komodo

One clarification. I was speaking of graphic design on a professional level, where iteration isn’t usually versions of the same thing. Rather, it’s a whole bunch of divergent versions/ideas/looks (additive), where each may then may be iterated on (additive), and then refined (subtractive), and only the best are chosen to share (subtractive). Often, this is only the first stage. It may be repeated over and over. Sometimes in our office when you have left it all on the table - blood, sweat, and tears - feedback may be “that’s a good start…”. And it’s back to the well for all new fresh work of the same thing. And, this is all pre-client. Clients are brutal in their ignorance. “that’s it?”

Ah. There are lots of creative processes, but to use design again two things are very typical. Iteration, and what I like to think of as respiration. By respiration, I mean a long process of iteration where it is an additive phase, and then a subtractive phase. Many times over and over as you refine to get to the cleanest and strongest versions that communicate your original idea. We usually begin with a long process of discovery (distillation) to find that singular idea(s), that then use that as a North star in the whole process. It really helps to have many minds on the same problem, as each will bring new things to the table which will often trigger new ideas and help to eliminate lesser ideas. Most anything you see, packaging, billboards, tv commercials, everything has probably been through this process or very similar. It's usually the bad ones that you can tell hasn't been.

In design, we strive for that absolute minimum to get the strongest idea across. Doesn’t matter if we are doing a photo shoot, making a logo, or laying out a design. You want to have it so that if you take only one element away, it fails. The utmost clarity. I always think of The Beatles and their strength in songwriting economy. It looks SO simple, but it’s the most complex in it’s simplicity.

Totally agree. The figured wood habit is a hard one to break, and while it can be stunning less can most definitely be more ( Yngwie).

It was all a dream . . .

MWU MWU MWU MWU pew pew pew MWUH MWHU pew pew pew pew MWU MWU MWU pew MWU MWU pew pew pew

I love the tenacity. Fixing stuff becomes a puzzle, and you just can’t stop until it’s solved to what you have in your mind’s eye. I bet this ends up as your #1.

Haha that's awesome. I've lost count of how many times I've seen them. I do remember Powerslave and Piece of Mind were the coolest tours! My band in high school was pretty much a Maiden clone band. We did Charlotte, Ides/Wrathchild, Innocent Exile, Killers, Acacia Ave, Powerslave, Losfer Words, Ancient Mariner, Trooper, and To Tame a Land. Other stuff: Rush, Zep, Kansas, Pat Travers, Dokken, Queensryche, Triumph, YES, BOC, Dio, Ozzy, Sabbath, April Wine. We had this spectacular drummer who could do the most amazing stuff, but his basic time would drift, usually faster as he got excited. LOL Try playing a Queensryche solo pulling behind the beat to rein in your dopey drummer. Good Times. Back to the build!

Holy cow you've been busy. I have to know, if that an original concert shirt? I saw that show from the 10th row center. I'd listened to Killers for a long time, but Bruce was new and he ripped my head clean off.

Love everything about this! I just want to grab it and see how it feels with the lap test, and hear what it sounds like.

Wow sorry I missed this, I've been consumed by work. This is a good question. Looking back in my emails, it looks like I bought it off of Ebay. The user name is: sierrachemicalco And, it looks they are still there. Search for "2-Butoxyethanol - Butyl Cellosolve - Technical Grade". One pint is about $25. I tried progressively different solvents working up to acetone, and nothing worked like this stuff did. I found it very forgiving also. I used disposable droppers and an xacto in the process, scoring the area with the xacto, then dropping in the Cellosolve. Give it a chance to work, and then come back and poke little areas where it may not have fully dissolved through. You do need to be careful if you are going down to the wood, the solvent will mess with the dye and make it discolor a small area if you poke into the wood. Yours is fairly similar in 'darkness' and probably won't give you trouble.

Hmm. Where was Wally at the time of the incident? Not sure if you have any on hand, but the Cellosolve works wonders if you end up with any little areas that don't want to blend. It couldn't be in any more capable hands.

Gah! I suffered through this last year with the Black Queen. It was made worse with the Trisonics, body mounted and no great way to adjust up or down. Lots of measuring, checking, rechecking, measuring, at almost every stage. I'm not sure I was ever 100% confident until it was strung up and I was playing it. It also has a pretty strong neck angle (can't remember how much), but isn't really an ergonomic issue.

Casually enters room looks around and notices nothing out of order. @ScottR has everything under control and looking fantastic as usual.

I've been eyeballing that TWA for awhile now. There's a new version 3 that's smaller.