MIMF

Hey MIMFers,

What's going on?

I feel like I'm in denial, since I intend to quit building guitars...or at least keep saying it.
On my end, I got a beautiful size 2 travel guitar from Clay Schaeffer in the mail last week.
I unboxed it last night after reviewing charts, pressing labcoats, and taking care of bills.

It's a fine, fine instrument, and I'm honored to have it.

I've been thinking a lot about the other great MIMFers over the years, and all the support and advice you guys have given me.
Thank you guys for being a great community.

What have you been up to?

-Matt

I have 4 new builds underway.
One is just a body to replace one that got damaged at a show last year. Someone bumped it hard on the corner of a table or something, and I didn't see it until after the show.
The finish was chipped, and the body was dented. In trying to repair it I dropped it and made it worse! When I have more time I will repair it. Once I dropped it I kinda lost interest.

The second is another original "Strat-ish" Guitar. I have the body built, and am in the stain/color stage.

The third is a solid walnut body with a walnut neck. Another "original." I put the quotation marks on it because it is similar to others. I think we have had this conversation multiple times. It is hard to sit down and draw, and not come up with something that may have been made in the last 80 years.

I have yet another one made with a maple back and a Pau Ferro top. It is almost done. A busy time in the shop.
All of the fall shows are coming up.

Assembly started on electric #28. Three waiting for lacquer.
Hot as heck in Texas.

Being summer, not spending as much time in the shop as I usually do. Yard work, time with the family and trying to get in at least 40 miles a week on the bike (I'm a complete slug when it turns cold, so I gotta make up for it when I can). I'm also in the middle of a large project in the shop (an arts & crafts bed) that is of much higher priority to the LOML than the Lester copy that's in-progress. Then too, I'm still a music student, practicing guitar, learning bass & piano, so that takes up some time too. Hopefully I can get the bed done by the end of the summer and will be able to get back to the guitar build as my primary activity.

I participated (as a bassist) in the Rockin'1000 event that was held this past week. About 250 musicians gathered in Hart Plaza which is on the Detroit riverfront to play Seven Nation Army. That was a blast, and the folks who organized it were amazingly well organized. They just sent us a thank-you email with a link to the rough mix of one of our takes (we probably ran through that damn song about 40-50 times before we were done between sound checks, rehearsal, and actual filming). Not sure this link will work if you don't have an account with them, but give it a try. Note that we could NOT hear the vocalists and brass section as they were mic'd and fed directly into the sound board, not through the PA, and the wireless headphones we were wearing were just so we could hear the "click track".

http://www.rockin1000.com/files/SNA_Detroit_rough.mp3

Note that if interested, you can sign up as a participant on their website, and any time they organize one of these at a location that you can get to, you can volunteer and show up. Highly recommended.

http://www.rockin1000.com


Heading to Jacksonville FL for a week later this month, and am going on a "field trip" with some of the folks in our woodworking club to visit a saw mill in the southwest of the state beginning of August. Looking for something interesting like a crotch or something spalted or figured for the bass I'm planning for build #3. I'm also scheduled to teach a class on Sketchup to a gaggle of club members at the end of this month.

Working the gardens, repairing broken stuff, laying down road base and grading the road, playing music, and finishing this:

Nice work,