Jeff Guitar is Finished!

It's been a long time in the finishing stages. But she's all finished. Well, Jeff still needs to machine or purchase some locking nuts. Or perhaps he'll find the originals in the basement somewhere. Side note for Jeff, in case I forget to tell you: The guitar is currently tuned flat. This is so you can put on the locking nuts and fine tune through the bridge. Remember you don't want the guitar "in tune" when you put the locking nuts on. :)

A word on Floyd Rose Tremolo Bridges. Wow are these suckers tough to set up! Never set one up before and let me tell you it was fun and frustrating all at the same time. I see why people think their guitars are 'broken' when they go to set up this type of bridge. If you don't know what to expect you would definitely think you were either doing something wrong or the guitar was broken somehow. A big thank you to the www.imuso.co.uk website. You provided an most valuable "How To" guide on Floyd Rose Tremolo bridges.

Anyway, as usual there were obstacles to overcome but I learned something and it was all worth it in the end. Although, I think I'm going to take a long break from guitars. I still have dreams of replacing the pick-ups and refinishing my current bass, and building a bass. But that's a project for much later.

Here is Jeff's new/old Ibanez.

Stay tuned for the Stave Drum Project that Brent and I will be working on. Currently I'm trying to build a jig/rig to build the drums. Of course it's going to be an experience and a lot of trial and error. But that's why I take on these projects ... to take my brain somewhere it hasn't been before. Now if I could just make some money on these types of projects *starts to day dream*

Okay... Upcoming events in the Rob project files.

New batch of Mead (wine made with honey). I bottled my last batch and it's starting to taste really good, but it has about 5-6 more months of aging.

I will also be submitting all 3 flavors of the mead to the wine competition at the State Fair this upcoming year also. Flavors are Blueberry, Blackberry, and Strawberry.

I've sparked Kevin's interest in mead so we are going to both make a batch soon. He wants to try to create Chocolate Raspberry. As for me I have no idea what flavor to try. Some ideas are pomegranate, orange, kiwi, pineapple, and been toying with a recipe for a french toast flavor.

The stave drum project will be starting up very soon. At this point I think I'm finished with preliminary ideas. It's time to just start putting things together and find out what's wrong or could be done a different way. The key to the jig/rig set up is keep it as simple and inexpensive as possible.

I've been getting new ideas on finishes for the drums so the experimental stave drums will give me a few mock-ups and/or "oops" drums to practice some of these finishes on. One I've been dying to try (not new by any means) is a burst. 2 bursts I really want to try is a honey into a green and a triple burst of honey into a red into a tobacco. The triple burst is old school Fender & Gibson. I've seen a lot of guys on message boards not use spray guns for the bursts they just use steel wool and sanding to get the blending. Can't wait to try it. Also want to try to make an inlay in a drum.

Alright, that's enough dreaming for today. Thanks for reading and we'll talk at you all later.