An interesting weekend. I drove to town Saturday morning, the truck is having starter problems again but it lit. Coffee, ah, some shopping at Safeway and the dollar store. I go to fire it up, rung rung rung click,… click, click, click, it’s not going to start. I forgot my iPhone, it’s out anyway, due yesterday. I walk over to the close UPS store, I can use the computer for a buck. I try to log into my google account, can’t remember the new password. I know my Yahoo account, log in but it’s not as up to date on contacts, Luis my mechanic isn’t there. I send Raven a note, I’m stuck. Next I walk up town to the O’Reilly’s auto store, no starters but delivered at 7:00 PM, dang. Back to the truck, what to do, pack it up for the bus. “Dan!, hey Dan!” Wow, it’s Raven, saved my day. She was in Santa Rosa and got a wifi connect, saw my email. She dropped me off at home, grabbed her mail and took off for another appointment. Thank you! I paid up my iPhone, updated my yahoo contacts and called Luis. He’s working overtime to install a kiln at the tile factory, “Get the part.” I call it in to pick up tomorrow.
So finally I get to work on the guitar, I clamp the upper pickup jig in place offset to match the pencil line layout. The guitar is clamped to the bench away from the work area, using scrap hickory to match the thickness for the jig, everything is solid. I set the router to a shallow 1/8″ cut and proceed to make the cut. Three cuts made it to depth with a 16th left high. It punched though the lightening cavity, needs a backing plate.
I moved the jig offset for the next humbucker pickup. I cut the first two passes, working on the final pass with several router adjustments to get the two pickups at the same height plane, cut most of it when Pete showed up, an old friend. “Give me 10 minutes to finish this.” Did it. It still needs the corners chiseled out but it’s a day.
Sunday, I finished chiseling out the corners and fitted the humbucker pickups
moments before Raven arrived, coffee in hand, bless you, perfect. We opened the package from her friend in NY, a P Fender Bass, nice git black with a white pick guard plate, one set of humbuckers centered, two knobs. A basic fine machine. I spun a four foot twisted wire pair on the drill with Raven on the trigger, wired it to two 1/4″ jacks one straight, one 90 degrees. Connected to the Altoids amp, it works fine to a set of earbuds. Digging deeper, she has another cable in the soft case pocket.
Meanwhile, I cooked a leg of lamb with garlic and garden rosemary, roasted potatoes, carrots and onion halved. A side of O green beans steamed. Just as it got done perfect, my phone rang. Luis is in Windsor, meet at the truck to fix it. We sliced it up, in to-go containers and headed out. Really tasty on the way, picked up the starter. Raven had her fine lunch in the parking lot, not exactly candle light.. The truck decided to start after a night to recharge, amazing. I drove it to the corner store where Luis took it across the street home and Raven picked me up. My truck will start again. It turns out to be a hot day at 81 degrees F.
Raven wants to make a Kitchen Witch. She carves a couple apple faces, in the oven to dry wrinkled. Wire and cloth to make the body. I carve a simple wooden spoon for the rider. She grabs a buckeye nut and glues green tree beard lichen for hair for a temporary head, electrical tape shoes.
Very cool, with a wire heart above to hang it by.
We walked to the river, it’s down some, changed a bit as it will in winter. A couple fishing boats paddled past. Home and away. A fine day.
8shotoflove8 