Post by The Chupster on Aug 20, 2008 17:44:58 GMT -5
Heh, so Tams likes the Guitar Hero III wireless controller, so's the Chupster is customizing her guitar.
No particular reason to post about it, except that I'm gonna post some pics of the finished project once it's done. And to keep track of how much this is gonna cost me, just because I'm curious, lol.
Plan right now is to make it metallic pink with purple trim and maybe a few silver accents. Then I'm going to find some funky elephant tattoo and make it into a stencil and stencil it on the faceplate. Then I'll probably do some other stenciling, with like "Tams" on the neck or something, maybe some designs, and almost definitely some of those annoying stick-on jewels because I hate 'em and therefore I'm sure she'll want 'em. LOL.
Oh yeah, and her cell phone is metallic pink. She digs it. I dunno, it makes me ill, but whatever, it ain't mine.
Day 1:
Bought $20 worth of model spray paint from Happy Hobbies, a local joint. Snagged a metallic pink, metallic purple, glossy white (for the undercoat) and 'indy silver', as apparently the metallic pink and purple "MAY" be transparent.
Made a trip to Lowe's to pick up a star screwdriver- got a full set for $10.
Disassembled the guitar, which was easier than expected. Only prob comes in the form of the battery compartment- the wire is connected to the controller circuit board on the other half of the guitar. And the wire is sort'a thin. Used a small knife to pry some rubber cement off of the connector at the circuit board and pried the wire loose.
Guitar, unscrewed[/i]
Front half, reference pic for later[/i]
Disconnected and disassembled the whammy bar assembly, strum bar and all buttons. Took apart the neck, which was a fuckin' snap.
Whammy bar taken out[/i]
Taped the battery compartment so that the metal leads won't get painted- that would suck.
Decided to test the paint first on the faceplate, as that's replaceable. Sure enough, the glossy white makes a great base and covers smoothly and evenly. My only gripe is that I'm painting outside, with the parts on top of an old political sign on the ground, and a few tiny bugs keep jumping around on the sign and occasionally getting into the paint. I might have to go a little slower and do it on the picnic table, but if I get paint on that, Tamara will fucking kill me, as she spent like 3 weeks stripping and finishing the motherfucker.
Since the faceplate looks good, took all of the big parts outside and hosed them with white as well as all of the buttons, guitar strap pegs, strum bar, communicator port, and anything else that came loose.
Tested the silver on the faceplate and probably shouldn't have even bothered with the white- the silver is completely opaque and just sharp-looking as hell. I'm totally digging it. Get the faceplate done and it's just gorgeous. Start going to town on all of the other parts, but naturally I run out of the silver. Dammit. Goofy-ass tiny cans, but it's technically RC car paint, so I guess they don't need as much. This means I'll probably need more pink too- the purple should be enough though, as it'll mostly be for the stencil work.
Silvered guitar bits[/i]
The working guts of the guitar[/i]
And got everything cleaned up and hidden in the house so she (hopefully) won't find it. Hee hee. This is gonna RULE!
Tonight at work- the search for a funky elephant tattoo stencil thingy. w00t!
Day 2:
Started off taking some pics of the buttons and guitar now that the silver has (mostly) dried. There are a few spots (like the neck lock in back) that hadn't completely dried yet, so naturally the paint bunched up and crap, but who looks at the back of the guitar, right? Not I.
The guitar, silvered[/i]
Silver buttons[/i]
Headed back to Happy Hobbies and snapped up their last can of Indy Silver, so hopefully I won't need anymore. (That's another $5 for the record.)
Took the whole thang outside again and decided to start with the faceplate- again, replaceable if something goes amiss- to see how the colors are going to do. Says on the bottle that some dry transparent or semitransparent, which I'm counting on to let the silver shine through a bit.
