This is exactly why I said you should gut the trailer and make it a mobile shop. You could be working on the bass during the day.
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First Build - "Lucifer"
- Thread starter TerribleTim68
- Start date
I didn't really wanna bump this back to the top, because nothing is happening. However.....
I figured some of you might want to know how #OperationNorthernLights went. The TL
R is - Total bust.
The full story is as follows -
The wife and I got a room at the ocean Crest Resort in Moclips, Washington. Yes, I said Moclips, it's a real place. It's about 20 miles North of Ocean Shores, Washington, the largest tourist town in the area and a place renowned for big wide sandy beaches and lots and lots of kites -
The beach where we were was about the same, wide, sandy, but WAY less people and way less city lights. I think it was a prefect location if things had worked out. Apparently the geomagnetic storm was a lot slower moving than NOAA-SWPC had predicted. The fact that it was much slower moving meant that it also arrived much later than predicted. So we sat on the beach from about 7pm until about 8:45 before bailing to return to the resort for the adult only hour at the pool. We enjoyed a nice quiet pool hour and then returned to the beach at about 10pm and sat for another hour. That was when I found some info online saying it may not arrive until roughly 2am through 5am, so we went back to the room and napped for a few hours. We woke up at 3am and returned to the beach, but sadly still nothing. NOAA-SWPC stated that the slow moving geo-storm was also much less intense due to the slow moving nature of it, so the aurora would not be visible at lower latitudes such as where we were located. Basically, nothing below Canada, and even then you needed to be mid to northern Canada at that. I'm not even sure it was visible in Victoria, but we'll let @Beej confirm that.
But, like I said, super dark location with some amazing viewing of stars. You could clearly make out the arm of the Milky Way as well. So at least the wife was super happy with that. We also had an amazing sunset from our dinner table at the restaurant overlooking the beach. Here's some pics, all taken with my phone -
the view from dinner -
Some stargazing -
And then the next morning my wife wanted to play with her Jeep on the beach -
Yes, her Jeep. Yes, she drove it up on the log.
She was having far too much fun parking it on every log she could find -
I figured some of you might want to know how #OperationNorthernLights went. The TL
R is - Total bust.The full story is as follows -
The wife and I got a room at the ocean Crest Resort in Moclips, Washington. Yes, I said Moclips, it's a real place. It's about 20 miles North of Ocean Shores, Washington, the largest tourist town in the area and a place renowned for big wide sandy beaches and lots and lots of kites -
The beach where we were was about the same, wide, sandy, but WAY less people and way less city lights. I think it was a prefect location if things had worked out. Apparently the geomagnetic storm was a lot slower moving than NOAA-SWPC had predicted. The fact that it was much slower moving meant that it also arrived much later than predicted. So we sat on the beach from about 7pm until about 8:45 before bailing to return to the resort for the adult only hour at the pool. We enjoyed a nice quiet pool hour and then returned to the beach at about 10pm and sat for another hour. That was when I found some info online saying it may not arrive until roughly 2am through 5am, so we went back to the room and napped for a few hours. We woke up at 3am and returned to the beach, but sadly still nothing. NOAA-SWPC stated that the slow moving geo-storm was also much less intense due to the slow moving nature of it, so the aurora would not be visible at lower latitudes such as where we were located. Basically, nothing below Canada, and even then you needed to be mid to northern Canada at that. I'm not even sure it was visible in Victoria, but we'll let @Beej confirm that.
But, like I said, super dark location with some amazing viewing of stars. You could clearly make out the arm of the Milky Way as well. So at least the wife was super happy with that. We also had an amazing sunset from our dinner table at the restaurant overlooking the beach. Here's some pics, all taken with my phone -
the view from dinner -
Some stargazing -
And then the next morning my wife wanted to play with her Jeep on the beach -
Yes, her Jeep. Yes, she drove it up on the log.
She was having far too much fun parking it on every log she could find -
- Apr 18, 2008
- 16,002
- 1
- 31,693
- Disclosures
- I'm highly opinionated and extremely self-assured
Bummer about the aurora. But mad husband points for trying, right? And those pics are great!
Yeah, she was super happy with the weekend overall, even if it was just a single overnighter. The "resort" wasn't "amazing", the rooms were very dated and not at all "fancy". But we really weren't there for the rooms, so we didn't care much. I will say this though, and this is coming from a guy who designs commercial kitchens for a living and works with various chefs regularly (some of which are James Beard winners), this place is straight killing it at the restaurant.
