Marilyn !!!

This project has been about 3 years in the making. I originally thought of building my ultimate custom "graphic" guitar. I am a product of the 80s and have always loved the cool graphic guitars but have never seen one that was truly me. I have owned a few but they left for one reason or another. This was an opportunity to have a guitar that will be with me for life and truly represents Bri.

Since I was 13 when i discovered Marilyn, i thought she was the most beautiful woman i had ever seen. There was something about her that was just perfect. The way she moved, the way she talked, perfection. In the 7 Year Itch, her first scene when the guy lets her in the front door of their apt building and is smitten with her, i was as well. This is the first picture i ever saw of Marilyn.



I remember asking my dad "who's that?" "That's Marilyn Monroe." Whoah...

It's been almost a 30 year love affair and i have a fairly respectable Marilyn collection. This would be the crown jewel of that collection as well as a perfect guitar to enjoy until i can't play anymore. This is the photo i sent to Mike for what i wanted. It is from the same shoot as the pic above. Kind of fitting i think.



The project started with a body. I scored an old NOS Chandler body from the 80s. I figured if i was going to have an 80s inspired guitar i wanted to start with some good wood. It was never used and still had the original primer and a few "snots" as Mike so prolifically put it. Nothing had been drilled other than the 2 holes for volume/tone, the neck holes, trem cavity and pickup cavity. I obviously wanted to only have a 1 hum guitar for maximum graphic space. Now i needed a painter.

After deciding on what i wanted for graphic which had been decided already, i needed an artist. I contacted a few people, one of them being Mike, i decided on him. He seemed the most talented and approachable if you will. Everyone else felt cold but Mike just got it. He understood what it was about. I dunno, it's hard to explain. He was extremely busy and said he wouldn't be able to do it for a few months being so busy with Charvel/Jackson and traveling for shows and workshops. I totally understood and had decided that he was going to be the one to eventually do it. Especially after seeing his work displayed here and other places.

Fast forward about 8 months and out of the blue Mike emails me and asks if i am still interested in having him paint for me. I obviously did and we spoke on the phone a couple of times talking about the picture i wanted as well as paint color etc. I wanted it basically black and grey if you will with a white background. He suggested a white pearl color which i thought sounded real classy and would fit in real well with the motif of the guitar. we then talked about the pickup and ring and whether that would be painted or not. I was on the fence about it and really wanted a perfect blend but also know that it could take away from the overall aesthetic i was looking for. Just not totally into the whole painted pup deal. Mike then came up with a great idea to leave it as is, get a white pup and direct mount it, thereby not having to drill 4 holes for a ring and have that in the way of the graphic too...genius. So we went with that deal. He gave me the price and it was done. VERY reasonable by the way. I shipped the body to him and he did all the prep work as well. When he was ready to paint it, he emailed me and said it would be done live on his webcam via his board so i signed up and actually got to see it painted. Very cool...
he said it would take a week or two to cure and do the clear and final buff and get it back to me so i went to work getting all the parts.

I needed electronics, pickup, tuners, trem, cavity covers, knobs, strap pins and neckplate. First i decided on the neck since i figured that was the most important part and decided on a Strathead Mighty Mite neck. 22 frets, compound radius, ebony fretboard and abalone dots. I decided on the ebony since i have always loved the way they look and feel and it went well with the black and white theme.

Pickup was hard to decide on and the great thing is if i didn't totally love it, i could swap it out. I decided on a Dimarzio Vintage PAF. I didn't really want a screaming pickup as the vibe was class so i went with a warmer bluesier pickup as that is probably the majority of what will be played on it.

Tremolo is a black Wilkinson vintage style trem. Tuners i went with Sperzel mini locking tuners also in black. Electronics were from Stew Mac. I decided on a custom made neckplate with the pinup style details to tie in with everything else. Nice touch i think. Strap pins are Schaller locking and is attached to a nice Levys black leather strap. Knobs were scored on Ebay and i went with the abalone tops to tie in with the fret markers. Another nice touch i think. Finally i needed cavity covers. I originally bought some 1 ply pickguard material and thought i could make some since i knew I’d never find original covers for a 20+ year old Chandler body. Well late one night on ebay i start seeing the production USA Charvels being parted out and i saw the covers from one. It looked like the electronics cavity was the same as the Chandler since i had a few pics of it. i really wasn't worried about the trem cavity cover as that was non recessed but the electronics one was so i was a bit worried, A. i couldn't make one right or B. the one from the production series really wouldn't fit but figured screw it, if it doesn't I’ll resell it.