I might not have needed the white gloss base, but I'm damned glad I had the silver down. Pics don't do it justice but the pink (which looked pink in the store sample but is solid metallic maroon here, and almost looks red in the pics but I don't have time to mess with the colors) is definitely semitransparent. Not so much that you see a ton of the silver or anything, but seeing black through the corners and around details would've really sucked, and the silver helps it shine a bit.
The purple, on the other hand, is a lot more opaque. Still metallic, and there are still parts where I'm definitely glad I put the silver coat down- it's almost a mottled effect in the larger flat areas, like the neck- but it looks good.
Ran out of the pink while painting the back of the body, have to hope tomorrow that they have more at the store, but there are a couple of similar colors and I got the sides, so it would only be the back part if I have to use something a little different.
Group shot of the colored guitar bits[/i]
Purple metallic buttons- BOSS![/i]
The faceplate, lookin' awesome[/i]
The neck- I promise, it is actually purple, not this blue shit[/i]
The body, rockin' the hot-&-horny maroon/pink, I LOVE it! Except where I ran out, fuck.[/i]
So tomorrow it's back to the store for the pink and a glossy finish to protect the colors. Tomorrow will also be stencil day, at least a little bit- I haven't found the elephant pattern that jumps out at me yet (and I might have to just design on on the fly), but I'm going to use some stencils instead of tape to do the detail work like the frets on the neck and the like. I figure I just have to cut a few round holes, press them against the neck, spray and that's that.
From then on, it'll pretty much be design work- I want this thing to pop, so every time Tams plays it, she knows that I kick much ass.
Day 3:
Things had just been going too well, and I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Well, today was that day.
Spent $30 on another can of pink (which is a little darker than the other can I bought, but it's just for the back of the guitar anyway), a can of gloss white (for the elephant stencil), 2 cans of gloss coat and some glitter that I'm going to spread around just before the gloss coat.
So I get home and start taping the front of the neck. The tape I'm using is some really shitty, non-adhesive packing tape that sucks, and I take over an hour taping the front of the neck, everything but the frets, which I'm going to paint silver.
I also make a stencil that says "Tams" that I'm going to slap on the faceplate, just to test the stenciling and see how that works out. I tape that in place.
So I head outside, Ben in tow, and set up everything on the picnic table. I hose down the neck so the frets are nice and shiny, then I hose the stencil.
The results were favorable. A little blurry on the right side because I didn't have it secured to the faceplate, but favorable enough. So I go to take the stencil off.
The one piece of tape that I used to secure the stencil- this tape that won't stick to fucking anything but itself- has fucking BONDED with the top part of the faceplate, and a huge strip of paint comes off, down to the white layer, which is apparently still wet even though it was dry when I put the other layers on.
My first thought is fucking disbelief. I've been in a mood since last night (don't ask), and this is just the kicker. Everything had been going so well and looking so good, and now the faceplate is just plain fucked.
My second thought is, oh my god, the neck.
I start carefully, carefully peeling the tape off, but when the first hunk of paint comes off I just start tearing it off. The neck is completely fucked, down to the (again) sticky white area and in some places, the black. I'm dumbstruck and furious at the same time.
The faceplate is one thing- it's replaceable if it comes down to it, but the neck isn't. So I rush into the house with it, grab a paint sanding sponge and start sanding the shit out of it, smoothing out everything as best I can, especially around the buttons.
At this point I realize, the neck isn't going to look great- maybe not even good- but this can still be salvaged.
I head back outside to repaint the neck front and grab the purple, applying a generous dose. Then I realize, I'm an idiot, I haven't laid down another layer of silver, so the spots where it's white or black are clearly white or black with semi-transparent purple on top. It's like a purple guitar fucked a zebra. Or a dalmation.
So I give the purple a couple of minutes and hose the thing down with the very last of the silver I have- just enough to cover the majority of the neck.
Wouldn't be a big deal but I wanted to have this thing done (at least, everything but the faceplate) by this weekend, but with the realization that this stuff isn't quite dry after a couple of days, and the fact that I just sort of went back to square one on the neck- yeah, I think I'm looking at next weekend before the guitar is playable, much less finished.
