Clearcoat & humidity do NOT get along.

Well, it's been a quiet week, mainly because I messed up and went too heavy on the clearcoat Monday morning. Instantly got white cloudy blotches, known as "blush", caused by moisture getting trapped under the lacquer. Sometimes it disappears on its own, or you can wet sand it out, but since I had to place an order with Reranch for another can of clearcoat and polishing compound anyhow, I grabbed a can of Blush remover too. Works great! Just a light mist and the blush disappears. The blush remover basically melts the top coat a little, allowing the moisture to escape. I'll let it dry overnight and resume clearcoating tomorrow or Sunday. (Wish I had taken some before & after shots, but you get the idea)

Here are some pictures of the body from last Sunday, with natural sunlight, before I started the clearcoating...

In related news, I decided i'm going to shellac the neck for an amber tint, then seal it with Tru Oil gun stock finish. After looking at tons of pictures from dozens of internet forums, it seems that shellac & Tru Oil will give me the results I want. I've ordered a bottle of Tru Oil and a bag of fresh amber shellac flakes, hopefully next week i'll do a test run on some scrap maple. 

Stay tuned, same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!

Color DONE!!!

I think, i hope, fingers crossed, salt over my shoulder, that the color spraying is DONE! Of course, this being Friday the 13th, a black cat will likely wander into the garage and park its fat ass on my freshly sprayed geetar (thus furthering proof that pussy causes all of life's problems).

Here she is:

It looks a little more blue in these photos than in person... that's my fav thing about this color, depending on the light & angle, it can go from very green to very blue, and all shades in between. I can't wait til it's clear-coated, polished, and accented with chrome.  As long as she dries nicely, i'll begin spraying the clear coat Sunday.

I should also mention that I had a slight overspray incident the other day, but didn't have my camera to document it. Basically, I got to the bottom of the spray can, and made the mistake of trying to squeeze out every last drop, which left us with some thick, dull blotches on the front & back. Wiped off the real bad spots, then opened a new can (thank GOD i ordered two), and after one pass, it looked great again.


In related geetar news, snagged myself a shiny new Wilkinson VS401 tremolo on Ebay for $20 less than it would have cost me otherwise... that's $20 more to spend on booze tonight! Woohoo!!!

Happy Friday the 13th! Go listen to Superstition, preferably SRV's version!!!

Blog update... now in COLOR!!!

Hello faithful followers, hope ya'll had a great weekend! I sure did, as evidenced here with the Dead Amble guys (i'm on the left):

(I know, I know, i said color, and the first pic is black & white, whatever...)
Got some nice tones out of my G&L Legacy and GrooveTubes Soul-O 45 combo. I'll also be doing a special blog entry on my G&L, as i'll be performing a mod on it very soon.

Anyhow, I promised COLOR! And here she is:

That's after the first 3 coats... basically, you follow something called "The Rule of Three"... 3 passes = one coat, 3 coats per day with at least an hour in between each, and 3 days of that process, for a total of 9 coats. That supposedly yields the best results. So far, i'm loving the color! Can't wait to see how it looks after all 9 coats. The final coats of clear lacquer will affect the shade too, i'm sure.

Until then, here's a pic of us with Uncle Leon & The Alibis, an awesome "cowpunk" band we were honored to share the stage with yesterday at Lady Jay's in Brooklyn.

Happy 5th of July!

That's right, today is the 5th... it's the 11th anniversary of my 5th of July keg party, thrown back when I was a 21-year-old idiot. Why the 5th? Because everyone has parties on the 4th, and if you couldn't already tell, I like to be different. My dad, God rest his soul, stood in our driveway and ID'd everyone, then cooked hotdogs & hamburgers for my drunken friends. Ah, the memories!

Back to business... started priming the body yesterday, and drove up again this morning before work to get another coat on after some light sanding. Here she is:

Might be ready to start spraying some color this weekend! I'll light sand with some #320 grit and see how it looks.

Oh, how was the Dead Amble gig yesterday? It rocked, thanks for asking! Grand Victory is an awesome venue and I'd love to play there again. I'm also on detox for the next couple days (until we play Sunday afternoon at Lady Jay's, that is).

Movin' on up...

... to my Mom's garage. A little history... this garage has served for the past decade as:

1. a recording studio, where I barely made a living for 4 years,

2. a rehearsal studio, for my dad's old cover band,

3. A workshop, where I built guitar pedals & my old studio furniture,

4. Storage, since musicians are legendary packrats, and finally

5. a rat's nest, literally. Mom had to get en exterminator last summer.


So here we are, hanging up to dry after a light sanding and coats 3, 4, & 5 of sealer:

Now that i can sleep without breathing in lacquer fumes, this project will be on a weekend schedule, although I may try to get up there this Wednesday (4th of July) for a light sanding and coat of primer before my afternoon acoustic gig with Dead Amble (shameless plug).

In other project-related news, I've learned of a newer Wilkinson tremolo, the VS401, which is an improved version of the VG100 (my previous favorite). It's an extra $40, but i'll go for it!

Also debating the merits of other Seymour Duncan pickup combos. Plenty of time to think about that though.