Vox Pathfinder Limited Edition Union Jack Unboxing & Review

My wordy unboxing and video demo of the Vox Pathfinder 10 Limited Edition Union Jack guitar amplifier.  I got it on sale from Musician's Friend and for a low cost practice amplifier it packs a punch at a low price with a great build, at the expense of being short on even simple effects.

New Guitar Family Photo

A more recent photo of much of my guitar family.  All three with maple necks were built from parts, and not one of them bought new or for over $150 including upgrades.  This group covers quite the variety of pickups, neck profiles, and wiring layouts, and I'll be a bit sad to have to sell any of them.

How to Edit Yourself as a Space Marine

I posted a while back my edit of myself as a Starcraft marine and decided now to create a video tutorial and a few more edits for anyone interested in making their own :)

NGD: Schecter C1 Artist Limited Edition (Repair + pics)

Exploring pawn shops in town for the first time I came across a small shop specializing in guitars.  Among the Squiers and Epiphones I found this gem (literally, it's a Schecter "Diamond Series") with a bit of corrosion at $100.

Fast forward to an easy fix and an incredible all-purpose guitar with a neck-through build, 24 frets, custom inlays, pearl binding, JB and '59 Seymour Duncan pickups, and custom 5-way switching on top of everything.

Cheap Viola Review and Mods

Fair warning before we get started: I have experience doing all sorts of handiwork and modifications, and pretty extensive work on electric guitars, but violins and violas are quite different animals and I'm certainly not an experienced technician.  That being said, a few mods were pretty simple and safe to do to tweak this extremely cheap viola from Amazon into something slightly nicer and more playable.

Harry Potter House Ravenclaw Poster HD

My dorm room needed a bit more decorating so it was time to crank out some posters.  I decided to share this Ravenclaw house poster that I edited a bit to refine a nice design circulating the internet.  I doubled the resolution and then edited away some of the pixelation, discoloration, added a texturing effect and deepened the colors for an ultimately more HD and printable poster for all my fellow Ravenclaws to enjoy.

Always Let the Paint Cure

A little P.S.A. for everyone - make sure the things you paint and especially clear coat have ample time to cure before using and traveling with them.  This is the result on the Les Plywood after it had four days to cure and I needed to travel with it in a zippered gig bag.  Am I disappointed?  A little, but it was far from perfect to begin with.  Just try to give it ample time to cure as you are able!

Post-Polishing and Adjusting the Les Plywood

"You can't polish a turd" was a favorite saying of my high school band director.  Maybe not, but you can certainly polish plywood.

Instrument Wall Layout

Here's a pic of (one of) my "walls of instruments" currently, for your design inspiration.  It has quite the variety of instruments for a relatively small space, and guitar wall hangers are a wonderful invention.

Building a Guitar Body from Plywood, part III of III

In part III of this build, we go through removing orange peel and polishing the finish, wiring, final assembly, and adjustments!  Sound demo coming your way soon as well :)

Building a Guitar Body from Plywood, part II of III

In part II of this build, I go through shaping the chambering, gluing and shaping the body, and everything involved in getting a decent paintjob.

Building a Guitar Body from Plywood, part I of III

Plywood gets a lot of flak in the guitar tone world, but shouldn't be neglected - for one, it's easier to work with more readily available, and much much cheaper than fine tonewoods, making it perfect for the amateur luthier (raises own hand).  Second, Gibson has been making fine sounding guitars, particularly hollow bodies, out of plywood for decades and no one complains.  The tone is better if you call it "laminate".

I'll walk you through how I built my first guitar body from plywood, my first guitar body at all, and let you know what worked and what didn't.