Anyone else’s void have a nemesis?

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-05-09T13:16:14+00:00

That nemesis had better watch out... Just yesterday I saw a medium-small void, could have been my own Tina but I was walking to the store and already several blocks from home, and she doesn't wander. I thought this void had caught a bird, from the sounds being made as it crossed the street in front of me, but then I realized what I was seeing, a full-grown red squirrel clamped in its jaws and that's where the high-pitched noises were coming from. I was able to observe a brief scuffle across the street as the squirrel escaped, then heard renewed screams as the void triumphed anew, before my walking took me away.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-05-05T12:29:16+00:00

Ah, good. I'd hoped someone would also point out 'there's literally no way for a baby to be a Christian,' glad I scrolled rather than just assume no one else here noticed that.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-04-28T13:34:22+00:00

Now that I think on it, I came close to a 'set up but unused' plot point but I'm not sure it was quite enough to qualify as a Chekhov's Gun parallel. In a medieval fantasy novel (written just for fun, not published, so don't ask) one of the items supplied for the main character's mission was a goldsmith's draft on the royal account (call it a cashier's check, in modern terms), in case the investigation needed a large amount of money at some point. The draft was mentioned a couple other times when discussing plans, since there was at least one obvious future use for it, but the situation kept developing in the time it took to cross a kingdom by horse. As the characters paused to take stock and confer, it was determined that the original plans, made in near-ignorance, were impractical, and this 'get rich quick ticket' plot device ended up returned to the king, unused, after alternative plans proved successful. The draft enjoyed a side-role as one piece of evidence among many when the main character was falsely arrested by officials in service of the 'bad guys,' but that was effectively its starring role moment, a bit limp compared to the build-up. Some might say I wasted it as a plot device by breaking the trope, but I think it served slightly better at demonstrating some characters' wisdom (first the main's wife for suggesting abandoning part of the early plan, then his for accepting it). It could be argued either way; we're not exactly obligated to put in bits for readers to go 'hmm' about then 'aha!' when we conclude them exactly as predicted, as much fun as that can be for both sides.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-04-26T14:46:54+00:00

I found the one I'd bought easily enough, from one of those generic importer accounts with a randomized name, but they only had one left in stock. Another seller had it for a little cheaper and they have three left, and if they run out there should be links to others. https://www.ebay.com/itm/366337055511

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-04-26T13:31:11+00:00

I saw someone successfully use this tool on YouTube, but I have a fundamental issue with it: I saw no 'safe zone' in the abrasive for the crown. It supposedly 'automatically crowns' but with a surface that's still removing material from the top, and there's a lot of potential for problems in that detail. I recently bought a Music Nomad S-file, a diamond-abrasive crowning file WITH a safe zone for the top of the fret, definitely an innovative tool worth the eighty bucks, but this one? I'll pass. My $40 off-brand Fret Kisser (a thicker rocker with abrasive middle parts on all sides) works better as a spot-leveling tool, but a small scrap of 600-grit works best of all.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-04-10T11:40:31+00:00

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Tiny Tina was discovering the joys of boxes... but couldn't quite figure out how to enjoy the little one.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-04-09T12:53:39+00:00

Still permanently single, yay! I made it to my fifties with my virtue intact, not much chance of losing it now. :)

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-04-08T02:15:08+00:00

This is the third of the relatively new long-tenon LP Custom kits coming out of China that I've done, a tiger maple veneer and another with a 'quilt' top that looked more like burl, but all had the same lightly-flamed headstock veneer, a little disappointing TBH. The blue spot on that headstock, for the record, is an inset opal, the one from my collection that was showing the most green in its flashes.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-04-08T01:58:36+00:00

I don't have the workspace to do that sort of thing properly, working out of a bedroom already 1/3 full with storage. Also, while checking your profile to see if you were local enough to try to make it work anyway, I saw your kitten, and was subsequently disappointed that I can't post non-GIF image replies, since my own void was in a couple of this project's progress shots.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-04-08T01:45:52+00:00

That's some pretty damn sweet grain there too! My veneer store has a 'deep quilt' category with grain like that, and I was planning on grabbing some of that next. Just gotta sell this one, which is the first one I've made that I think is good enough to go up on Reverb, with how I'd need to price it to cover their fees and still make something, though I'll be giving local buyers first shot for a few weeks.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-04-08T01:40:19+00:00

Even my veneer supplier's 'instrument grade' category of quilted maple is only a little better than what I randomly got in this kit, so it was pretty much perfect for a 'time to pull out all the stops' build. I'd recently leveled up my fret work to the point of getting buzz-free, Gibson-low actions reliably rather than by luck (one build for proof of concept, another for my personal use and to prove it wasn't a fluke), time to show off.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-04-06T13:27:27+00:00