Dinner consisted of Salmon au Poivre with Maple-Balsamic Glazed Strawberries for myself -
And the wife had Thai Teriyaki Steak Strips (actually an appetizer, but she eats light) -
And we saved room for cheesecakes for dessert -
Then breakfast for myself was a Smoked Salmon Benedict -
The wife had pancakes, nothing fancy there.
Yeah, I didn't see anything here. Northern Lights and massive thunderstorms are the two things I miss most about living on the prairies. Both of them are incredibly spectacular in Big Sky Country like central Alberta. I drove off the road into the ditch one time on my way to Fort McMurray because I was looking up at the aurora through the truck window. 
Many a night was spent on my back in field with friends looking at aurora.
Many a night was spent on my back in field with friends looking at aurora.
Still seems like a good time. And clearly she likes articulation!I didn't really wanna bump this back to the top, because nothing is happening. However.....
I figured some of you might want to know how #OperationNorthernLights went. The TL
The full story is as follows -
The wife and I got a room at the ocean Crest Resort in Moclips, Washington. Yes, I said Moclips, it's a real place. It's about 20 miles North of Ocean Shores, Washington, the largest tourist town in the area and a place renowned for big wide sandy beaches and lots and lots of kites -
View attachment 4457934
The beach where we were was about the same, wide, sandy, but WAY less people and way less city lights. I think it was a prefect location if things had worked out. Apparently the geomagnetic storm was a lot slower moving than NOAA-SWPC had predicted. The fact that it was much slower moving meant that it also arrived much later than predicted. So we sat on the beach from about 7pm until about 8:45 before bailing to return to the resort for the adult only hour at the pool. We enjoyed a nice quiet pool hour and then returned to the beach at about 10pm and sat for another hour. That was when I found some info online saying it may not arrive until roughly 2am through 5am, so we went back to the room and napped for a few hours. We woke up at 3am and returned to the beach, but sadly still nothing. NOAA-SWPC stated that the slow moving geo-storm was also much less intense due to the slow moving nature of it, so the aurora would not be visible at lower latitudes such as where we were located. Basically, nothing below Canada, and even then you needed to be mid to northern Canada at that. I'm not even sure it was visible in Victoria, but we'll let @Beej confirm that.
But, like I said, super dark location with some amazing viewing of stars. You could clearly make out the arm of the Milky Way as well. So at least the wife was super happy with that. We also had an amazing sunset from our dinner table at the restaurant overlooking the beach. Here's some pics, all taken with my phone -
the view from dinner -
View attachment 4457947
Some stargazing -
View attachment 4457946
And then the next morning my wife wanted to play with her Jeep on the beach -
View attachment 4457948
Yes, her Jeep. Yes, she drove it up on the log.
She was having far too much fun parking it on every log she could find -
View attachment 4457954
Haha, yeah that second pic was with the sway bar disconnect on. Looked much better. She's so silly, she said "I don't know how to pose" so I said "Here, stand here and do this...." -Still seems like a good time. And clearly she likes articulation!
And then "okay, now sit here and look this way...." -
Only girl I've ever met that can't figure out Instagram poses.
Okay, let's do some real work, shall we?
Wires, Wires, Wires -
Yeah, so this is fun stuff.
I've never been any good at soldering. I watched a few YouTube tutorials and "Soldering 101" type videos to figure out how to do this. I promptly realized why I always sucked and now have a much better understanding of how this process works. I placed my wiring diagram on my tablet next to me and continually turned the screen back on as it kept going back into sleep mode. Stupid technology, can't you tell I'm not thinking that fast?
I guess this is one of those deals similar to eating an elephant, one bite at a time. Pick a place and start adding one wire, then another, then another. I've gone about as far as I can without putting it all in the body and routing the rest of the "stuff" through the channels/holes/etc. So far we have this -
Lemme Explain Myself -
I know there's a few of you that immediately cringed and reached for your keyboard when you saw all those wires mostly the same color. I know, it would have been better if I used more colors and color coded it all better. But here's the deal, at least from my point of view; it would take like 10 different colors to color code all this in any meaningful manner, and I already had these wires on hand. I'd love for my ground wires to all be one color that wasn't any of these colors, but I didn't have another color wire on hand, so this is gonna have to work.
