Hell yeah.

Had a great few days in the shop. Guitar #8 is shaped and sanded to #180. Fretboard is attached, tuner spacers are attached. Also pictured is the beautiful Bolivian Rosewood board for the bass VI. Forgive the tape residue all over the board. Goal for next week is to get it drilled and tapped for tuners and sanded to #400 The Bass VI (#9) also made great strides. Neck is shaped, body and headstock are sanded. Next step is to get the board slotted and attached. You may remember #5, an attempt at a bolt-on neck. All good, except that the holes did not align w/ the Vacarro body it was for. It is back in the shop- and I have milled away 1/8" - new holes will be drilled (I have the body now, so they will fit), but they will still anchore to the 'meat' of the neck. I'm also going to make some pocket shims to make sure we have some depth options. And as a way to help recoup some of the cost of equipment I'm going to make some tshirts. I have some maroon ink kicking around, and have some olive heather shirts on the way. Perhaps you would like one? I was thinking may $15 plus a couple bucks for shipping? PM me w/ size and we'll get it sorted.

c jury wrote: Sun Mar 19, 2023 8:19 pm

CentJury

Put me down for a shirt.

Edit: Medium plz

Happy to help with this. I'll take 1 in L.

Oddly, I find the 'customer service' part of this endeavor very satisfying. I was able to get the bolt-on neck re-drilled, tapped for 10-24 screws and attached to be sure my work was correct. I had forgotten how great the Vacarro guitars were, and how badly I wanted one. But much like the $7-900 Beans at the time, I could never afford one. And to be sure this sets up perfectly when it gets back home, I made shims in some thin stock, .025 and .05, or so. I might make these as a stand-alone product, if folks think it would be handy for installing aftermarket necks and such.

c jury wrote: Sun Mar 19, 2023 8:19 pm

Never mind my dum dum naysaying. That logo is awesome!

I’ll buy a large shirt if there’s any left and it will help. Just message me details. Forgive me if responses are delayed a few days as I’m swamped with a lot of family responsibilities suddenly out of nowhere.

weekly update: BJ's guitar is fretted, polished to #2000 and drilled for the bridge. Bass VI fretboard is slotted and attached. Got pots installed and rough wiring done on both bodies and I got this Yamaha FG310 for $3 at a thrift store- neck repair should be very simple.

well, my work last weekend was very different. On Friday I got on a plane and flew to Reno. On Saturday morning I walked into the large theater at the Grand Sierra Resort and joined the crew to set up for Billy Idol. I then proceeded to have my brain melt out of my ears figuring out the rig and getting Steve Stevens' guitars ready for the show.

I cannot overstate how nice everyone was, especially Steve. Now back to the real world and building instruments. I got the Bass IV fretted today, and prepped BJ's body for attaching the receiver. Hopefully will do a final sand and polish tomorrow, then can start assembly. I'd love to get to a rough set-up done this weekend. Also time to start another pair of guitars- Cherry body blanks arrived, and will start gathering parts. I might look at some lighter tuners, maybe gotohs?

Back to the mundane world of building instruments. Today I was able to start the setup of BJ's guitar. There are a couple things that didn't go to plan, but overall pretty pleased. It'll be a few days of fussing before it is ready to ship out. I was also able to get the bass VI sanded to #1500 - I will concentrate on drilling for the bridge and starting some of the rough fretwork tomorrow and try to get pics soon.