You need to vacuum.
Tell us about the design on the Toledo toothpick! I'm intrigued.
Also, sweet.
Ha! I do need to run the swiffer around in there. I didn't notice until after I uploaded. The flash made it stand out. I was already starting to practice too late to bother to tidy up for you filthy animals. (The Mrs would be mortified.)
Design.......originally, (back in 91) I was going to paint something really detailed like a brick wall with one missing, and a pair of eyes peeking through, or something goofy like that. After all that time, I knew I didn't stand a chance of pulling it off, or finishing it, so I simplified. I may have had a martini in hand when I noticed the similarity between a toothpick and the maple guitar neck. I made a recessed wood pickguard back in 91, and a big part of the olive shape was already perfectly lined up with the joints. I thought I could handle an oval and a blob.
Back in 91, I deepened the lower cut away to make it easier to reach the high frets. Shouldn't have cut that far into the body. The proportions are goofy. I adjusted it a bit this time. It's better than it was, but still odd looking. I stripped the paint that blistered, sanded, sanded more, primed, sanded, then broke out the airbrush I haven't used since 93 or so. Painted it black, added the olive, then painted the black pearl around the olive.
I put all new guts in it. I figured that I don't want to take it apart again. Seymour Duncan Screamin Demon pickups, both double coil and tapped, so I can get more of a traditional Strat single coil sound for jazzy and blues songs. 2 volumes and no tone. (I rarely adjust tone anyway.)
I took out the fulcrum bridge back in 91. I wanted an axe I could quickly do alternate tunings on, or raise the bridge a bit for slide stuff. The bridge that was in it was already a replacement, it had a $50 price sticker on it. I had to re-set the neck to adjust the scale length to compensate for the new bridge location. It's about 3/8 of an inch farther out than it used to be. Adjusted the neck tilt, recessed the bridge a smidge to get the strings closer to the body and pickups.
3 cans of clear polyurethane, then sanded all the way up to 2500 grit sandpaper,nthe polished with 3 levels of rubbing compound to a high gloss finish. I should put another couple of coats of clear on still. The primer didn't fill all of the wood grain the way I expected, so it has some grain texture. It's not what I wanted, but it has it's own character, and I'm not about to repaint for that.
We're playing another garage party next weekend, so I may tinker with it again after that. But at least it's alive again. The action is crazy low, and it sounds really good. The frets are mediums, and I'm used to jumbos, so that's weird, but the neck is beefy and fits my hand nicely.
I put more money and time into it than it's worth, but it was fun to do, and I have another good guitar in the collection to use.
