It's been a while since I did any loothering, let alone posting, but here is an update in the middle of this terrible pandemic.
I shot a coat of poly over the Factor bass body and hung it up for what is now about two months, so it should be good and hard for final polishing.
More: COVID-19 Update ...
I went to a beach nearby and collected some oyster shells to try out as an inlay material, the same as I have been doing with glitter. I'm looking for something light-colored, but all the white glitters reflect garish pinks and greens.
More: Crushed Oyster Shell ...
Here are some catalogs from the two golden eras of Danelectro - the sixties and the nineties. Use the arrows to flip through the pages.
More: Danelectro Catalogs ...
This is a pack of Duracells I found in my dad's closet. The 'use by' date is January 2002, you can see it right there. Yet, there is not a speck of white mange on them. They have not leaked after over twenty years! These batteries were made in the USA. Modern Duracells are made in China, and are pretty much guaranteed to leak in 20 weeks, if not 20 days. The whole point of alkaline batteries once upon a time was that they didn't leak like acid batteries. You paid extra for that.
More: Duracells ...
I got all the electrics reconnected on the Kubickish bass. The switch at the lower-right has 13 connections coming and going; luckily I drew a diagram of the whole thing before I took it apart. The switch controls the mode of the pickups - coils in series or parallel. There is also active bass and treble controls, with a passive backup mode.
More: Finally put this back together ...
I've actually been having fun doing some programming - behind-the-scenes stuff to make the site easier to administrate. WordPress is ok with even a few dozen pages, but when it gets up into the hundreds, administering everything becomes very cumbersome. Now it is easy. Some of it I did just to figure out how to do it.
But today something neat came in the mail from China.
More: Finally Some Real Work ...
The new A500 pots came today USPS a day early - so never say bad things about them. I pulled up the diagram above, heated up the soldering iron, and Presto-Change-o !!! Then I tried to put the pickguard back, and it didn't fit, because, of course. The old mini pots barely cleared the body wall, and the new full-sized ones didn't. So I had to delve back into woodwork and make clearance for them. I had to razor and dremel away about a quarter of an inch, without messing up the 'finish'.
More: Freakenbacker Back Together ...
Here is a selection of items you could get from the Sears catalog, once upon a time.
More: From the Sears Catalog ...
Got the binding all scraped off on this one. No catastrophes, just a lap full of fine plastic shavings. You can see my homemade scraper. A bit of final touch-up to the stain, and this will be ready for a proper oil-based finish.
More: Fussy Work ...
Here is a series of videos from a guy who has done the most scientific testing of electric guitars and amplifiers that I have yet to find. His results surprise even me. I have always felt that "tone" is mostly imagination, but these carefully constructed tests show that it is entirely imagination.
More: It's All Bullshit ...