Adrian: Amateur Gardener, Part 4

To catch up on this ongoing story, read these blogs first.

Adrian: Amateur Gardener
http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2013/03/adrian-amateur-gardener.html

Part 2. 
Adrian: Amateur Gardener, Part 2
http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2013/03/adrian-amateur-gardener-part-2.html

Adrian: Amateur Handyman
http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2013/04/adrian-amateur-handyman.html

Part 3.
Adrian:  Amateur Gardener, Part 3
http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2013/05/adrian-amateur-gardener-part-3.html

Basically I wanted to do an update on all the plants that I planted for my girlfriend Lili (not her real name.)  Here in Florida we are starting to get into our rainy season, and honestly, the rain has been coming down. 

First up, the Coleus.  When we first got them, they were maybe five inches high.  With a little water they kind of grew.

Yeah, they got tall really quick.  I mean, I didn't think Coleus got that tall.  And I don't think they are done yet.  There are some very small buds starting to pop up.  I think I will be posting another blog about these Coleus in the future. 

Next up are the Vinkas.  They had a few buds on them, but again, with a little rain they have really taken off.

Even the donkey's ear is doing well.  I think it needed to put down some deep roots first, but it has been steadily growing.

And the bromeliads always do well. 

But look closer at that picture.  Here, let me help.

They are starting to breed.  And they are wanting to take over.... the flower bed.

More updates to come.  Stay tuned.

Observations From The Blues Bar

I went to see Chuck, an old friend play the other night.  He plays bass for The Damon Fowler Band (http://www.damonfowler.com/), but he was playing with his own band that night.  Any time there are a bunch of people in one spot, there is always going to be a weird dynamic.  Here's my observations from my night at the blues bar.

#1.  Blues players make what's known as "The blues face."  You know how people make funny looking "O" faces or awful looking "duck faces?"  Well, blues players make "blues faces" when they play.

Well, it's not just for men, women can do it too.

In fact, they had a woman blues player up there, so I got to see the "female blues face" in action.

#2.  Danger!  White Man Dancing

With cheap beer comes great responsibility.  Seriously, you get enough beer in some of the older guys, the bad dancing will come out. 

 

 

It's not pretty folks.

 

#3.  Killer Karaoke. 

 

So this particular bar would have Karaoke in-between the band's sets.  Sometimes it was okay.  Sometimes it was awful.  Which leads me to #4.

 

#4.  Every rose has it's retarded singer.

 

So this guy decided to sing some Karaoke.  The problem was he sang with a retarded lisp.  I'm not hating on the retards.  But you know how a lot of them have a retarded lisp?  Well, this guy sang like that.  And he wasn't even retarded! 

 

And then there was this woman who sang one of my favorite songs, "I Hate Myself For Loving You," by Joan Jett.  All I could think was, I hate this woman for singing this song.  It was pretty bad.

 

#5.  Bad Requests.

 

This I could not make up.  The band was in-between songs talking about what they were going to play next.  Out of nowhere this chick comes up on stage and starts asking this blues band to play .......  wait for it.......  Staind. 

 

That's right.

 

The band that plays this:

 



 



Was asked to play this:

Yeah, don't ask me cause I don't know either.

#6.  No black people at the blues bar.

So I know that it's been said that white people stole the black man's music.  I know the blues started in the South with the black community, so why is it that there are no black people at the blues bar?  Something to think about.

#7.  Didn't he just play that?

Now remember, these guys are friends of mine.  And I'm not afraid to admit that they are much better players than myself.  That said, all these blues solos are starting to sound the same.  I mean, it takes real talent to play them, and the tone is great, but for some reason they all start to sound the same after a while.

#8.

To the heavily tattooed chick.

(Dramatization)

 

Please tell me about your relationship with your Father.



#9.  End of the night.

Please Lord, don't let these people drive home.  Please.

Repairing Josh's Guitar, Part 2

For Part 1, read this:

http://angjellockheart.blogspot.com/2013/05/repairing-joshs-guitar-part-1.html

I'll start from where I left off last time.  Basically I had glued the guitar's neck back together, and had sanded the rough cracks even.  I had added stain and the first coat of wipe on polyurethane. 

My next steps where just adding wipe on poly once a day for a number of days.  Once I had done that I decided to buff out the neck on my buffing machine.  Here's the pictures from that.