I got the body back from Mike and holy shit, it was perfection. There she was, on my guitar. She looked beautiful and almost seemed to be saying "Hey Brian, how's it going?" LOL Funny side story... When i told him about the idea he was really into it. He does a lot of different type of stuff but the majority of the things he does has shall we say a bit darker vibe to it than what i was looking for. I told him, "just don't make her look dead." He laughed out loud and said "well you know she is." i said "yeah, but not in the pic." Her eyes are what really do it. They really seem to have life in them. Just like the photo. He couldn't hold back from throwing just a bit o Learn in there in her earrings. I didn't notice it at first then when i was polishing it, i noticed them. Once again, perfection.

I hired my best friend Jeff for the build since he had done a few warmoth projects and builds amps so i knew he was my best road to success wanting to do it all "myself". Some time went before both of our schedules allowed, (5 months i think). I wasn't really stressing about the lack of time to do it. I wanted it to be right and knew that in the end it would be worth it and i REALLY wanted to do this and not hire someone. We finally got together and did everything except the wiring. It was very close but we ran out of time so that was it.

During the next few weeks i added the straplocks which was interesting since the hole in the upper bout had not been drilled so i had to really be careful it wasn't too high or low but it came out in the end. The electronics cavity cover fit perfectly btw. I decided on not putting the trem cavity cover on since i would have had to drill 4 more holes in the body and i really like how clean it looks. I may do it someday but for now it's not a priority.

I was laid off from my job in May of 2008, shortly after Mike contacted me to have the paint done. That also contributed to me not getting it totally done and had to put some things on the back burner. I also have been building a new home for the last year+ and really never had the time to finsh it up once and for all but could play it unplugged and it was nearly there so it was ok...sort of...

Well last weekend Jeff invited me over to watch UFC100 which i obviously accepted and said, "hey, wanna wire up Marilyn while I’m there?" He agreed and it was on. I was so excited to finally have her done once and for all. With it being a 1 hum guitar i wanted a bit more versatility and the fact that the body had 2 holes instead of just a volume i decided on a coil tap so i could get a few more sounds out of it. So i have the volume as set up as a coil tap and tone for the second. We wired it up and she worked flawlessly on the first try. Sounds amazing and just a pleasure to play.

Sorry for being so friggin long winded. As you can see it has been a labor of love and i now am in possession of my own personal grail. This will be passed down in my family and hopefully become a family heirloom. Not for a while though, i'm gonna play her for the next 40 years ;)

Pictures of the build are here...
http://s126.photobucket.com/albums/p84/Superfly68/Marilyn%20Project

Enjoy the money shots...Peace

BUSINESS !

3.13.09
Business !

So I guess I’m starting a business. I have been fixing friends and families pcs for years. If you are a geek you know what I’m talking about. You get a call or talk with someone about some issues they are having because you “know everything about computers”.
You end up either talking them through it on the phone which is a total cluster because you know exactly where everything is and have done it a thousand times. You end up getting frustrated and so don’t they because they don’t quite get it as good as you do and you as the tech just want to resolve the issue and move on. So what do you do? You go to their house with your memory stick with a bunch of troubleshooting/quick fix applications, maybe a few cd’s and a pc toolkit, (well that’s what I bring anyway and any tech worth his weight in gold always carries said items in his backpack anyway). You show up and fix their shit. It makes you feel good because you’ve helped someone out when they are just so frustrated and they make you feel like a god because you always get the “how do you know this stuff ?” “I just don’t have the patience for learning all that “. That’s ok with me because that’s why people like me exist.

Now before I talk about the business, indulge me with a little soapbox preaching. I promise to be nice…more or less.

PEOPLE WANT THEIR PCS TO RUN PERFECTLY BUT WILL NOT LEARN WHAT IT TAKES TO KEEP THEM THAT WAY ! It really is a relatively easy thing to do. Basic maintenance on a pc or laptop is essential to making personal computing fun.
I’m not going to tell you how to do all this stuff because there are about 45378 different articles on the web. If you do a quick search on Google you can learn it very easily. This is with the expectation that you can actually tear yourself away from Ebay, Facebook, MySpace or whatever sites you’re for addicted to for 5 fucking minutes. ;)
Or if you’d rather have me do it, get in touch and I will give you a very attractive rate if you mention my blog…

