Guitar Project #432206 - D

Another Guitar Project - Meet D!

Occupational hazard - I've long understood that different gear responds differently through different signal chains. (That wasn't an indifferent sentence!) And I know that there's loads of pickers into St*** and T*** - big swear words to me. So as much as I hate those designs, I gotta understand how the gear I sell responds with those pickup styles. So I've already cobbled together Marino, an Epi SG Special modded with 3 St*** pickups and more logical wiring to deal with the vagaries of those pickups through the pedals I deal in.

People dig T*** too, what I call the breadboard design. I've got RT to deal with that, but I'd prefer something I'd really want to play. The ideas been kicking around in my skull for a while, and today the first step came along.

Another Epi Jr. Like these things a lot - great body style, nice necks. Typical dire tuners and electronics.  But I'm gonna hot rod this puppy into something I've wanted for a while:

Back around the What Makes a Man Start Fires/Buzz or Howl/55 on the 10 era, D Boon played a heavily modded Gibson Melody Maker. It ended up bright yellow, with a home made metal guard, a single Strat pickup (I believe) and one volume. (The volume knob for a while was from a dimmer switch!) Always though it was the coolest guitar. But when I think of D, I picture him with a black Tele, or that odd wine Tele Deluxe:

So I'm doing this Epi like D's MM: yellow, metal guard, a T*** pickup, and maybe vol and tone, not sure yet.

So, first thing, this guitar ain't worth much, like most of my gear. So modding it ain't a crisis. Plus, it's been had already

Strat knobs, aftermarket pickup (which sounds great - salvaging that), I believe an aftermarket wrap around (it's light enough to be aluminum, but shiny). Finish is cracking along the glue seams. One sticking point, maybe:

She took a blow at one point. But it doesn't appear to be major. Quick glue job.

Big Earl Guitar Tips #1 - Testing a neck crack

Grab guitar neck at the 2nd fret with one hand. With other hand, gently but firmly push down on peghead. If the crack opens, put guitar back on rack. If peghead snaps off, raise shit with the proprietor of the shop and demand a huge discount. Or run if he's bigger than you...

My biggest problem right now is time. It's October: in Edmonton, I may have 4 weeks if I'm lucky before the snow comes. So I gotta get this finished fast. 

I'm gonna post my progress on this thing, along with some tips and tricks, here on this blog, and then post the video on my YouTube channel. Probably will cover different things on both given how my train of thought tends to go (derailment most of the time)

Let's do this thing!