wut? also, tuners… no bueno.

i thought this thing would have come with appropriate glue, but alas, it does not. thankfully i still have some of this stuff left from the telecaster repair a few months ago. it’s not the right kind of glue, but it should work… right? RIGHT? fuck I hope it works.

like with everything i glue, too much in some spots, not enough in others… hopefully it will squish around to all the right places.

wiped up the excess, bunch of clamps on there… now we wait at least 24 hours.

things i am concerned about: neck and body were in my air conditioned office all week. now they are in the hot and humid garage. the wood is going to do funny things. hopefully the clamps and glue will keep everything together. also, the glue i used is probably not the best for this… we’ll see. i guess WORST case scenario, it comes apart and i have to clean it up and re-glue with the right glue this time.

sometimes the youtube algorithm knows me too well. this is exactly what i needed after facing the disaster in my garage. i remember when this video was first posted so many years ago, to me, it’s just as motivational now as it was then.

to whoever needs to hear it: if you can sing, if you can play an instrument, if you write, if you paint, it you fucking knit, bake cakes or even make sand castles, then do it! don’t let bullshit stop you from creating things. sing your little heart out even if no one hears it, draw those pictures, write that poem, whatever it is, put it out there into the universe. you’ll feel a lot better after you do, i promise.