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Location: Los Angeles, California, United States

I have been a Los Angeles City firefighter for 20 years. I work in the Glassell Park section of Los Angeles. In 1985-1986 I worked for Charvel/Jackson in Glendora, California. It was a great experience, regardless of it being just a $5.00 an hour job. I worked in the wood shop and did the inlaying and fretting. I did get to see Neal Schon, from Journey, in one of his videos use a guitar I worked on and fretted. That was over 23 years ago. I was watching MTV with my cousin when I saw the guitar. I said, "Jim, look, I made that guitar." "And how much did they pay you...?" he asked. "Five dollar an hour" I told him. "Five dollars?...that's it?" Then he changed the channel. Making only $5.00 per hour puts things into perspective. But it still was fun. Now, it's just simple tools and equipment. It ain't perfect, but it is fun.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Inlays...whatever I had, I used



I did the inlay last night and sanded it today. I tried to make sure the transition from the short to the long inlay was smooth so I arranged them according to where the tip would lay. I didn't realize that the edge against the fingerboard edge was actually the most critical. Now the inlays are a bit off-edge. That's what you get when you use the left-over stuff. With this guitar I'm trying to use all the left-over stuff I got. The 12th-fret inlays are just a tad off, as I had to use a different inlay because one broke. They're not the same size, but close enough for who it's for...ME! I tried to figure a way to attach the binding. I was going to use a piece of wood clamped just about 1/2" off the fingerboard edge and use the handle-side of clothes pins, but that was not reliable as the pins were different sizes. It would've worked beautifully if they were a little more reliable. I opted to band saw the neck up to the edge and sand it as close to the line as possible. I still have all the wood behind the neck. That'll be cut after fretting.

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