The Luthier I took my 1979 Gibson ES-335 Pro to one week ago today posted two more updates on his bookfayce page. Lots more pictures.
The guitar got new frets yesterday. Today it got a new nut, a new bridge, and a new volume pot. Damn if I didn’t know there was something wrong with the wiring beyond it just being old and dirty. I feel vindicated!
Here’s hoping I will hear from him soon and I’ll be able to set a time to go and pick my semi-hollow baby up and bring it home!
In other news, my stomach is in revolt at the moment. Fun. It’s a gastric bypass side effect kind of thing and it will pass, but I just gagged up some icky stuff and had a full blown case of “the foamies” (look it up). Having said that, there is no complaint here. I ate my lunch too fast and my new redesigned digestive system slapped me on the wrist for it. Post operation side effects like this are 100% worth it, I promise you. Trust me, it’s not an issue at all.
In other other news, I checked the bookfayce page of the Luthier I brought my guitar to last Saturday and earlier today he posted a bunch of pictures showing the progress he’s made. There are pictures of my beloved Gibson ES-335 Pro without any frets, pictures of it with some new frets, and a picture of the neck with a full boat’s worth of lovely, shiny new frets. It still needs a new nut and a new bridge, and he didn’t mention anything about cleaning out the electronics (which is a major bitch of a job to do on an ES-335 as you have to squeeze everything in and out through the F-hole), but the new frets are in! I don’t know if I will share any of the photos he posted. I think I did when he worked on my Les Paul Custom, but not until a few days had past. We’ll see.
Try to picture this guitar with shiny new frets:
In other other other news, I am listening to Steve Hackett’s new album, which was released today. It is called The Circus and the Nightwhale. I am listening while I work and therefore not able to give it my full attention. My initial gut reaction though is this: Steve Hackett’s guitar playing gets exponentially better with each passing day. His songwriting improves in a similar manner. His singing… yeah, he’s better than he used to be but sometimes I still wish he’d hire a full time singer for his recording line up. I’m enjoying the new album. Check it out.
Okay, that’s it for this post. Lunch break is over. My stomach is settling down. Get back to work, Red Head!
I promised myself I was going to do it on Thursday and then failed to do it. I did not fail on Friday though. I played guitar this morning. I put rhythm guitars onto three songs. Breath that sigh of relief!
Wanna know what I have failed to do for the last two days?
Hint:
Ugh. I am feeling very musically uninspired right now. That’s not good when I am trying to write and record an album entirely within the month of February. Crud.
On a happier note, yesterday was the first time that Robin the Cat jumped up on my desk and hung out with me while I worked. Today was the first time Lily the Cat did the same.
Guitar number two (more like guitar number 1A) is going in the shop tomorrow. I am fully nervous again, even though guitar number one came out great.
Frets? Probably. Bridge and nut? Likely. Wiring harness? Could be. I should have it re-painted (white? red?) and re-finished too, but those are expenses I am not willing to take on.
Decent progress, but not as much as I had hoped for. That feels like a theme this year.
I put rhythm guitars on three songs. I now have a fully recorded rhythm section on all nine songs that I have right now. I also added melody and lyrics to one more song.
Current status is nine songs, two are ready for vocals and the other seven are ready for lyrics and melodies.
That’s it. I really need to get cracking on the lyrical front. I also need to start adding more songs. The minimum is 10 but I am hoping for 20. Looong way to go still.
Inside the Red Head's Head 