Name:
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.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Pickup route and wire drill



After some time off to go to Tucson, I finally found some time to get the route for the pickup ready and finalize the spot for the bridge. Always try to erase previous pencil marks as not to confuse them with the new ones. I may have set my template a bit high. We'll see. The template might not be the perfect size. I checked mine and it was too big, so I used a wider bearing to make the route smaller. Came out good. I had to use a Dremel with a long straight bit to get the pickup adjustment arms to depth. Drilling the hole for the wires is a good job at "guestimating." It's better to drill too deep then too shallow, otherwise, there will be lots of repair and frustration. This one came out right-on-the-dot. Instead of tape for a depth guide, I chose white pencil. Reason is, tape moves and you might not see it shift with the bit spinning fast. I did that mistake recently. Pencil doesn't move. I need to find a brad point drill bit, slightly wider than the 1/4" I have. The bridge studs are last, then the decision on how to do the tuners.

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