Crap.
On the upside, the faceplate looks a little cooler now, as the pink I used to fix it was a little darker, and I sprayed the rest of it to achieve a really nice mottled, almost reverse starburst effect. I think it'll still end up looking good, I just have to find a way to secure the stencils without tape now.
And everything except the front neck is now ready for the first coat of gloss finish. Once I get a couple of coats on, that means everything but the faceplate and the neck front will be completely finished and ready to dry for a week, which is a definite plus.
The crap thing overall is, modding these bastards takes a lot of time, patience, and money- I've spent close to $70 so far. That's a game, or another guitar controller- ouch. But it's worth it for my sweetie.
Slapped the first layer of clearcote on everything except the neck front, which is now sprayed purple once more, and we're out of purple, lol. Jeez what a mess!
Days 4 & 5:
Took the weekend off, then started back in earnest. Poor Earnest. LOL
Things are really rolling now- got the neck looking decent (not good, but not horrible unless you look pretty close). It's good 'n' purple. No, the neck really isn't the problem anymore.
It's the faceplate.
I had this idea- I wanted to put down a layer of pink sparkles that I got from the hobby store, then layer it with enough clearcote that it would make a solid sheet over the glitter. Well, that sure as hell didn't work, for SO many reasons.
I put down another layer of clearcote first, because I figure the glitter will stick to it.
Then I layer the glitter over it by sprinkling- the can is pretty much a sprinkle can like a salt shaker. So far, so good.
It's at this point that disaster strikes.
I apply some clearcote, trying to spread on a good, even coat. Well, the spray from the can of clearcote shoves the glitter around, bunching some of it up near the top of the faceplate, and I'm thinking, great, just f'n great, this sucks.
Then I notice that a lot of the glitter, well, it isn't pink so much anymore. No, the clearcote is reacting with the sparkles in such a way that it's turning the nice pretty sparkles into an orange, sandpapery goo. Oh joy.
And it's not even like that all over- just in mottled areas. I can't begin to imagine why.
At this point I'm in damage control mode. I grab the pink and shoot off the rest of it coating the parts that are orange, so now there's PINK sandpaper. Oh great.
I lay down a layer of clearcote on top of that, just to protect the damn thing, and call it a day.
I take another day off, plotting and planning. Which gets me nowhere.
Day 5 sees me with this silver glitter paint spray that Tams bought for a work project that didn't pan out, hosing the pink sandpaper with it, trying to give it that glittery sheen. It actually works for the most part, even though the faceplate is a mottled pink/silver, but it's not terrible.
My concern is the texture. I'm afraid that, even though Tamara thinks it looks neat, once she starts playing she's going to realize that the entire faceplate is basically sandpaper, and it's going to be rough enough to totally suck. Dammit.
I paint on the frets and other details in silver- by hand this time, so they look a little rough, and I'm going to have to go back and do some work with the purple to fix a couple of spots, but it looks decent enough.
At this point, I'm considering buying a new faceplate and starting over without the glitter, because that was a major mistake. That or purchasing some different grains of sandpaper and sanding it back down to the surface and starting over- a quick layer of silver and a layer of pink, and call it a day. Well, and then the stencils.
Dammit. lol
Day 6:
At this point, the body itself is done- the front of the neck and faceplate are all that remains, so I decide to put the body back together, just to get it done.
Everything is going swimmingly until I notice that the middle wire of 3 connecting the whammy bar assembly to the strum bar circuit board has snapped. How in the world the MIDDLE one- the least load-bearing of the bunch- could've snapped is completely beyond me, but it happens, I guess. I manage to solder it back together without destroying anything and everything looks pretty good.
I get the innards back in without further incident, and go to screw the two halves of the body back together. That's when I notice a horrible, HORRIBLE trend.
Even though I've taken this guitar apart exactly once, 6 of the 11 screw holes in the guitar are stripped as hell. And 4 of those are of the total 5 that go around the lower body of the guitar, meaning that there's 1 screw holding that bottom half together.