I've got my pre-amp wires all labeled and laid out. I could realistically attach those if I really wanted to, but they are not solder connections, they are an insert connection. I've also got a couple of these that are laying in the slot they go in but not soldered yet, because I need to also solder in the pickup wire to that slot too. So....we're getting there, but I think we've gotten about as far as we can get for now. I'm sure I'll forget everything I started to understand by the time I get back to this. But I got my diagram! 
Wires, Wires, Wires -
Yeah, so this is fun stuff.
I've never been any good at soldering. I watched a few YouTube tutorials and "Soldering 101" type videos to figure out how to do this. I promptly realized why I always sucked and now have a much better understanding of how this process works. I placed my wiring diagram on my tablet next to me and continually turned the screen back on as it kept going back into sleep mode. Stupid technology, can't you tell I'm not thinking that fast?
I guess this is one of those deals similar to eating an elephant, one bite at a time. Pick a place and start adding one wire, then another, then another. I've gone about as far as I can without putting it all in the body and routing the rest of the "stuff" through the channels/holes/etc. So far we have this -
Lemme Explain Myself -
I know there's a few of you that immediately cringed and reached for your keyboard when you saw all those wires mostly the same color. I know, it would have been better if I used more colors and color coded it all better. But here's the deal, at least from my point of view; it would take like 10 different colors to color code all this in any meaningful manner, and I already had these wires on hand. I'd love for my ground wires to all be one color that wasn't any of these colors, but I didn't have another color wire on hand, so this is gonna have to work.
I've got my pre-amp wires all labeled and laid out. I could realistically attach those if I really wanted to, but they are not solder connections, they are an insert connection. I've also got a couple of these that are laying in the slot they go in but not soldered yet, because I need to also solder in the pickup wire to that slot too. So....we're getting there, but I think we've gotten about as far as we can get for now. I'm sure I'll forget everything I started to understand by the time I get back to this. But I got my diagram!
Rôckhewer
Commercial User
- Feb 28, 2015
- 2,922
- 9,028
- Disclosures
- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
Surprisingly... I totally get it... and endorse this decision.
That custom chopper I built?... every damn wire I ran... (through tubes or otherwise...) was black.
All of it.... Black. (The only 14 ga. roll I felt like buying).
I knew which wires were hot... etc... I built it.
I kinda feel sorry for the guy who bought it from me.
....
Nah... no I don't.
Yeah, I don't get too bent out of shape about wire colors. I tend to use black exclusively for grounds since there are so many of those, but everything else really doesn't matter when you are running one wire at a time. I mean, it's not like this is a bundle coming from who knows where. You can see both ends of pretty much every wire at the same time!
Good luck!
Me too. I've been called a "wire nazi" a time or 2.I have wire color OCD.View attachment 4460390
I mean, I don't think I'm a nut about it. Just trying to keep the universe balanced and peaceful.
A Choice Was Made -
So, I finally decided that I need to just do something. My problem here is, much like my day job, at some point you just have to say "This is good enough". In the Architectural world, you can literally QC a set of construction drawings till the end of time. There's always one more thing you can redline. At some point you just have to stop. That's kind of where I've been with this build. I need to just stop nitpicking it. I'm not some seasoned builder, I'm a rookie in his garage fumbling through his first build. I need to just get it done.
So with that, I decided to just sand back the grain filler and get it smoothed out good enough, and move to putting a finish on this dang thing. So, grab some 220 grit and go over the whole thing, top to bottom. Then, grab the 400 grit and go back over it again. After far more hand sanding than I really cared to do, I think I need to just be happy with it if I ever want to actually play it. It feels smooth to my hands, time to move on.
I have agonized over finishes for far too long. I'm into winter now and it's cold in my garage, even with the space heater running 24-7. Spraying something isn't an option now, we're in the rain for the next 5 months at this point. Oh hey...I have that bottle of Tru-Oil sitting over there...that stuff isn't horrible, I've done that on refinish project in the past.
So yeah, Tru-Oil it is. Here's coat #1 -
I don't know if that was what my heart was set on. But to be honest, I'm not sure what my heart was looking for anyways. I think this will work just fine. We'll apply coats over time for the next few days / over the weekend and see where we stand come Sunday. I'd really like to just get to the finish line here and I need to really push myself. It sure would be nice to be playing this by Christmas.
