What?..At it again 3!. Are you kidding me?.

[Astroboy058]

Ok, before you all start yelling at me or sending me nasty Pm's let me explain myself. Yes, I said recently I wanted to back off building guitars a bit and I do. I have this one last project to do and then I will take a break from building so many guitars.

I bought this un-finished Mighty Mite body a few years ago. I messed with it some sanding it and staining it a couple of times with so so results. It has been laying under my bed for a long time.

Now my 21 year old son Stephen has never shown any interest in playing music. He came by last week and I said to him "come in here, I want to check something out". So we went to my computer/music room. I handed him my Strat. I wanted to see him attempt to play the guitar.

So I strummed a G chord and a D chord and then showed him how to make the chords. I said to him as he was trying to make the D chord "your fingers just told your brain..I am not doing that for you". He laughed and said "yea, my fingers won't do what I want them too". We have all been through that the first time we tried to play the guitar. So after he got his fingers to make the chords I asked him to pluck each string and to my amazement he did not mute any strings doing it for the first time.

He has been back a couple times already and seems to like it. So I decided to take this body and put it together and give it to him if he continues to hold and interest in learning to play.

So I sanded the body with my sander and sprayed a coat of primer on it. I could see the imperfections or divot's in the wood. I then went to Home Depot..my second home lately and bought some wood filler and applied it to pretty much the whole body. After it dried I sanded it again and I could see where the filler had filled up all the valleys. It was looking better.

I sprayed it again with primer and wet sanded it and then sprayed a coat of gloss white paint so I could really see any spots I might have missed. The gloss white showed the spots I needed to go over again. I sanded it again and applied some more filler and more sanding. I then sprayed another coat of primer. As of right now I only have a couple more small spots to smooth out and apply a final coat of paint. Then I will spray a coat of clear on it.

Even if Stephen loses interest I can always sell it later. I will put on a Mighty Mite neck with a Rosewood board, black pick guard with 2 humbuckers with coil taps and a 3 way switch. On a Strat I call that the "Davido mod",lol.

Here are a few pictures. You can see a couple of spots that still needs attention and a couple of runs in the paint. After his one there is really not anymore parts left to make another one so I don't think you will be seeing "at it again 4" for quite a while,lmao.


Tonight Snapper, Bill, and myself will go to Clay's and this will be the first time that my 3 best friends and I will play together. I am looking forward to it big time .

[mikedem]

That looks great Garry but I think we need an intervention. Do you expect us to believe after this one last project there won't be another. LMAO

[Astroboy058]

Originally Posted by mikedem

That looks great Garry but I think we need an intervention. Do you expect us to believe after this one last project there won't be another. LMAO

NO no no, not my last one. I just want a break from building so many like I have been for months now. I have built many more then everyone here knows about,lmao. Believe it or not it does get old.

Yesterday I had 3 picked up and 9 dropped off...no builds just service and repairs..yea!. I worked on guitars from about 7am to about 11 last night. Not straight but pretty much all day. My head hit the pillow and that is the last thing I remembered,lol.

I started working on one at 6 am today. But now I am heading out with my daughter and spend time with her and give my wife some "her" time that I think she needs.

Later!

[bigg]

Looking forward to watching the progress, it's going to be beautiful, Garry

[ArticStrat]

Looks great Gary.

[the4thdoctor]

GO GARY, GO!!!!!!!!!!! GARY BE GOOOOOD!!!!!!!

[Astroboy058]

Well, this one is coming along real nice. Using the wood filler lets me off the hook at sanding and sanding when I just clear coat the bodies. As of right now I have the body ready for a last coat of paint as long as I take my time and don't get any runs. Then I will put a few layers of clear laquer on it and let it dry.

Then I can put it together.

Here are a few pictures of it now.

The last picture is something else..do you think that what is in the last picture is a good match?.

[schnuffi]

It sure is a good match

[glassback]

Match made in heaven Gary.

[Astroboy058]

Originally Posted by schnuffi

It sure is a good match

Originally Posted by glassback

Match made in heaven Gary.

Everything you play through the HRD sounds really good but to me a Tele is what matches up with it. I think it was made for a Telecaster to be played through it.

I really love this Tele I made. This Tele is no different then any of the other guitars I assembled. It plays just as good as any other one I have but there is one huge difference and that is the tone I am getting out of it. I think the combo of the 2 good pickups and the all brass bridge and saddles make this one sound a little better and different then my others.

It is also the only guitar I have that I did not do any mods to the electronics. It is straight forward 3 way switch, volume, and a tone. The Seymour Duncan neck pickup sounds nice and smooth but also powerful. The custom wound bridge pup is an amazing pickup. It has a real crack to it and you can also dial it back and get completely different sounds out of it.

The tonal differences in both pickups are very drastic but they match up really well. I have no idea were this bridge pickup came from or who wound it. There is nothing on it..no numbers.nothing. It has a red wire and a yellow wire..that's it.

The customer who gave me the body gave it to me. He said it was in a guitar he bought off ebay and was advertised as a custom wound pickup so who knows.

If the Lacquer will ever dry I will dis-assemble it and wet sand all the imperfections out of it and then buff it until it shines.

Last weekend I left it at Clays for a few days so he could play it. When I left that night I left it sitting on a stand. I got home and thought to myself about how soft the finish still was. I called Clay and asked him to put it in it's case. He asked me "is it that soft?". I told him I thought the weight of the body will put 2 dents in it where it sits on the stand. He said "really".

When I got back down there a few days later I pulled it out of it's case and there it was..2 dents from the stand,lol. But because I put so many coats of lacquer on it I have plenty there that I can sand off and remove all the imperfections.

When I built Drongo's Tele it dried in 2 days but it was the end of summer here and it was a 100 degrees. It was a little hot here yesterday but for the most part it has been really cool here for weeks.