I google, I ask around online, I talk with some friends at work, I think about it. I end up settling on the idea of putting krazy glue in the holes, letting it dry, and then screwing the screws back in. And if that doesn't work, I'm going to look for some slightly larger screws and try to power them in without destroying everything.
So I take the guitar apart, I glue- and I wait. And pray that this damn thing gets a little easier. lol
Day 7:
Well, Krazy Glue works! lol
It's not the best in the world- I mean, it doesn't tighten up the screws like they're brand new or anything. The five screws I had that went in fine by themselves are definitely in there tight. With the Krazy Glue, the screws go in fairly easy, then get tighter as you near the end, and you have to screw them in a bit and then just let it go, or you'll probably restrip the holes- but the screws seem to be functioning well, as the body seems as solid as it ever has. Pulling, pushing, nothing seems to faze it, everything looks groovy.
Which leaves the dual problems of finishing up the neck and figuring out whether I'm going to keep the faceplate as is and work on, sandpaper it and start over, or purchase a new one and start over. Either way, it's my mom's birthday, so no real time to mess with it today- I'm just happy that the body is back together with no incidents. Rawk!
Days... ah, screw it:
Project nearing completion. Sanded down the pink sandpaper-esque faceplate, managed to paint the frets on the front of the neck without further incident. Clearkoted the neck, resprayed the faceplate, which doesn't look perfect, but it isn't horrible either, and at least it won't take the skin off of my wife's hands now.
Reassembled everything except the faceplate and tested, and it works, even the whammy bar that I had to resolder to wire to. (Given my experience with the Wii mod chip, I was skeptical, LOL.) Works like new, just have to let the front of the neck finish drying- Clearkote takes a good day or so to dry well, but it was dry enough to test out without leaving a bunch of fingerprints or anything like that.
Now, I just have to finish the faceplate, meaning tonight will be stencil night, w00t! Something to do at work. (Like I don't have enough, lol.) Pics forthcoming a little later, I have to charge up my camera batteries.
No particular reason to post about it, except that I'm gonna post some pics of the finished project once it's done. And to keep track of how much this is gonna cost me, just because I'm curious, lol.
Plan right now is to make it metallic pink with purple trim and maybe a few silver accents. Then I'm going to find some funky elephant tattoo and make it into a stencil and stencil it on the faceplate. Then I'll probably do some other stenciling, with like "Tams" on the neck or something, maybe some designs, and almost definitely some of those annoying stick-on jewels because I hate 'em and therefore I'm sure she'll want 'em. LOL.
Oh yeah, and her cell phone is metallic pink. She digs it. I dunno, it makes me ill, but whatever, it ain't mine.
Day 1:
Bought $20 worth of model spray paint from Happy Hobbies, a local joint. Snagged a metallic pink, metallic purple, glossy white (for the undercoat) and 'indy silver', as apparently the metallic pink and purple "MAY" be transparent.
Made a trip to Lowe's to pick up a star screwdriver- got a full set for $10.
Disassembled the guitar, which was easier than expected. Only prob comes in the form of the battery compartment- the wire is connected to the controller circuit board on the other half of the guitar. And the wire is sort'a thin. Used a small knife to pry some rubber cement off of the connector at the circuit board and pried the wire loose.
Guitar, unscrewed[/i]
Front half, reference pic for later[/i]
Disconnected and disassembled the whammy bar assembly, strum bar and all buttons. Took apart the neck, which was a fuckin' snap.
Whammy bar taken out[/i]
Taped the battery compartment so that the metal leads won't get painted- that would suck.
Decided to test the paint first on the faceplate, as that's replaceable. Sure enough, the glossy white makes a great base and covers smoothly and evenly. My only gripe is that I'm painting outside, with the parts on top of an old political sign on the ground, and a few tiny bugs keep jumping around on the sign and occasionally getting into the paint. I might have to go a little slower and do it on the picnic table, but if I get paint on that, Tamara will fucking kill me, as she spent like 3 weeks stripping and finishing the motherfucker.
