Guitars and Life

After waiting a week to let the body totally cure off today was guitar assembly and set up time!!!  And here is the final result...  I've christened her "Amber" after the colour used on the body.  Let me take you through the assembly... Here was the work shop dining room table as I was preparing to start about 9am Saturday morning. First job was soldering all the various components together on the body.  I didn't fix anything down at this point in case there were any hassles.   I soldered on the jacksocket - so I could then do a "tap test" (tapping a screwdriver on the pickups whilst the guitar is plugged into an amp to ensure the electrics are generally ok)  Then I attached everything to the body.  I drilled necessary holes for the scratchplate and control plate and screwed them, the bridge and the jack socket into position. Then to the final major bit.  Attaching the neck.  This neck/body combination had been "mated"...

This is apparently how you have to dress for -26°C (about -15°F).  There was a biting wind that day too adding a few extra degrees to how it felt. Rumour has it that Son-of-Furtheron is buried in there somewhere! He and his crowd are in one of the last of the accommodation blocks in the town so the walk is about 15 - 20 mins to get to the university this is him ready for the walk back at the end of the day. Here is a panorama he created of the walk...   Please DON'T STEAL THIS - it is my son's work please respect that.

So how is the guitar build going?  I know you've been constantly asking yourself that haven't you?   ... Oh well... Right - I've been using the really good Wudtone Amber stain on the body.  I liked the look of the finish you get - very natural etc. and very easy for an amateur home builder like me to use as no spraying, no special equipment etc. just need some gloves and some old rags to apply it.  You don't even have to apply grain filler before you start to finish as it takes care of some of that too.  Neat product.  However it takes a while, you need to put on a few base coats, I did four and then some top coats, I did three.  Between each you need at least a day or two for it to cure.  I learnt two things.  As ever when it says ventilated area it means it, I got a couple of killer headaches when doing this in the shed with the door closed.  DOH!  Also don't use a t-shirt, I did on the first two coats and realised it soak...

I got a message today I was expecting but not wanting.   A friend in AA passed away today.  She was only in her late 40s unfortunately. All I can say is she was a lady who was an inspiration to me.  When I joined AA she was relatively new around as well.  I watched her come out of her shell and she was a riot of laughter and a real pleasure to know.  She had known tragedy when she had to deal with the death of a very young grandchild a couple of years back.  Then recently she was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and there was little chance of a reprieve or that she would get long.  Sadly she didn't. However an inspiration - to many out there being told your small grandchild has died or that you have terminal cancer would be an excusable reason to take a drink or two or three.  Everyone would appreciate that was not unreasonable.  In both cases my friend, a recovering alcoholic like myself, didn't.  She went through both event...

To hell in a hand cart... In the last few weeks we've lost Comet, Jessops and now HMV tetters on the cliff of administration and closure.  But then like many I'm a culprit to these places demise - I buy off internet sellers.  Well actually I do buy in the High Street when I can get what I want but case in point my daughter bought me Sam Carter - No Testament for Christmas (stunning album btw - check him out!).  She went to HMV and no sign of it or of any help for the multi-pierced and studded girl who seemed to know nothing about music.  So she bought it off Amazon.  I was with my son who looked at a Blu-Ray in there - scanned the bar code and realised he could buy it off Amazon at a fraction of the cost so ordered it there and then. The last two cameras I bought both presents for the kids were from Wex online.  Why?  Significantly cheaper than Jessops and with a better package - i.e. I could get the lens they wanted in a package at a good price. ...

A couple of photos of the northern lights - my son is getting a great display as the sun has been active recently. (Message to anyone thinking of copying these... Please respect that these are my sons work - DO NOT - copy these and use them elsewhere, thank you.)

I was invited by to appear on the YouTube Channel "Live in the Living Room" - where James records local musicians playing their material in his living room, it does what it says on the tin! Anyway here is a brand new song that got its world-wide debut on James' sofa "Sense". And this is "The Man Inside". Remember look to the right for a button to take you to Rock-Til-You-Drop Records where you can download the whole Man Inside album for only £2 ($3.25ish)!  Oh and there is some of my Within album available there to download for FREE!

This is Son-of-Futheron's new home... And this is the view from the front door! Btw both of these were taken at about 3:30 in the afternoon!!!  :-)

Son-of-furtheron has arrived in the land of the midnight sun - although currently it is the land of no flipping sun at all! Rewind to last week...  Final preparations underway for his trip, huge Arctic coat bought, selection of thick hats and gloves, even some gaiter things to attach to his boats so that he can trudge through the snow without it filling up his boots, thick over trousers etc. etc.  His girlfriend had a great idea of these vacuum pack bags - you fill them up and roll them over several times to expel all the air from them through one way valves, you can then pack them in much less space than normal.  So by Friday it was all packed into a huge case and his backpack.  We had a great laugh weighing the case, as I had some scale things but he was so close to the limit (and he is of course a physicist ) he wanted a more accurate measure.  So another bright idea - use the Wii fit!  That hadn't seen light of day for months and months but...

... or save of the week maybe!  The guitar build continues. The neck is now finished - although I had a panic on Tuesday.  I did a second coat of Danish Oil on it but was worried it wasn't drying and read some horror stories on on-line forums about "How can I remove the sticky/gummy mess I've made with a Danish Oil finish"... oh dear.  I did something alien to me. I left well alone!  I only went to look at it today (Saturday morning) and guess what?  Success - it had dried out and felt pretty good - the look and feel I was after.  A little clean up consisting of a rub down with very fine (0000) wire wool, a light rub off with White Spirit then I polished it over with two coats of an old finishing wax I have that I'm sure was my Dad's - so at least 30 odd years old but hey it's done the job and here it is with the tuners now fitted. It'll have to wait a while to be mated to its body as I've now applied the  third coat of the Wudtone Amb...

This coming weekend Son-of-Furtheron is off to pastures new - although there is precious little pasture where he is heading!  He is off to Svalbard  which is in the High Arctic - in fact it is the most northerly town of over 1,000 people in the world.  He has a great opportunity as part of his last year on his master course to go there to study the Northern Lights (or Radar Diagnostics of Space Plasmas and the Interaction of Solar Winds with the Earth's Ionosphere if you want to be technical about it!).  It will be 24 hour darkness when he gets there and for the first month!  It has recently been -20°C with a windchill taking it below -30°C.  So not a walk in the park by any stretch of the imagination.  By the time he comes home sometime in May or June it'll be a balmy -2°C and 24 hour daylight!  Frankly I think 24 hour daylight will prove more difficult to get your head and bodyclock around than the 24 hour night personally! We're all...