Come Together, Next Week Sometime

A guitar neck smothered with ebony

Well, what can I say. The rustification of the Iceblink One is there bar a few more coats of the clear stuff. The back looks rather nice, it has to be said.

The pickup is decided upon and should be with me next week or at least sometime soonish - a lovely SD Quarter Pounder Jaguar pickup, which I'm hoping will have enough poke for a bit of doom-laden misery, yet come with one of those silly wonderful chrome claws around it. Lovely.

I have a bridge.
It fits,
I like that.

I've got the two-part scratchplate cut out of plastic and it has been 'veneered', and is currently resting beneath a big massive heavy bag of salt.

Oh, and a biscuit tin lid.

It is all hi-tec here, telling you.

Getting braver, I have unclamped the neck to see what sort of mess I've made of the all important ebony veneered fretboard. I must admit I had to give meself a good talking to before I did this. It is the crux of the anti-matter after all, and I realised that I'd already used the rest of the ebony so no second chances - working without Annette, whoever she may be.

So what did I see?

Well, I had of course overlapped it slightly on the sides, so that needs to be trimmed and sanded to size, but generally it is pretty and much flat and looks rather nice indeedy.

No crazy-legged bubbles to iron out, nor ripples to get in the way of a lowly action. There are a couple of tiny splits, which is fine and it needs a sand before I lacquer it (don't use the red jelly varnish, don't use the red jelly varnish...), but I am hopefilled at the moment.

It really is very pretty, those Indonesian trees know a thing about decorative guitar making, clearly.

From here then I guess it is mainly about getting the neck as good as I can. There are a few dents around the back, which are beyond sanding, but hopefully won't get in the way when it is being played.

As I say, I'm going to lacquer the board, and rustify the back of the neck as that felt rather nice and satinesque on the Wasteland One all those weeks ago. (Well, it feels like a long time), and I'm still to come up with a good idea for the fret markings, but that shouldn't prove horrendous.

And there we are.

I think it is only now sinking in what I'm doing with this one, and for some reason it makes me a little nervous. I don't know why.

A Rust Encrusted Back

Maybe it is because I haven't got a clue whether I will be able to play a note - like a violin lesson or something. (Not that I've ever had one, but I remember my bro's oh-so-painfully-well) or instead it could be because I'm not sure I can actually do what I'm trying to do, if that makes sense.

Not that incompetence generally is allowed to get in my way, but there we are.

Maybe I'm just getting old and scared of youths in hoodies.

A tootle and a trip