Since the faceplate looks good, took all of the big parts outside and hosed them with white as well as all of the buttons, guitar strap pegs, strum bar, communicator port, and anything else that came loose.
Tested the silver on the faceplate and probably shouldn't have even bothered with the white- the silver is completely opaque and just sharp-looking as hell. I'm totally digging it. Get the faceplate done and it's just gorgeous. Start going to town on all of the other parts, but naturally I run out of the silver. Dammit. Goofy-ass tiny cans, but it's technically RC car paint, so I guess they don't need as much. This means I'll probably need more pink too- the purple should be enough though, as it'll mostly be for the stencil work.
Silvered guitar bits[/i]
The working guts of the guitar[/i]
And got everything cleaned up and hidden in the house so she (hopefully) won't find it. Hee hee. This is gonna RULE!
Tonight at work- the search for a funky elephant tattoo stencil thingy. w00t!
Day 2:
Started off taking some pics of the buttons and guitar now that the silver has (mostly) dried. There are a few spots (like the neck lock in back) that hadn't completely dried yet, so naturally the paint bunched up and crap, but who looks at the back of the guitar, right? Not I.
The guitar, silvered[/i]
Silver buttons[/i]
Headed back to Happy Hobbies and snapped up their last can of Indy Silver, so hopefully I won't need anymore. (That's another $5 for the record.)
Took the whole thang outside again and decided to start with the faceplate- again, replaceable if something goes amiss- to see how the colors are going to do. Says on the bottle that some dry transparent or semitransparent, which I'm counting on to let the silver shine through a bit.
I might not have needed the white gloss base, but I'm damned glad I had the silver down. Pics don't do it justice but the pink (which looked pink in the store sample but is solid metallic maroon here, and almost looks red in the pics but I don't have time to mess with the colors) is definitely semitransparent. Not so much that you see a ton of the silver or anything, but seeing black through the corners and around details would've really sucked, and the silver helps it shine a bit.
The purple, on the other hand, is a lot more opaque. Still metallic, and there are still parts where I'm definitely glad I put the silver coat down- it's almost a mottled effect in the larger flat areas, like the neck- but it looks good.
Ran out of the pink while painting the back of the body, have to hope tomorrow that they have more at the store, but there are a couple of similar colors and I got the sides, so it would only be the back part if I have to use something a little different.
Group shot of the colored guitar bits[/i]
Purple metallic buttons- BOSS![/i]
The faceplate, lookin' awesome[/i]
The neck- I promise, it is actually purple, not this blue shit[/i]
The body, rockin' the hot-&-horny maroon/pink, I LOVE it! Except where I ran out, fuck.[/i]
So tomorrow it's back to the store for the pink and a glossy finish to protect the colors. Tomorrow will also be stencil day, at least a little bit- I haven't found the elephant pattern that jumps out at me yet (and I might have to just design on on the fly), but I'm going to use some stencils instead of tape to do the detail work like the frets on the neck and the like. I figure I just have to cut a few round holes, press them against the neck, spray and that's that.
From then on, it'll pretty much be design work- I want this thing to pop, so every time Tams plays it, she knows that I kick much ass.
Day 3:
Things had just been going too well, and I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop. Well, today was that day.
Spent $30 on another can of pink (which is a little darker than the other can I bought, but it's just for the back of the guitar anyway), a can of gloss white (for the elephant stencil), 2 cans of gloss coat and some glitter that I'm going to spread around just before the gloss coat.
So I get home and start taping the front of the neck. The tape I'm using is some really shitty, non-adhesive packing tape that sucks, and I take over an hour taping the front of the neck, everything but the frets, which I'm going to paint silver.
I also make a stencil that says "Tams" that I'm going to slap on the faceplate, just to test the stenciling and see how that works out. I tape that in place.
