It's Alive !

Just in time for April 29, the 40th Anniversary of the release of Fair Warning (the best VH album), I've got my Frankenstrat up and running. Here's some of the WIP pics and some geeky details.

As I've said before, I wasn't going for the replica so I didn't hand wind the pickups and dip them in paraffin like EVH did. I just went to Easy Music and asked if they had any Seymour Duncan pickups.

  Salesman was like, "hmm, actually we just got some in today"....they only had one in the order that was gonna work, and that was sign enough. 

Wasn't going to be able to get all of the other hardware upgrades in town so had to go online for the replacement hardware: 

• volume pot (500K low friction); 
• new nuts, washers, and locking nuts; 
• super fast action arcade button for a kill switch; 
• pickguard material blank so I could custom cut a new one; 
• string retainer bar;
• EVH D-Tuna to allow fast access to dropped D tunings
• and a Tremol-No which makes the Floyd Rose tremolo a tamable beast.

Traced out a new pickguard pattern and digitized it. Sent it to the laser cutter at work and tried not to be in the same room while the plastic was burning.

Millimeter accuracy. Super fast and works on all sorts of materials.

Had some spare holographic material sitting around and figured the guitar needed a holographic sticker in the SRV and EVH tradition so had another go with the laser cutter.

Had a brief primer on soldering and circuits and got to it. Not pretty but when I plugged it in, circuit worked.

Shielded the cavity and back of the pickguard with copper tape. Even though there's only one pickup and it's a humbucker at that, and noise shouldn't be an issue, figured better safe than sorry. A lot easier to to it when it's all in pieces. Plus kinda looks cool even if nobody will see it.

With all that done, neck could go back on as all the next steps required strings to be on for pickup placement and tremolo set up.

Since I wasn't really starting from scratch, but just disassembling a perfectly functional guitar (though with crappy hardware), I wasn't too worried about the neck pocket fit or the profile of the neck. And sure enough, went on with no issues and looked good and true.

Had to offset the pickup since the strings are slightly differently spaced than the bridge (you see this on a lot of guitars). Put on a couple spare old strings to make sure I had the pickup in just the right place and fashioned a shim to get the height just right. Fugly but effective.

Only one more component to deal with. The dreaded Floyd Rose. 

Got familiar with the back cavity with all the springs and claws and screws and OWWWW !

Yes. That's human blood (mine - don't worry). Officially a heavy metal rock and roll machine now.

Only a couple more hiccups along the way but mostly smooth sailing. 

Turns out replacing hardware means replacing fasteners, and sometimes having to get newer longer ones if the replacement doesn't match the original exactly.

Learned that Leo Fender really did put the volume knob in the right place on the Strat so had to move mine back to a more traditional location. Oh well, hole in the pickguard means you can see that sweet copper shielding.

In the end, got the FR balanced, strings locked at the nut, and stickers on....

One detail that did want to copy from Eddie's Frankenstrat was his fail-proof strap locks. Went to Home Depot and picked up some #8 screw eyes and in a nod to our dearly departed Sally Sparkle, I'll be using her old leash as the strap.

Stickers are a nod to both SRV's famous #1 as well as Eddie's 5150 guitar, both sporting super cheesy holographic stickers.

To the inevitable question "2020 ?!? Why celebrate that shithole of a year ?"

Simple. Dreaming / planning / building this guitar got me through that shithole (which, let's be honest is stretching out kinda far into 2021 as well). Can't get back Sally, or EVH, or all those too too many people. Can't have all those events we've missed out on (like Jacob having a proper senior year and high school graduation or Lily having 25% of college spent in lockdown) but this thing happened during that shithole time. A little bit of hope.

Next - so how does it sound?

A Very Good Week

Years from now, I will look back on this week fondly.

Biggest news is, of course, that Jacob got accepted into the Thorton School of Music at USC. So incredibly proud of him and thankful to everybody who made it possible. He started playing tuba in middle school, mostly because he was one of the only kids big enough to hold one. 

He tried a little violin and trumpet, but over the past four years he's fallen in love with the bass. He's only gotten more and more serious about learning music theory and found a great mentor in Dean Taba who encouraged him to pursue music as a career. 

Auditioning for the school in-person was impossible due to COVID, so Dean called in some of the top musicians in Hawai'i and we hired them and a videographer to create a short video showcasing Jacob on electric and stand-up bass playing both jazz and Hawaiian standards. Check them out (don't seem to work on mobile, so view full website version):

Kim (fully vaccinated) got to return to in-person hula activities, which in this case meant making the whole regalia of lei, dancing, chanting, and eating freshly prepared Hawaiian food in an awesome Windward side setting. 

She came home after a full weekend of rehearsals, filming, and performing and was so energized. 

How jazzed was she? Well, she started making a new drum and I helped out too. Fun with power tools.

At the Museum we safely moved a number of highly important surfboards off display in the just now closed exhibit and into a new storage location. Couple boards were over 250 lbs and more than 17 feet long so it was a logistical, engineering, and conservation puzzle to solve but the team figured it out. Plus got a great accidental renaissance  picture to boot:

Descent of the Papahe'enalu, 2021

I got my first shot of the Pfizer vaccine and made an appointment in three weeks for my second shot. I will admit that I got a little choked up. Truly awe inspiring what we can do when we focus up and work together. 

Said goodbye via Craiglist to my Monsta Carver skatesurfer. Bittersweet but it was time. I consider it a win that I skated with it for nearly 9 years without a serious injury. While I never truly learned how to drop in I managed to check off pool riding from my bucket list. Man I wish that boards were like this when I was a kid. So much fun. Carve on, my Monsta.

And the Franketstrat project continues. Pulled off all the (really really awful and cheap) hardware:

Gotta love the star inlay on the fretboard (or...not).

Took some sandpaper to the body to rough up the existing paint so that the spray paint would stick

Took the guitar to the museum so as not to inflict stinky spray paint fumes on my family and neighbors.

After some passes with black spray paint, I hung it up to cure by the butt of a dinosaur, which apparently is a traditional luthier thing. Dunno, seems weird.

Once the black was good and dry, it was time to mask off and spray the white. 

Didn't try too hard to replicate Eddies Frankie #1 but there were a couple details that I wanted to try and get in there.

I just love the those three thick and two thin stipes of black on the upper cutaway. Also there's that one little squiggle among all the straight lines....One difference was adding a painted headstock. Had all kinds of different thicknesses of masking tape from the model building toolkit, so it was fun to pull them out.

Main thing was I wasn't going to stress about it. Didn't take super long and just sort of went for it. 

Mostly 1 inch painters tape

Adding racing stripes and ready to paint

Next Step - New Hardware

To be continued