I had been meaning to visit Dime's gravesite for quite some time and finally got out there last Friday. I figured I'd bring a guitar and play some KISS songs for him; he was a huge fan, after all.
Anyway, here are a few pictures.
Since it’s been too cold to shoot the remaining clear coats on some guitars that are almost done, I did some work on a couple of necks for the ’71 prototypes; nothing too major, just shaping the blanks, routing the truss rod channel, then adding the fretboard to one of them. The one without a fretboard will have a headstock veneer, so I need to get that on before moving further. So here ya go.
Making a stinger and scraping binding.
Throwing out some love to the fine folks at String Dog strings. My pal Doug referred me to them and I couldn’t be happier. I got 5 sets that they put together for me (I prefer 9-46, which is a bit of a hybrid) and strung two guitars up with them last night. They sound great and settled in quickly. I actually played a guitar for a couple of hours. Imagine that. Super great people, and I plan on using them on future instruments. Support some small biz, show them some love, and tell them Sully sent you! They even toss in an extra B and E string in each set; gotta love that!
Visit them at www.StringDog.net and at their Facebook page!
Just finished and ready to ship. Neck through 24 fret Galaxy V with a quilted maple top and a transparent white finish. There are more shots in the photogallery - check it out!
It's no secret that I grew up a huge fan of Randy Rhoads and I would always be on the lookout for magazines he'd be featured in, or any other memorabilia I could get my hands on, and I still have all of it to this day.
I learned in early 2012 that two coffee table style books about Randy would be released to coincide with the 30th anniversary of his tragic death, and I was elated and pre-ordered each book as soon as I could.
Each book offers hundreds of beautifully laid out pages containing many never-before seen photos and first hand stories from those that knew him best. When each book arrived, my day was made and I've spent hours enjoying them. It's obvious that these books were labors of love, and really are a must own item for any fan of Randy Rhoads.
I was fortunate enough to spend a few hours with Andrew Klein at the Arlington Guitar show this past October, and it was a true pleasure chatting about Randy. In speaking with him, I quickly learned how much love he has for the project.
Anyway, I've listed the books in the store here, but I have no affiliation with the publishers; I'm just sharing links to the publisher's websites to get the word out. So check them out and order your copies; you'll be glad you did.
I had a great day building guitars today, and I have to think that some of it is because of this day; December 8th. The anniversary of the death of John Lennon and Dimebag Darrell of Pantera. To me, Dime's passing is second to the passing of Randy Rhoads - only because Dime had more of a musical legacy left behind than Randy. I wasn't a Pantera fan, but one day in 2003, while walking through the NAMM convention, I passed the Washburn booth. Dime was signing autographs at the time, and while I wasn't in line, he saw me and my Ace Frehley tattoo and said "Hey brother, c'mere!" We talked about Ace for a minute, and he showed me his Ace tattoo, and I had quite a smile that day as a result. I LOVE his cover of Ace's "Fractured Mirror" and his cover of Ozzy's "Believer" (with Sebastian on vocals - could you ASK for anything better?) is so great. Dime was equal parts wonderful guitar player and person. I grew to love Pantera because of my NAMM moment, but the other thing is that you can hear how much fun he was having when he played. When I hear his cover of Fractured Mirror and Believer, I hear the music, but I SEE him smiling and having the best time playing the music of his (and my) heroes. check it out for yourself.
Hello. First off I would like to compliment your work. Every aspect of your instruments are top notch.I have a question regarding finishing. I have a strat that I want to refinish in urethane basecoat/clearcoat(2 stage auto paint which I have been told is what was used on it originally). I have sanded it down to bare wood, and was wondering what products you would suggest ? Sealer, primer, basecoat, clearcoat?
For those interested in fretwork, I’m happy to announce that I am the newest endorsee of the Katana by Rectify Master. The Katana is an understring fret leveling tool created and patented by Davide Bissoli that will allow you to level your frets easily and under string tension. He also makes other tools like the LittleBone fret crowning tool which is a really easy way to get a nice crown on the fret. I did a brief video with the Katana which you can see below. Check out the Rectify Master site and tell ‘em Sully sent ya!
While waiting for parts to arrive in order to complete some guitars, I decided to remove an ebony fretboard and truss rod from a neck that I built (but will not use) and use them to complete a neck blank. Recycling is good! The neck blank was ready for headstock binding as well, so I decided to get out the ol' clothing iron and have a old time fretboard removal/headstock binding party. Here's how it went:
Set the iron on its highest setting and start at the end of the fretboard. I used a t-shirt rag between the iron and the fretboard. If you're going to do this, leave the frets in; it'll help transfer the heat from the iron and get the glue softened up. This task isn't particularly difficult, but it does take time to heat the glue up enough so that you can separate the fretboard from the neck.
While the iron does its job, I got to work on binding the headstock. I'd add a strip, then go back to the iron and work on the fretboard removal, and then repeat.
Just about done!
Now the fretboard is off; next step is getting the truss rod out (pretty simple, it mostly just lifts out).
I clamped the fretboard to a flat surface to keep it nice and flat and prevent any curling that may occur, and you can see how the neck should look when complete.
The next evening, I scraped the binding flush with the ebony and pulled the frets. The fretboard will need to be trimmed so that it can be bound, and you definitely don't want to rout a fretboard with stainless steel frets in it; be nice to your router bits!
Starting to look more like a neck!
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