I recently worked on a new clients laptop. It needed a full format and total config afterwards. Not crazy hard stuff or anything but time consuming and you have to pay attention. I did all I could on my own and then set up a time to meet at her house and hook everything back up and do some user specific configuration. I spent about an hour and a half there. When I got done, she was just flabbergasted (do people even use this word anymore?) about the proficiency of the way I worked and my seemingly unending patience with her and her 12 year old daughter who I did some custom config for as well. She got her first email account ! Cute…
She told me “you should really do this as a business. You were so good with me and explained everything so that even I could understand. My laptop runs 100 times better and now I can do like 3 or 4 things I’ve never done before with a computer”. That’s the problem a lot of times is that people get frustrated with the performance or what they are getting out of their pcs so they either never use em or just trudge through life with a piece of metal and circuits that ends up being more of a hassle than it’s worth. doesn’t have to be like that people…promise…

So I decided what the hell, I’m going to do this professionally. It really isn’t about the money. Well yeah it is, but the enjoyment I will be getting out of helping people enjoy their pcs will be just as rewarding. I am putting together a group of very talented techs that I have worked with in the past. We will be servicing Maine from Portland to Kittery. NH from Manchester to Nashua. Massachusetts from the NH border to the South Shore.
We will do pc/laptop repair and upgrades. Wireless/wired home network setup. Small business network setup and Web site design. The thing we are offering that I am most excited about is education and training. Making people use their pcs intelligently so it makes it fun for them. I don’t want to put myself out of business by teaching them every little thing about pcs but frankly people don’t WANT to learn every little thing. They want to learn enough to be self sufficient and make this thing do what they need it to do. So many times I have heard after showing somebody something “I didn’t know you could do that.” Fortunately I did and now you do too…

Scope the site and feel free to contact me if you think I can help. I’d be glad to talk to ya…

www.lakeview-solutions.com

SAWX !

2.23.09
SAWX !

Well it’s that time of year again. The Sox are all officially at spring training. Pitchers and catchers reported officially around the 10th and position players about a week later. They are all together now though and I have to admit that I watched them workout on the field during NESNs coverage in the early morning. Not very interesting and a bit unsettling actually to just watch them stretch…run…and talk to each other a lot. But they are there. The first official spring training game is Wednesday night and I’ll be watching for sure.
A few changes within the team this year but the majority are back. Coco is officially gone so Jacoby will be the starting center fielder. I think this will be good for him knowing that there is no competition anymore and he can just play. Kid is gonna be great. Timlin is gone and my hat is off to the man. Truly a warrior and one of the keys to our 2 championships in ‘04 & ‘07. We all know when they won, I just like to say it. Sounds fucking good !
We have locked up Pedroia & Youk for a few years which I am extremely pleased about. Youk is one of the most versatile players on the team defensively and an offensive threat for sure. The same can be said for Pedroia. Dude is “Well over 5 feet tall” as my old man used to say but plays with the heart Lowell and the body of Bay. Gotta love that guy. Speaking of Bay, I hope they can lock him up for a few years. He came in to replace that other guy which I have sworn not to utter his name again but we all know who I am speaking about. Bay did a great job and seems to really have his shit together. Smart player and seems just as intellectually smart.
The shortstop position is a bit of a cluster. We have Lugo who in my humble opinion, is terrible. We are also paying him 9 million a year so it’s not likely he will sit on the bench. Expensive friggin bench player. Jed Lowrie, the rookie that filled in for Lugo last year was friggin awesome I think and would be MY choice to be the opening day SS but that ain’t happenin. Lowell will probably be at 3rd when we start the season but is not guaranteed so we will have to see. He is my favorite player on the team and I think even though Tek is the official Captain of the team, he is the real leader in the clubhouse. Dude is such an inspiration to so many people, myself included.
We get Tek for at least 1 more year, hopefully 2. He kind of screwed himself out of some serious cash but then again when you have Boras as an agent, what can you expect. But in the end, he decided to come back to the Red Sox and will be great for our pitching staff as he has been for the 10+ years he’s been with us. Then there’s Drew. I have to admit I like the guy a lot personally and he has shown glimpses of the player I truly think he is but there is something about him that will prevent him from being truly one of the greats. Maybe it’s his health issues, maybe it’s something internal but whatever it is, it ultimately what he will be remembered for…potential. One of the other players we got over the season was one of my faves, Rocco Baldelli. He kind of like Drew, has GREAT potential but his health issues, (his true condition against actual injuries), has never turned in to the player he could have been. With him, he just can’t play every day but maybe in tandem with Drew, can make a serious contribution to getting back to the “Fall Classic”. That’s basically all there is other than Teks backup which I think will be Bard or possibly Katteras.
The pitching staff I think will be the most interesting to watch develop over the next 6 weeks. The pen is stuffed with people like Papelbon, the games most dominant closer next to Mariano. Yes I just gave props to a Yankee. Anyone who doesn’t say he’e been the games most dominant closer over the last 10+ years is a tool. Then there is Okajima, Lopez, Delcarman, and a couple newcomers like Saito who I’ve heard great things about.
Starters that I think are a guarantee is Beckett, Matsuzaka, Lester, Wake and…..who.
My guess will be that for now under the assumption that he’s healthy is new acquisition Brad Penny. I don’t know a lot about the guy other than that he is a horse that can pitch well when healthy. Other than that you have Masterson which I don’t think will happen, he’ll live in the pen. Bucholz would be the next thought but he has to show me a shitload more than he did last year in order for me to agree that he should be in the bullpen. My actual HOPE for who will be in the final spot will be John fucking Smoltz. Are you kidding me? We have Smoltzie? This is my favorite signing for the off season and I’m hoping he has a great year. I followed him for many years and know that his 20+ years in the Major Leagues is going to be huge for everyone on the pitching staff. Imagine all those young kids, (Becket included) can go to him and talk about pitching…unreal…
So basically that would be my lineup if I were Tito…
Beckett - Matsuzaka - Lester - Smoltz - Wakefield