If anyone has some "best practices" of how long to wait between coats in a roughly 50-55 degree garage, I'm all ears man, fire away.
So, I finally decided that I need to just do something. My problem here is, much like my day job, at some point you just have to say "This is good enough". In the Architectural world, you can literally QC a set of construction drawings till the end of time. There's always one more thing you can redline. At some point you just have to stop. That's kind of where I've been with this build. I need to just stop nitpicking it. I'm not some seasoned builder, I'm a rookie in his garage fumbling through his first build. I need to just get it done.
So with that, I decided to just sand back the grain filler and get it smoothed out good enough, and move to putting a finish on this dang thing. So, grab some 220 grit and go over the whole thing, top to bottom. Then, grab the 400 grit and go back over it again. After far more hand sanding than I really cared to do, I think I need to just be happy with it if I ever want to actually play it. It feels smooth to my hands, time to move on.
I have agonized over finishes for far too long. I'm into winter now and it's cold in my garage, even with the space heater running 24-7. Spraying something isn't an option now, we're in the rain for the next 5 months at this point. Oh hey...I have that bottle of Tru-Oil sitting over there...that stuff isn't horrible, I've done that on refinish project in the past.
So yeah, Tru-Oil it is. Here's coat #1 -
I don't know if that was what my heart was set on. But to be honest, I'm not sure what my heart was looking for anyways. I think this will work just fine. We'll apply coats over time for the next few days / over the weekend and see where we stand come Sunday. I'd really like to just get to the finish line here and I need to really push myself. It sure would be nice to be playing this by Christmas.
If anyone has some "best practices" of how long to wait between coats in a roughly 50-55 degree garage, I'm all ears man, fire away.
Last edited:
Rôckhewer
Commercial User
- Feb 28, 2015
- 2,922
- 9,028
- Disclosures
- Owner/Builder- RockHewer Custom Guitars LLC
Invite Lucifer into the cozy embrace of your climate controled home.
Then slather him with oil... lovingly....and repeatedly.
24 hr intervals... slather on... Wipe off....Till "dry" to the eye.
Scuff between coats if needed ...to remove shiny spots or dust nibs....with your preference of #0000 wirewool, or fine scotchbrite.
Repeat... till Lucifer is satisfied.
Right there on the family dining table.
April will absolutely love it.
But....50F°¿?.... damn güero... that's chilly.
I live in ...basically Mexico
I got nothin.
Yeah, I hate to bring Lucifer inside. That Tru-Oil stinks.
And yeah man, it's a pretty constant 38-45 degrees outside, so the garage stays about 55-ish with the heater going. It's basically just enough to knock the chill off and make it bearable. Hey man, I still have Texas in my blood, I'm not a fan either.
And yeah man, it's a pretty constant 38-45 degrees outside, so the garage stays about 55-ish with the heater going. It's basically just enough to knock the chill off and make it bearable. Hey man, I still have Texas in my blood, I'm not a fan either.
Temperature makes a big difference in curing rates. I'll see the time between coats drop by several hours if I have my shop at 55-60 vs running a space heater and getting it at 70. Not the end of the world but I would make sure it's well cured before the next coat goes on. Thin coats at 70 I will happily recoat after 24 hours. If coats are thicker and/or you're cooler then I'd probably want to wait 36 hours or even two days between just to be sure.
I did my last bass with Tru-Oil hanging from the ceiling joists in my boiler room, so...plenty warm! Even then, I let it go 24 hours between coats. In my garage I think I'd let it go longer. Any way you can fire up an extra space heater? I hear you on the "pencils down" requirement, I draw architectural plans all day, and no matter how long you massage it, youll miss something. That might have something to do with my average bass build time of around 3 years. I love how Tru Oil looks, just wish it was more durable. On the plus side, its stupid easy to "repair" by adding more Tru Oil. Im already agonizing about using it or not on my Fauxlembic HF III build. Nice looking build, BTW!
I love how Tru Oil looks, just wish it was more durable. On the plus side, its stupid easy to "repair" by adding more Tru Oil. Im already agonizing about using it or not on my Fauxlembic HF III build. Nice looking build, BTW!
