The neck has been of major concern lately, even though I've been sitting on it for a few months already. The Schaller tuning machines needed to have that screw installed in the back, so I decided to give it a go... Against better judgment. Here's what happened:
Rather than try to arrange each of the little tuners individually so they're perpendicular to the top side of the headstock, I thought it would be better to square up all of them together, then mark and drill holes for the screws. When I did so, though, they got off the mark, so the tuning machines came out crooked. Sometimes you've just got to give yourself the space to make mistakes so you'll learn. Not happy about doing this to a neck that I paid almost $600 for, but I expect that it can be fixed with some professional help. The allen key holder was a moderate success, again not being perpendicular to the top of the headstock, but it doesn't matter much since it can go just about anywhere. It serves a pragmatic purpose; not an aesthetic one.
If you're out there in Internetland and just now seeing this, go ahead and laugh. Welcome to my dumb blog where I do dumb things!
After learning my lesson about drilling holes, I decided against trying to wing it with the string retainer I purchased, at least until after the locking nut is installed first. It's going to need to be installed at an angle since it will sit where the curve of the headstock descends.
Resist the urge... Must... not... install yet...
However, I did know that at some point I was going to need to need take some steel wool to the frets to clean gloss coat off of them, and felt confident doing so. I brought home from work a roll of painter's tape and the smallest steel wool I could find.
Fretboard taped down, gloves ready, and steel wool in hand. And don't forget the beer. Lord, I thank thee every day for the beer.
It may or may not be telling of the quality of the small patch of steel wool that I had, but it was very messy work. I had to do the job wearing a pair of old, worn out jeans, huddled over the trash can. And the gloves definitely helped. The wool disintegrated, but I managed to scrape off layers of gloss coat that I originally couldn't even tell had been caked on the frets.
Look right at the very CENTER of this photo. Gloss coat flaking off of the side of the fret. This was happening all over the place.
Success. By the way, I'm still unclear on the correct use of terms here. Gloss? Lacquer? Is it polyurethane, or nitro cellulose? I only know that I want it on the neck and fretboard, but not on the frets. Anyway, a curious thing happened. I started at the first fret and it came out smooth as glass; the other frets were definitely scrubbed and cleaned off but didn't have the same sheen to them. Still, though, the neck does actually look better overall.
Notice the difference from the first to the second fret. Just how does this happen? Perhaps I will work on it again in the future with smaller or better steel wool.
On to pickguard prep. I was told by a coworker who works on guitars and amps that I should remove any shielding immediately around where mounting holes are for the pots. The shielding should be grounded but should not act as the main ground area since it could cause noise issues later on. I chose not to cut out any of that shielding just yet, but I did want to see how the pots would mount and look with new black knobs on them. One small problem, though. The 25K pot that came with the Sustainiac had a little flange reaching up toward the shaft. My coworker told me that it's intended for ground and that I should just break it off since the back of the pot will be grounded anyway.
But of course I couldn't make myself do it, so I bent it down with some needlenose pliers. Doesn't touch the underside of the pickguard when installed.
So here's the pickguard with the pots mounted:
That 500K concentric pot is a Fatty McFatFat! Notice the Warmoth sticker to the right; that's where the DPDT switches will be installed.
Concentric pot knob set from AllParts, single knob from Warmoth. They look really good together, methinks. Master volume and tone on the two-knob set (and away from the bridge and trem arm ON PURPOSE), and the Sustainiac driver control with the smaller single knob.
I had to order a separate open-style stereo jack since the barrel type that came with the Sustainiac was too large to fit the Strat jack plate that I have. I'm annoyed that I couldn't find anything in black, but at this point it's good to just get a working piece in so I can wire the guitar up sooner rather than later. At the very least, I should be able to find a new black washer and nut sometime.
Not the end of the world, but it does drive me a little bit crazy.
One last thing: I decided to take the plunge and purchase a brass tone block direct from the Floyd Rose website. It only cost about $32 while the tungsten / stone / titanium options went way up from there. This thing is heavy for its size. Really interested in seeing / hearing / feeling what this thing will do to the string response when I'm digging in with a pick.
A solid metal block... of ROCK.
Sometimes, when I'm working on my guitars, I'll listen to electronic based music instead of something guitar-centric like metal. It provides a good balance and reminds me of my love for synthesizers. Tonight I was listening to Depeche Mode's Sounds Of The Universe and came across my favorite song on it, "Fragile Tension". It once perfectly described a weird on-again-off-again relationship I had with a lady when I was living in Arizona. Didn't know there there was a music video for it; it's pretty rad.
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