I have to say that I am pretty happy with that.  I wasn't sure how it was going to come out.  Honestly, I have to say this was my best work on a cracked neck.  But truthfully, no two cracked guitar necks are the same.  But I was able to get this repaired, and the truss rod still works fine.  That's a giant relief.

So next was making the bone nut.  Since Josh  had lost the original plastic nut, I had to build him a new one.  I won't go over step by step on how I made it.  Only know that I put a good amount of time into it.  I hadn't made a bone nut in years, and there is a real art to it.  You can put a lot of time and effort into making one, and despite your best efforts it can come out like crap.  Like I said, there is a real art to it. 

But I'm glad to say it came out great.  Here are the pictures of me making it.

If you wonder what the black marks are, those are graphite from a pencil.  It helps slicken the grooves so the strings slide easier. 

Next up was double checking how the poly on the back of the neck had dried. 

I gotta say, I am really pleased with how the guitar came out.  I set it up, and it plays really nice. Now let's hope that Josh won't do something else dangerous to this guitar. 

Repairing Josh's Guitar, Part 1.

I have a friend named Josh.  He's a great guy, but sometimes doesn't make the best decisions.  Case in point, he was doing something not so smart and broke the neck on his Dean acoustic guitar.  Well, that means it's time for to work my magic.  I mean, I fret dressed and set up that guitar to actually make it playable in the first place.  So my goal is to make it at least 95% of what it was. 

Luckily, I took pictures.  Here's what the guitar looked like with giant cracks in it.

So yeah, that's not pretty.  But that's not the only thing.  When the guitar hit the concrete it also scratched up the back.  Here's some pictures of it.

All those white marks are scratches.  It looks like I have my work cut out for me.

First up, I loosened the truss rod, and saw that the wood wanted to lay flat together.  I then loaded as much Titebond 2 wood glue as I could into the various cracks.  Next, I used my old timey clamps to clamp it together.

Here's the pictures of the clamping.

I have the one clamp angled like that to hold one of the splintered ends in, so it could glue up. 

I then let the glue have 48 hours to dry.  I always give Titebond 2 48 hours to dry.  So this is what it looked like after I took off the clamps.

Despite being somewhat jagged, the wood glued together pretty good.  Luckily there is a neat trick I know about working on overseas Dean guitars.  They are actually sprayed with a polyester spray, not polyurethane.  That means you can lay into them on a buffing wheel.  So I took the neck of the guitar and put it on the buffing wheel to knock down the edges.

Next I started sanding out the high edges.  Here's the pics.

As you can see, I taped off the parts I didn't want to get scratched.  I then took a block sander and smoothed down any high spots.  I then took it back to the buffer.

However, I not only buffed the neck, but the body as well.  Remember those scratches on the back of the guitar?  Well, I took them to the buffer as well.

First up, here's the neck after the 2nd buffing.

And here are the pictures of the body.

Not only was I able to get those scratches out, I was able to get a few other ones out as well.  I also smoothed up a few places that couldn't be seen on camera, but could be seen by the naked eye. 

Next it was time to start making the neck look nice.  First up was adding stain to it.  This is what it looked like after the stain.

And then I started adding a Wipe On Poly.  This is only the first coat, but look at the outcome!

I've been working on guitars for a while, but this is the best I have ever done on a repaired neck.  I guess practice makes perfect.  But I've gotta say, this one presented me with a good challenge.  It's not over.  I still need to build up layers of poly, make a bone nut, and set her up again.  Wait until Part 2.  It may look like a whole new guitar. 

A Southern Man Needs A Place to Put His Drink

I am continuing my work on my girlfriend Lili's house.  I was extremely happy with the work I did on the porch/ porchsteps.  But there was one problem with the 2X4 rail I installed.  You couldn't put a drink on it. 

The outside chair sits right next to the rail.  And there's no where to put your drink.  I mean, you can put a drink on the rail, but there's a real chance it's going to fall off.  Check out this picture.

 

So I measured the length, cut up some treated yellawood, and clamped it into place.

I've found that it's like having a few extra sets of hands.  And strong hands to boot.  I'm now all about using clamps to hold things in place while I drill them.  So this is the outcome.

Let's see just how much room that glass has.

Beautiful!  Now I won't have to worry about not having a place to put my drink.  And soon, all that lumber that I have built/installed will be getting a primer and paint job.  Stay tuned for that.