Mike Perez Guitar: November 2007

About Me

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 27, 2007

Polishing this thing now,

When I returned, I went to work on the Fangyoti guitar. So now I am back to this guitar.
I started with Micro Mesh. It worked nice. I wasn't going for the perfect look, so I jumped right into the buffing. Started with Prefect-It II rubbing compound and then Imperial hand Glaze.
I found that just using 0000 steel wool on the neck and the rubbing compounds worked as good s going through the various grades of paper. The speed of the buff helped to. The neck is easy, the body is a bit slow.
I'm not done yet, but getting close. Still some small scratches, but acceptable to me. Lots of elbow-grease.