So I head outside, Ben in tow, and set up everything on the picnic table. I hose down the neck so the frets are nice and shiny, then I hose the stencil.
The results were favorable. A little blurry on the right side because I didn't have it secured to the faceplate, but favorable enough. So I go to take the stencil off.
The one piece of tape that I used to secure the stencil- this tape that won't stick to fucking anything but itself- has fucking BONDED with the top part of the faceplate, and a huge strip of paint comes off, down to the white layer, which is apparently still wet even though it was dry when I put the other layers on.
My first thought is fucking disbelief. I've been in a mood since last night (don't ask), and this is just the kicker. Everything had been going so well and looking so good, and now the faceplate is just plain fucked.
My second thought is, oh my god, the neck.
I start carefully, carefully peeling the tape off, but when the first hunk of paint comes off I just start tearing it off. The neck is completely fucked, down to the (again) sticky white area and in some places, the black. I'm dumbstruck and furious at the same time.
The faceplate is one thing- it's replaceable if it comes down to it, but the neck isn't. So I rush into the house with it, grab a paint sanding sponge and start sanding the shit out of it, smoothing out everything as best I can, especially around the buttons.
At this point I realize, the neck isn't going to look great- maybe not even good- but this can still be salvaged.
I head back outside to repaint the neck front and grab the purple, applying a generous dose. Then I realize, I'm an idiot, I haven't laid down another layer of silver, so the spots where it's white or black are clearly white or black with semi-transparent purple on top. It's like a purple guitar fucked a zebra. Or a dalmation.
So I give the purple a couple of minutes and hose the thing down with the very last of the silver I have- just enough to cover the majority of the neck.
Wouldn't be a big deal but I wanted to have this thing done (at least, everything but the faceplate) by this weekend, but with the realization that this stuff isn't quite dry after a couple of days, and the fact that I just sort of went back to square one on the neck- yeah, I think I'm looking at next weekend before the guitar is playable, much less finished.
Crap.
On the upside, the faceplate looks a little cooler now, as the pink I used to fix it was a little darker, and I sprayed the rest of it to achieve a really nice mottled, almost reverse starburst effect. I think it'll still end up looking good, I just have to find a way to secure the stencils without tape now.
And everything except the front neck is now ready for the first coat of gloss finish. Once I get a couple of coats on, that means everything but the faceplate and the neck front will be completely finished and ready to dry for a week, which is a definite plus.
The crap thing overall is, modding these bastards takes a lot of time, patience, and money- I've spent close to $70 so far. That's a game, or another guitar controller- ouch. But it's worth it for my sweetie.
Slapped the first layer of clearcote on everything except the neck front, which is now sprayed purple once more, and we're out of purple, lol. Jeez what a mess!
Days 4 & 5:
Took the weekend off, then started back in earnest. Poor Earnest. LOL
Things are really rolling now- got the neck looking decent (not good, but not horrible unless you look pretty close). It's good 'n' purple. No, the neck really isn't the problem anymore.
It's the faceplate.
I had this idea- I wanted to put down a layer of pink sparkles that I got from the hobby store, then layer it with enough clearcote that it would make a solid sheet over the glitter. Well, that sure as hell didn't work, for SO many reasons.
I put down another layer of clearcote first, because I figure the glitter will stick to it.
Then I layer the glitter over it by sprinkling- the can is pretty much a sprinkle can like a salt shaker. So far, so good.
It's at this point that disaster strikes.
I apply some clearcote, trying to spread on a good, even coat. Well, the spray from the can of clearcote shoves the glitter around, bunching some of it up near the top of the faceplate, and I'm thinking, great, just f'n great, this sucks.
Then I notice that a lot of the glitter, well, it isn't pink so much anymore. No, the clearcote is reacting with the sparkles in such a way that it's turning the nice pretty sparkles into an orange, sandpapery goo. Oh joy.
And it's not even like that all over- just in mottled areas. I can't begin to imagine why.
