The past couple of days I've been spending my time on the headstocks, spraying the face black and building up enough depth of paint so I can sand back the abalone level with the paint. But I sprayed some on when it was too warm, and the paint has bubble up - trapped gases under a set skin I presume. So I'm letting that dry harder before sanding back and spraying again.
I also had a look at the bridge that came with the GSJ-1 kit. It was OK, a copy of a BadAss wrapover bridge, but not that well executed. The chromium plating in the string mounting holes was blocking some of the holes and was leaving sharp edges on others that could cut into the strings. I had a go at clearing the holes with needle file, which improved things, but they were poorly positioned for access with sandpaper, so I decided to have a look around for something similar, better, but low-cost.
I found this on Amazon, and bought one.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The same seller was also selling the kit bridge for a very similar price.
But I much prefer the new one. The post heads are that bit wider, there is double the amount of intonation adjustment travel available and the whole thing is that bit more compact. It's also lower overall, the top of the saddles only come up to where the top of the main bridge ends on the kit bridge. The kit saddles sit up a long way from the bridge itself, so that's less comfortable for palm muting. Some wrap-over bridges can be really too tall for the guitar they're fitted to, making it difficult to lower the bridge enough for a low action. This one is about as low as they come. The one kit bridge advantage is that it does had a far more rounded string path at the back of the bridge.
GSJ-1 kit bridge on the left, replacement on the right:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/Oxkj7Q.jpg
As I have glued the necks on the GSM-1 and GSJ-1 and also my ES-1, I needed to build my better spraying support. My mic stand experience with my EX-1 last year wasn't a good one. So I ordered the bits to make a proper upright stand I could hang guitar s safely from, and they've come over the past couple of days.
Wood (was supposed to arrive on Monday but turned up first thing today):
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/qCU5Oh.jpg
Far more than I needed but I had to get it online and delivered.
So I started cutting, and drilling and gluing. Another glorious hot sunny day here in the UK, far too hot for this sort of work really.
So is it surprising that when I came to attach the cross-piece to the second upright I found this?
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/YwQ4zw.jpg
So many pieces of wood lying around I'd picked up the wrong one. D'oh!
And it's amazing just how strong a bond Titebond can make in less than 5 minutes! Took some prizing apart.
But eventually I pieced it all together. I'd just fitted the last of two corner supports to complete the frame when Amazon man turned up with the last missing piece - the primary hooks to hang the swivel from. Which was nice. because the swivel has two closed loops, I'd ordered open hooks rather than staple types to hang it from. But the hooks were shallower than I had expected, so I used two of them reversed, and made a mounting that the swivel couldn't escape from:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/O1adyQ.jpg
I use a couple of large S-hooks to suspend the guitars form, like so:
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...922/bcySuu.jpg
Then installed it in the spray tent.
Puts on black cap. "Pit Bull GSM-1, you shall be taken from this place to a place of spraying, where you shall be hung by the neck until red":
https://imagizer.imageshack.com/v2/8...923/MG81g8.jpg
I'd have liked it to be a bit wider to reduce the risk of the guitar swinging and touching an upright, but I made it to just fit in the tent. To get something of a similar height but larger, I'd have to go for a much larger tent, family size, which would just be far too large and take a long time to put up/take down. So like everything in life, I have a workable compromise that's quick to assemble.
The past couple of days I've been spending my time on the headstocks, spraying the face black and building up enough depth of paint so I can sand back the abalone level with the paint. But I sprayed some on when it was too warm, and the paint has bubble up - trapped gases under a set skin I presume. So I'm letting that dry harder before sanding back and spraying again.