SG update 2

unlike the explorer, i didn’t wipe anything down with a wet cloth this time. the amount of sanding required increased exponentially due to that. i think the wet cloth trick is either horseshit, or i don’t have the right technique.

once the face was relatively clear, it dawned on me that i REALLY should have tinted the grain filler first. i think had i tinted it black or very dark brown, it would have made the red stain i plan on applying really highlight the grain in a pretty way. instead now the grain will be more red. too late now!

this part was the worst. absolute nightmare. sanding the inside of these horns took longer and burned through more sandpaper than the entire rest of the job.

in the end though, it turned out pretty good. and when i said before the finish felt like glass, well, i was wrong. NOW it feels like glass.

time for the neck. sandy sandy sandy.

grain fill applied.. time to wait.

SG update 1

started work on this guitar last night. the garage was HOT. i think it must have been like 35c in there. and humid as heck too. yuck!

the mess left behind in the garage was thankfully all guitar building mess. so although i should have cleaned up after myself, it works out because i need all the same mess for this build too 🙂

with just a bit of sanding 320 and then 800… this body is already feeling like glass. not sure if i just got lucky or if the unfinished bodies from solo are just higher quality wood, but i’m impressed.

grain is not too bad. the plan is to stain it cherry red. only one slight discoloration by the bridge. the seam between the different chunks of wood is also somewhat noticeable and nor exactly straight, but with all the hardware installed i’m hoping that won’t be too noticeable.

grain filling… gonna let it completely harden and then sand dry this time instead of what i did with the explorer when i wiped it down with a wet rag first before sanding. not sure which method will work better, but i wasn’t satisfied with the outcome of the explorer so we’ll see how this goes.

watch – true romance

god i love this movie. dug it out from the old pile of dvds and watched it this morning, because of course it’s only streaming on the one service i don’t subscribe to. haha probably for the best anyways, i have the unrated director’s cut on dvd, which is the far superior version, right? this of course is a random youtube rip of it. not sure which version it is.

the love story between clarence and alabama just fucking kills me every. single. time. that imaginary kind of love. gah. too much. too too much. so good.

yup

the other day i wrote about birthdays and my somewhat cynical attitude towards my own. seems like this year will be no exception. :/

  • j said he wanted to cook for me on my birthday last weekend, today he cancelled.
  • my mother sent me a happy birthday text on the wrong day.
  • no word from g, he’s leaving the province for good in 3 days.
  • tomorrow i get to be dragged along to the in-laws so k can visit with her ailing dad and brother who is in town from abroad.
  • kids have friends sleeping over so i get to cook dinner for even more people.

so, exactly what i was hoping for. hahaha!

i guess it’s not really fair to just talk about the bad though. not everything is terrible.

band practice today was good, unfortunately p couldn’t make it though. even with one guitar down, it went pretty smoothly. we’ve nearly got the pretender down, so that’s something. i also FINALLY went and purchased a new drum throne. we’ll see how long this one lasts. i think i have a bad habit of rocking back and forth when playing that ends up causing these things to fail prematurely. i’m not going to stop though… just need to find one that can withstand the punishment without getting loose or bending.

also got the rough body for the SG build. i have a good feeling about this one. haven’t started anything, but for sure this week i’ll be spending too much time in the garage sanding once more.

—

writing this out i’m coming to the realization that something has changed. not long ago i was writing to myself. or maybe conversing with myself? i was angry, confused, ashamed, upset, conflicted… and the dialogue here had a very different tone. now it almost feels like i am writing to someone else to let them know what is going on instead of vomiting out whatever fucked up thoughts were in my head. i guess in the last month things have changed. for the better? i definitely feel less lonely. less isolated. there are a small handful of people i am talking to regularly now and it has made a world of difference in my overall mood. i’m really thankful to have these people in my life. i hope my presence in theirs has been beneficial to them in some way too.

if at first you don’t succeed

i still hate how that explorer came out, but i don’t hate what i learned in the process. so it’s time to try again, and this time make something better.

after consulting someone who i suspect may have a slightly better eye for design than i do, the plan has been decided. SG style, cherry red stain, silver hardware… today i sourced and placed the first bits of part orders, so it’s happening.

i’m going to use the same locking tuners i put on the explorer, they were cheap AF and work amazing so far, so that’s a done deal. pickups… i would really like to go with P90s, but like the look of humbuckers better. so i gotta do some research on P90 style pickups in a humbucker format. i got time to get that sorted out though.

i have an idea for a design element as well that i want to copy from Jacob Fink. the bass guitar he uses in the foster the people tiny desk has a quote from plato written on it:

“music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything“

i really like that quote.

perhaps i know someone who has a knack for fancy hand writing or calligraphy and i could have them write it for me and then i could transpose that onto a decal or vinyl sticker or something. (hi a)

milestones and setbacks

interesting day. got on the scale this morning and saw a number i have not seen in a while, that was nice. then off to work, my turn for the performance eval.. which went pretty good! got a pay raise that i know i deserve, but didn’t expect to get yet. bumped me up to a financial milestone as far an annual salary is concerned in the process. woot!

flip side would be the unhinged and angry text from j about our upcoming trip. i didn’t do anything other than try to insist he buy lederhosen for oktoberfest… because we’re all wearing them and so is everyone else. well, he apparently will not be wearing lederhosen and he “doesn’t want to hear another word about it.”. i chose not to respond. gonna see him this weekend anyways and we’ll figure it out then. funny, it’s exactly the same tone he took when the pandemic started and i tried to warn him about what was coming, he thought i was a complete lunatic and insisted it was just a cold. then when the world exploded i mentioned one time to him “just a cold huh?” and he lost it on me the same way. like dude… come on…

also, i may or may not have consumed a RIFF Limonade a la Framboise from the SQDC as a celebratory beverage for hitting a financial milestone and then had part of my brain shut down in the middle of trying to support a conversation with a. it did not go well. But no one is angry or anything, i guess it was just awkward and confusing. i should probably explain tomorrow.

kryptonite part 2

oof. as suspected, i tried to have a straight, candid conversation about her performance and why she’s not getting a salary augmentation and it just all exploded in my face. angry crying and accusations of being unfair and insensitive. followed by “well if that’s what you think of me, then fine, there’s nothing i can do about that!” and then she hung up in my face.

god dammit. what the hell is the right thing to do here?

at this point, i tried, it didn’t work, she’s probably going to quit. if she was a high performer, that would be a big problem, but she isn’t, so i am not terribly worried. at the same time i do feel pretty shit about it.