Ground Pounder

Here's the first projects going in to the new basement repair shop (from left to right): *Edit - photo available at my blog here Ibanez BTB 405QM Bass - This is my main bass. There's some fretting issues in the upper-register, so I'm going to mic it out and see how much repair is going to be necessary. To be continued... Peavey Predator AX Strat - I'm going to give this USA-made Peavey the full overhaul. First thing to go is all the hardware, then I'm taking the finish off the body to check out the wood underneath. From there, who knows... Dean Metalman V Bass - I've got two ideas for this bass, but first I need to strip the finish and see what the wood looks like. This one's going to be fun. Teisco DelRay Hollowbody Guitar - This is my mom's guitar from the early 70's. It's got major issues - but everything is original on it (probably including the remaining 4 strings, haha!). Before anything else, I need to remove the neck and try and fix a major body seperation around the whole bottom half of the guitar, including a side-crack in the bottom glue joint that got popped in by the strap button. I'm going to try and recover all of the original hardware if I can. Fender MIM Jazz Bass - Electronics are the name of the game here. There's a few setup things that need to be done - new nut, file slots in the high-mass bridge, and fill and re-drill the strap buttons. But most of the work needs to be done on the inside. I'm going to give this the "silencer" treatment and try and add another Duncan QP-3 in the neck slot (still has the original Lace Noiseless, which sounds like crap). Also needs some TLC on the fretboard, but not too much. Epiphone SG Special - This is one of those starter pack guitars that I'm going to try and turn into gold. One of my key objectives is to find ways to make these things play and sound awesome for less than $100 in replacement parts, so I can help out the kids who can't afford a new ax. This one will be a challenge. This should make for a pretty busy weekend. Just waiting on the power tools to arrive so I can get things wired up and ready to go.

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.

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!)