Two Left Thumbs Walk Into A Tool Room...

[Ground Pounder]

Hey PG - how's it goin'. I've browsed this board for years, but am just now making my first post.

I'm a 30'ish guitar and bass noodler, originally from Detroit. I've spent the last 15 years living Batman style - businessman and student by day; 8-ball shooting, whiskey swiggin' headbanger by night.

The last year's put me at my wits end with both sides - I had a little injury that's ended my music "career", and my frazzled brain and a crazy asian have me disgusted at work. So I figured I'd take up a hobby where I can chop some wood, wire up some stuff and help good folks and degenerates alike make some noise. And maybe, if I can produce something of a higher-quality than kindling, I'll try and make a few bucks doing it.

I also have two degenerate kids (okay, maybe not degenerates, but they're abnormal to say the least!) who are going to take up the hobby with me. The first is my 18-year old stepson who has a knack for doing things backwards. When he got an "F" in english for doodling in his notebook all year, I thought be might be a bit dyslexic. Then he got an "F" in art class for spending all class writing stories and horror movie scripts, so now I guess he's better described as... well, what's it called when your dyslexic at life? Nonetheless, he didn't get accepted to barber college, and he's too clumsy to take up tight-rope walking, so to save him from the inevitable carnie job, I'm getting him into the trade as well.

The second is my 6-year-old maniac of a son. He's got mild asperger's syndrome with a hint too much sugar in his diet, which leads to hours and hours of doing anything he can to drive me absolutely bats**t crazy. But, the kid's got magic hands. He's a video-game pro, a lego champ, and is already doing some guitar noodling himself. He's fascinated with lights and gizmos, and anything that makes noise, so it shouldn't be too hard to hook him on this gig as well.

In all honesty, I look forward to using this as a way to spend more time with my boys, working on something other than their math homework or a gamepad. And I figure that if they can get their feet wet now, maybe it'll lead to a long happy life doing something they can enjoy, instead of chasing the rat-race that I'm in every day.

I've plopped down some dough on some books, videos, and tools, and dug a few old guitars and basses out of the closet to start my woodpile. I'm also going to take the 4-day Galloup course with my stepson this summer - educational for me, a screener for him to see if he wants to check out the 8- or 24- week course down the line with some of that hard-earned college tuition money we've been saving for him for a few years.

Anyway, thanks for having me here at PG, and I look forward to many tales of sawdust and six-stringin'.

(and hopefully not too many stitches or band-aids!)

[dpm99]

Welcome, Ground Pounder! Most people agree that building guitars is a much better hobby than a career. It's fun, nonetheless, and will be a good chance for you to spend time with your boys. Do you guys have a plan for your first build yet?

-Dave

[Ground Pounder]

Actually, the first build is the workshop.

I have an old 12' X 13' utility room in my basement that's being converted - right now it's just storage. So the first build is ripping out the old bench, sealing the walls and floor, erecting some type of ceiling, and putting in a couple new modular benches.

Once we get around to guitars, we're going to be "renovating" a few old junkers that I've had floating around the closet - everything's getting a nutjob, fingerboard level and re-fret, resetting of the neck pockets, and a complete strip and refinish. I've also got a bunch of old pickups that we're going to move around in these, to see what we like. I have a friend who recently got an endorsement with Lace, so he's donating a strat set as well.

So far, the list is the following:

Peavey Predator strat w/ rosewood fingerboard & standard tremolo

Epiphone SG special w/ rosewood fingerboard

SX Tele w/ maple fingerboard

MIM Fender Jazz w/ rosewood fingerboard

Dean V Bass w/ rosewood fingerboard

Ibanez BTB 405 w/ rosewood fingerboard

As I've been told, fretwork and quality setups are the key to building a solid foundation for repair work, so that's what we're going to focus on first. I've done a couple myself already, and will be working with the kids on this.

I figure after the initial re-works, we'll move on to a Warmoth custom, which should get us into the summer - after the Galloup class, we'll likely move onto our first solidbody from scratch.

My 6-year-old will get his fair share of the action - he's heading up the string installation, and is going to help out with our electronics - I normally mount everything to templates to wire up, then add the PU wires after installation. He digs helping with this. He can also help us do some fret bending and taping off / prep work.

[chops1983]

Sounds like you've got a plan ground pounder! Welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing abit about yourself.

The problem with building guitars though is that you don't stop thinking about building, especially at night when you wanna sleep and forget playing guitars anymore because your always in the workshop But its alot of fun. Look forward to seeing some projects from the team.