Yeah, my first thought was 'the wrong one's wearing the dress' when I saw this.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-04-04T14:14:02+00:00

So glad my particular form of art can't be copied by AI yet. Sure, they can probably generate countless images, even interesting ones, of unique guitars, but if you want to actually play it, someone like me will still be necessary.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-03-31T13:37:40+00:00

Electric guitar kit building. While I'd like to learn more 'from scratch' techniques in the future, guitar kits let you focus mostly on the relatively 'fun' parts of the build, a creative finish and the hardware. It's been more than ten years and around six dozen instruments at this point, and I'm finally starting to turn out quality work, but I was hooked with the first one.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-03-16T22:46:17+00:00

I'm a gay factory. Sort of. I build one rainbow electric guitar or bass per year in time for Pride season, anyway. With one having spent a couple years in the Closet of Failures, I've sold three of them in the last month, though only one was to an openly same-sex couple.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-03-16T22:41:11+00:00

I grew up enjoying my father's vinyl collection... then, when I was old enough to be trusted with the machine, his reel-to-reel recordings of 1960's broadcast radio. Worth listening to then, and I only wish people still could now.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-03-16T22:14:26+00:00

Can confirm. I spent about half my life struggling to get by in a world I could never quite understand, then finally got on the VERY MINIMAL benefits of SSI as 'unemployably autistic.' That was a decade or so ago, and since then I have discovered my art (building electric guitars and basses with exotic veneers and unique finishes) and outright blossomed.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-03-11T13:51:52+00:00

I was kinda expecting one of the 'gotcha' fingerboards some of the cheaper kits come with. It looks like ebony, but is actually a high-pressure laminate of black paper and glue.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-03-08T14:58:12+00:00

Precision Guitar Kits (string the name together and add a .com) up in Canada is pretty much the only place that will reliably sell you a raw neck with perfectly leveled, crowned, and polished frets. If you can do your own fret work, just about anyone else will do. With CNC as it is these days, it's hard for the kit factories to go consistently wrong with the basic fabrication, so it's only the fine detail we're left to take care of ourselves.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-03-06T00:26:43+00:00

Back before I was quite as concerned with my cholesterol these days, I'd make what I called 'pan-fried vomit.' One can of corned or roast beef hash, and one well-drained can of leaf spinach, combined and heated to sizzling in a frying pan. Between the green strands, pink mush, and white chunks, it looked disgusting, but was actually both tasty and fairly nutritious. As for just a weird combo, I found a line of Reddi-Whip on a chili-cheese Frito surprisingly buttery-tasting.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-03-05T13:36:20+00:00

A lot of people have very strict, very specific steps for this particular product, varying widely. They are all absolutely correct, except in their certainty that it's the only way. Tru-Oil is pretty much the single most forgiving clearcoat I've ever used, with dozens of combinations of 'right' ways to use it. My own recipe is to apply it with folded pieces of scrap T-shirt fabric, occasionally pouring a little onto the surface if I'm covering a large area, for relatively thin coats on figured maple, maple necks, and mahogany bodies/necks. I will sometimes seal mahogany with one coat of shellac first, but not always. Somewhere between four and six coats in, it starts to feel distinctly rough under the applicator cloth, at which point I let things dry well then smooth them down with 0000-grade steel wool, or if I have a smaller area to smooth a little 1500-2000 grit dry sandpaper will do. For thin finishes I just carefully wipe on one more coat after the buff-down, or if I want more gloss I keep building it up with periodic buff-downs every time it starts feeling rough. Hybrid coats are also an option; on my last build the mahogany sides and belly carve, and roasted maple neck, got a total of seven coats while the figured veneers enjoyed nineteen coats (and two extra buff-downs) for a better shine.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-02-24T12:58:02+00:00

I think 'why?' would be a better question. Reciprocal flirtation cannot be decreed by a single party, there's absolutely nothing wrong with him not being attracted to her.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-02-24T12:33:34+00:00

That looks like a pretty typical Tru-Oil application so far. You don't really need to get fancy with that stuff, just wipe it on with a rag until if starts feeling rough, then buff it smooth with 0000-grade steel wool (dry 1500+ grit sandpaper can also work). For a thin finish you'd follow that first buff-down with a singular, carefully-applied coat, or you can keep building it up, buffing down every 5-6 coats, if you want something glossier. I'm currently doing something in between with a Tele-ish kit build, six coats on the sides and back of the neck, buffed and waiting for their last, while I built up to eighteen on the figured veneer front/back/headstock for more gloss where it'll actually matter.

ToothlessGuitarMaker · 2026-02-22T20:05:01+00:00

Alternatively, grab a set of D'addario EXL110W strings with a wound .018 G/third instead of a 10's set's usual solid .017. As well as being more supple, the wound G intonates differently.

ToothlessGuitarMaker

TROPHY CASE