The Sox for me are special. They are more than a bunch of guys in uniforms throwing a ball around. For me the Red Sox brought me closer to people that I didn’t always have a lot in common with. That means friends for sure but my Dad and I truly love these guys. When they won in “04, my dad told me “I can now die a happy man”. We both laughed and I agreed whole heartedly. He died 17 days later. He got to see them win and in some wierd way it made it easier when he left. I don’t think I’ll ever truly be comfortable with the fact that he is gone but when I think of that October in 2004, I smile and think about the joy on his face and in his heart. They had done it…truly fucking done it. They were World Champions and all the heartache that my grandfather, my father and myself had felt was gone. Just like that, it was gone. Then almost as quickly so was he. We didn’t always see eye to eye on everything but we knew we had witnessed something magical…together…

BLOG !

2.12.20009

A blog….a fucking blog. It’s kind of a funny word yeah? I know what it stands for, but its one of those words that just sounds funny. Kinda like queef.
I’m not sure where this thing is going or what i'm going to write but here goes…

I guess I should start by explaining my tagline. The battle between geek, granola & metalhead.

The Geek – It’s what I do for a living. I keep the users up and going. Can be something as simple as a new keyboard up to a dead system and everything in between. I am one of those crazy people that love helping people. Nothing gives me more pleasure than walking up to a user who’s ready to kill themselves and within a few minutes, (hopefully), I am able to help them and make em smile again.
I am very grateful for the opportunities I have been given. I was a janitor for many years but was given a chance to be a geek and have never looked back. If you told me 10 years ago that I would be in this industry I would have said no way but now I can’t think of many things I’d rather do…well maybe center fielder for the Red Sox but that’s a post for another day.

The Granola – I am a naturist at heart. Tree hugger from WAAAAY back. I have been a member of numerous organizations since I was 16. Reduce-Renew-Reuse!!! For those who don’t know or don’t care, we need trees to live people! If they all die, guess what, we die. This is a very simple thing that most people don’t realize, or don’t care more like. Recycling for instance is a relatively easy thing to do, but when I drive down the road I see very few bins on the curb. To be fair, I am seeing more but the non-recyclers still far out weigh the recyclers. I’m not a fanatic about the situation though and could certainly do more to help out. Hence the battle thing…see now you are starting to understand….

The Metalhead – Fuck don’t I love metal. The music not the element. I am a product of the 80’s. Yes the hair band era. My favorite band from that era is probably Metallica. Back when they were cool and not a bunch of choads… Was their anything cooler than Master of Puppets when it came out? I think not. Disposable Heroes is still one of the most brutal tunes ever. A lot of my other favorites were Dokken, Ratt, Cinderella, and some of the heavier variety like Slayer, Sepultura, King Diamond etc. I was never into the death metal stuff with the classic “cookie monster” vocals but then again if you’ve ever heard King, you would tell me about people throwing stones in glass houses…

So there is the somewhat vague explanation of my tagline. I will most assuredly expand on all these things at some point. I have no clue where this place is going. I will post shit in brutal honesty and some who read will not like or agree with everything I say but then again, this is MY blog…Everyone has a “voice”. I’m just using mine.