Goodbye - Ruby II's Day

[Lazarus1140]

Re: Goodbye - Ruby II's Day

Very cool!

It'll be a looker for sure!

Thanks, Christian!

[ErikH]

Re: Goodbye - Ruby II's Day

Sure lookin' good. You are brave for spraying in this heat, even at night. I plan on waiting until it cools down some before I spray my SG Jr.

[Lazarus1140]

Re: Goodbye - Ruby II's Day

Sure lookin' good. You are brave for spraying in this heat, even at night. I plan on waiting until it cools down some before I spray my SG Jr.

Thanks for suggesting bravery. The truth is that I proceeded with impatience bordering on insanity.

I have a "gig" of sorts coming up in Austin in mid-September and I want to take the Tele along with my Strat. I doubt the weather will moderate significantly before then .... and certainly not soon enough to allow refinishing before my deadline.

If the paint fails I will remove it and then paint it again after September. I have spent $75 on schooling less worthy than this too many times!

[Wattage]

Re: Goodbye - Ruby II's Day

Looks good!

[misterwhizzy]

Re: Goodbye - Ruby II's Day

I'm smacking myself in the face for not having followed this thread closely. It looks great!

[Lazarus1140]

Re: Goodbye - Ruby II's Day

Thanks guys. I'm really looking forward to installing the new pickups wired to a 4-way.

[JordanM82]

Re: Goodbye - Ruby II's Day

Looks great bro, can't wait to see AND hear it with the new pickups in too...

[Lazarus1140]

Re: Goodbye - Ruby II's Day

I thought I could finish this project in six weeks and it's been over six months thus far. I work inhumanly long hours, have many obligations/distractions, and try to reserve at least a half day every week for chasing women.

In any case, I sanded back down to bare wood in the area where the bridge sits because I felt like the overly think paint there would have dampened the transfer of energy from the strings to the wood. Then it was virtually impossible to reapply a very light coating in that area that would match the surrounding areas as I had been blending colors all along, so I did the best I could until my patience wore thin and then decided to move on. I am willing to accept some imperfection with my first effort. After all, I want to play it ... not sell it.

Applying the clear coats, sanding and polishing were an absolute blast! My skills as a photographer are lacking and my camera is a simple point and shoot so the pics don't do the finish justice. It looks like glass ... no swirls or scatches (well, a few scratches can be seen right up against the bridge where my patience ran out).

It's time for assembly!

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Goodbye - Ruby II's Day

Wow, I'd forgotten about this. That looks great !

finishing is a tedious and painful process much of the time, I almost feel like it's sheer luck if things go well the first time around, and I have done a lot of finish work (cars mostly). Guitars, although much smaller than cars, still present many problems (bursts, trying not to break through the finish on edges whilst still trying to keep the finish from getting too thick, keeping dirt and insects out, keeping fabric marks from clothing off the finish, etc etc etc). It can test the patience of even the most patient of people.

Once the finished item is assembled, it suddenly changes into a musical instrument. After a certain amount of time has passed, you tend to see the guitar as a whole and not the minor details that you feel you could have done better. As players, hopefully we end up with a good instument, and the joy of playing it changes the focus. Also we spend so much time scrutinising the most microscopic details whilst trying to achieve a good finish, but some time later we can see it in the longer view and no longer focus on the minute details.

Get a neck on that, string her up, dial her in and hopefully enjoy a great guitar. People will comment on it and you can proudly say that you created that finish. No one will notice the imperfections, and anyway .... who cares ? If we ever managed to attain utter perfection, it would look like a factory job from a production line that has been finely crafted to reproduce the exact same finish quality time after time.

While i was building my LP-style guitar last year, I was trying to achieve perfection, knowing i couldn't, but with the target set high, i figured even though i'd fall slightly short, i'd still have a good result. During the build i felt like the guitar was developing some kind of personality, and of course (for us guys anyway) the guitar often takes on a female personality. That got me to thinking ... if you could design your ideal partner, would you make them flawlessy perfect, or would you prefer them to be attractive to you but with a few small blemishes that make them very real ?

Flawless would make them look like some glossy, airbrushed, idealised fantasy version .... attractive but with a couple of tiny flaws would make them real, and ...yours. As distinct from all the others. And in other ways too it seemed there was personailty at play .... you give it your all, your very best, and not all of that is returned .... almost all but not quite. But then you recieve other unexpected qualities back that you did not give. So there's a very humanistic thing at play.

I used to agonise over the fact that i could never make a professional looking control panel when i built amps..... they could never look exactly like an amp you'd buy in a shop. Later i came to celebrate that fact ... the small elements of a hand-crafted item that made them individual and special.

Yup, get that assembled and set up and let it speak to you. You'll have a connection you won't find anywhere else for any amount of money.

[Lazarus1140]

Re: Goodbye - Ruby II's Day

The finishing is tedious but it was a process I really enjoyed. There definitely are imperfections. The morning sunlight has revealed things I didn't see under incadescent and flourescent lighting ... particularly a few dings in the wood that I never noticed were not leveled along the way. The clear gloss highlights that type of imperfection.

In any case, I will string it up so I can hear it ... knowing already that I didn't have the foresight to work out a certain wiring issue and will probably have to order more parts. I am installing a 4-way switch and once I figured out how to modify the wiring on a Phat Cat to make this possible I thought I had conquered all - not so. A few days ago I checked wiring info for the Phat Cat and discovered that SD recommends 500k pots. With 250k pots as furnished with the guitar originally the pickup will likely sound too dark. My understanding is that the Phat Cat neck is already has a reputation for being slightly dark. Some suggest removing some winds to lower resistance while others have replaced the A2 magnets with alternate mags. Who knows? Maybe pot values have been a factor overlooked by many all along.

Anyway, I want to play the guitar. It was a vibrant, responsive Hwy I Tele straight out of the box and I hope it sounds at least as good now as it did new!

[misterwhizzy]

Re: Goodbye - Ruby II's Day

The latest pictures look really great. I hope it plays as well as it looks! And I'm glad you finally got a chance to finish it. Now on to the next project...

May. Boo.

[ErikH]

That looks really good. Great job. Can't wait to see it completed.

[guitarkid4143]

Re: Goodbye - Ruby II's Day

Looks good man!

-gk

[Lazarus1140]

Re: Goodbye - Ruby II's Day

May. Boo.

Hahaha .... you are watching closely, aren't you?

That looks really good. Great job. Can't wait to see it completed.

Looks good man! -gk

Thanks guys!

Erik, if I had been painting mine while you were doing yours it would have eliminated a lot of extra work!

[ErikH]

Erik, if I had been painting mine while you were doing yours it would have eliminated a lot of extra work!

Hahahaa. Yeah. You started before I did and didnt wait for the temps to cool off. Lol. When I got that window on Labor Day Weekend, I had to take full advantage of it.