July 2015 Guitar of the Month

[TomL]

Here is my entry to the guitar of the month.It is the iceman kit.The upgrades include Gotoh locking tuners,An Earvana nut (not sure it was worth the $40,and Kent Armstrong pickups.As with all my guitars I replace the bridge with a roller unit.The tone pots are pots which I've modified into No-load Pots usinf youtube videos.The last Tru-oil I bought came as a set wth some walnut stain and Conditioner so I used the stain and the Tru-oil on the neck.With the white body it reminds me of a marzipan wedding cake.
The body I decided to do a variation of the cracked mirror Paul Stanley Iceman.As I cut intricate glass shapes every day it was no problem cutting the mirror.I drew the guitar top to scale,worked out the design,allowing islands of timber where the pickup ring screws go and around the bridge post holes.I photo copied the desigh and cut out the paper templates of the mirror pieces.I chiselled out recesses for all the mirror and got the guys who spray polyurethne kitchen doors to spray the body white.I then inlaid all the mirror,and used No-more gaps to fill inbetween the glass pieces.All the glass has been edge ground so despite the faux blood,you can't cut yourself.I love Dexter and his blood splatter posters.Also it is 5 years since I slashed by artery in my wrist so using Dexter's posters and my memory,I mixed some Clear Red and Rust Brown Tamiya paint to make the faux-blood which I splattered judiciously over the guitar.Abalone topped chrome knobs finished the build.
The electrics were a nightmare on this guitar .When I tested it the Tone knobs were not working,the volumes only worked from about 85% on.I pulled every thing apart and wired each pickup to an output jack and tones seperately.They worked fine,but when I hooked everything back up to the switch,the same problem as before.I knew the switch was to blame.I used wire-braided vintage cable on the switch to jack.As I always use conductive paint to shield all cavities,it seems that somewhere the braid was causing a short.After I changed the braid out for regular insulated cable everything worked out fine.