Branding blindness
by Ross on 2 July 2009, under Fun, Uncategorized
Sometimes they just write themselves…
Two words…
by Ross on 9 June 2009, under Rants
…guaranteed to have every hard-working commuter seething.
Bob Crow.
The leader of the RMT is obviously living in a parallel universe, where there is no credit crunch. In BC-land, no businesses have undergone complusory redundancy programmes and everyone has received a healthy pay rise this year. Why else would he be pressuring London Underground for a 5% pay increase this year and an assurance that there will not be any compulsory redundancies?
The firm I work for (like many in the City) has lost around 10% of its workforce to redundancy, and has enforced a pay freeze this year. Bonuses are but a distant memory. Yes, it’s tough. But we endure. And the last thing we need is some militant arse-wipe holding us tube-users to ransom. And I know I’ve just started the last three sentences with conjunctions. And I don’t care (see – there’s another).
I’m sure that fact that England are playing at Wembley tomorrow night is merely coincidence…
Project 0001 – #2 – Bodyworks
by Ross on 26 May 2009, under Music, Project 0001
I realised that it’s been about a year since I’ve posted anything to do with my (ongoing) project to build a “close counterpart” to David Gilmour’s hallowed s/n 0001 Stratocaster – whoops!
When I last posted, I had just created the headstock logo and decals. I’m pleased to say that the headstock now also sports a set of gold Wilkinson Deluxe machineheads (tuners, to those of you across the pond). Whilst not strictly accurate (i.e. split post), these have two holes at 90 degrees to each other – maximum string-lockage without the need for fancy cam/screw systems. Sadly, I also managed to drop the neck (silly, silly boy!) which has left a couple of marks. If things continue like this, the “to relic or not to relic” argument may answer itself…
Anyway, on to the body…
The (abused) blue poly finish was stripped using a chemical stripper, followed by copious amounts of sanding. Going back to the bare wood probably wasn’t the best move, but at least I knew what I was dealing with. Neck mounting holes were drilled out and plugged with some hardwood dowelling (turned by my father-in-law) and all other screw holes were filled with cocktail sticks and PVA glue. Once dry, these were cut and sanded flush.
I spent quite a while sanding everything to a good standard and was ready to spray. I screwed a batten into the neck pocket to act as a handle before applying a few coats of Volkswagen Vintage White. As colour matches go, this was pretty good – although the spraying left a lot to be desired. Hey – call it learning!
It was at this point that I noticed a dirty great crack opening up in the body – from the bottom strap-pin hole all the way up to the heel on the back, and up to the bridge on the front. A better man may be able to salvage this beast but not me! I’ve decided to keep this for my spray-practice and have purchased another, undrilled body – this time already finished in Vintage White. No doubt the factory will produce a far superior finish than I can manage!
So, not quite where I wanted to be after another year but who knows? I might even have it completed inside another 12 months…
