I guess I haven't written in a while

First post in a mini series.

I am in the middle of restoring a Fender guitar. Years ago, like 1993, my brother found this old Fender guitar laying in the street. The body was carved like a butt. No joke. Being 19-20 at the time and an avid musician, I took it around to local music shops and basically got laughed at what I had.

It was a Fender Mustang. It was worth nothing. Probably made in the 1980's and no one played them: EVER.

Then Cobain blew a hole in his head. Kurt played Mustangs.

So I was bored once and I got some alder and "made" a new body for this guitar. It was playable, it looked unique but really, I did nothing with it. It basically sat in its (what is the original, I later found) case for the last 12 years or so.

Well... I stated a few months back that I would restore or build a Fender guitar this year and I am.

Started last week by buying a body on the internet from an original 1966 Fender Mustang. I then was researching the neck. I was searching the headstock out and everything on it said 1967-1968 when you looked at it but something was off on it. The tuners were from an older Fender. So I did the obvious thing this morning and took off the neck. I found I had a 1964 Fender neck. Why I had not noticed or convinced myself it was younger was beyond me. A nice little find!!

So now I have this neck that I have refinished. I am getting a new Fender decal for the headstock. All the hardware is clean and in good shape. The next step is to get paint for the body. I am going to go either the Fender Surf Green or Light Blue from 1964. I plan to tint the clear coat with a bit of yellow to "age" the look of it. I can't wait until this is done.

It would be something to say that I finished it. Hopefully then, I can move to the next one.

New Year's Resolution?

Is it too late...?

My New Year's Resolution is to create something from thin air with all my skills. I am going to build an electric guitar.

Right now I am scanning sites for the right wood and things. I hope to start on this project mid February with a summer completion and then a fall, "play it live" performance of said guitar.

This all stems from a dream I have had. I have a complete vision of this thing down to the color of the wires in the pickups. I hope to post this project as time goes on. Still costing things out. My budget is $500 and if I price the materials out now, I am at roughly $690. So I need to do more scanning of of Ebay and Craigslist for parts.

Wish me luck...

My reasoning behind this resolution is that I have not created anything in years. I am generally a creative person and well, I have not been able to connect to that side in a long time. I want to get back to that.

Back to where I once belonged...

Grunge or what's left of it...

My music tastes are weird. One minute I can be listening to Buddy Holly... the next to Disturbed.

I woke up sometime early Saturday morning and I suddenly had a hybrid of Alice In Chains Down In A Hole and The Day I Tried To Live by Soundgarden running through my brain. I have no idea what that was about. I immediately grabbed my iPod to listen to both songs and shockingly, they were not on there. I had 4300 songs on my iPod and not those two songs. So I spent some time Saturday pulling all the old "grunge" cds and installed them on my computer.

All my Alice In Chains stuff... Old Pearl Jam... STP... Mother Love Bone... you name it, I was installing away. Up to 4500 songs now on the old iPod.

Man... and who forgot STP?? They had like 10 hits or something... They are back together on tour with a new album. I saw them in 1993 here in Sactown. We sat in the back of Arco Arena. I forgot how good STP was until I found this collection of videos on the net. These guys put on a rocking show. And that is what you want to see when you spend your hard earned jack on a concert.

I saw STP, Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam...numerous times, Smashing Pumpkins... missed out on Nirvana and Soundgarden. Perhaps Soundgarden will reunite... who knows.

Ah... 1992-1993... out of high school, in college. Flannel shirts, holey jeans... long(er) hair... Blue suede Doc Marten's. I was the shiznit. I bought my first guitar in 1994. Bought my first electric soon afterwards... I think it was the summer of 1994. A white Peavey Strat copy. My first guitar was stolen along with my red Epiphone hollow body I had in 2002. My Fender Tube Amp... twin speakers...300 watts sits behind me. One of these afternoons I need to fire up and cut loose... I am a shit blues rock guy.

Kind of weird... all that shit was 15-16 years ago. Here I am still listening once in a while.

I Took Something Ugly And Made It Beautiful

No that is not a photo-shopped picture of Hillary Clinton. I was tired of the broken ugly dark blinds so I went to Lowe's today and go new ones.

They really brightened my day. Did all 7 in the front and dining room. And, listen up Lawryde, they are cordless!!! They are the bomb. No I am really... But as Tina would say, I know seriously... And if Elijah were here he'd say, "That's my Dad" and if my Dad were here he'd say, huh...