At this point I'm in damage control mode. I grab the pink and shoot off the rest of it coating the parts that are orange, so now there's PINK sandpaper. Oh great.
I lay down a layer of clearcote on top of that, just to protect the damn thing, and call it a day.
I take another day off, plotting and planning. Which gets me nowhere.
Day 5 sees me with this silver glitter paint spray that Tams bought for a work project that didn't pan out, hosing the pink sandpaper with it, trying to give it that glittery sheen. It actually works for the most part, even though the faceplate is a mottled pink/silver, but it's not terrible.
My concern is the texture. I'm afraid that, even though Tamara thinks it looks neat, once she starts playing she's going to realize that the entire faceplate is basically sandpaper, and it's going to be rough enough to totally suck. Dammit.
I paint on the frets and other details in silver- by hand this time, so they look a little rough, and I'm going to have to go back and do some work with the purple to fix a couple of spots, but it looks decent enough.
At this point, I'm considering buying a new faceplate and starting over without the glitter, because that was a major mistake. That or purchasing some different grains of sandpaper and sanding it back down to the surface and starting over- a quick layer of silver and a layer of pink, and call it a day. Well, and then the stencils.
Dammit. lol
Day 6:
At this point, the body itself is done- the front of the neck and faceplate are all that remains, so I decide to put the body back together, just to get it done.
Everything is going swimmingly until I notice that the middle wire of 3 connecting the whammy bar assembly to the strum bar circuit board has snapped. How in the world the MIDDLE one- the least load-bearing of the bunch- could've snapped is completely beyond me, but it happens, I guess. I manage to solder it back together without destroying anything and everything looks pretty good.
I get the innards back in without further incident, and go to screw the two halves of the body back together. That's when I notice a horrible, HORRIBLE trend.
Even though I've taken this guitar apart exactly once, 6 of the 11 screw holes in the guitar are stripped as hell. And 4 of those are of the total 5 that go around the lower body of the guitar, meaning that there's 1 screw holding that bottom half together.
I google, I ask around online, I talk with some friends at work, I think about it. I end up settling on the idea of putting krazy glue in the holes, letting it dry, and then screwing the screws back in. And if that doesn't work, I'm going to look for some slightly larger screws and try to power them in without destroying everything.
So I take the guitar apart, I glue- and I wait. And pray that this damn thing gets a little easier. lol
Day 7:
Well, Krazy Glue works! lol
It's not the best in the world- I mean, it doesn't tighten up the screws like they're brand new or anything. The five screws I had that went in fine by themselves are definitely in there tight. With the Krazy Glue, the screws go in fairly easy, then get tighter as you near the end, and you have to screw them in a bit and then just let it go, or you'll probably restrip the holes- but the screws seem to be functioning well, as the body seems as solid as it ever has. Pulling, pushing, nothing seems to faze it, everything looks groovy.
Which leaves the dual problems of finishing up the neck and figuring out whether I'm going to keep the faceplate as is and work on, sandpaper it and start over, or purchase a new one and start over. Either way, it's my mom's birthday, so no real time to mess with it today- I'm just happy that the body is back together with no incidents. Rawk!
Days... ah, screw it:
Project nearing completion. Sanded down the pink sandpaper-esque faceplate, managed to paint the frets on the front of the neck without further incident. Clearkoted the neck, resprayed the faceplate, which doesn't look perfect, but it isn't horrible either, and at least it won't take the skin off of my wife's hands now.
Reassembled everything except the faceplate and tested, and it works, even the whammy bar that I had to resolder to wire to. (Given my experience with the Wii mod chip, I was skeptical, LOL.) Works like new, just have to let the front of the neck finish drying- Clearkote takes a good day or so to dry well, but it was dry enough to test out without leaving a bunch of fingerprints or anything like that.
Now, I just have to finish the faceplate, meaning tonight will be stencil night, w00t! Something to do at work. (Like I don't have enough, lol.) Pics forthcoming a little later, I have to charge up my camera batteries.
