It's ALIVE!!!....Or it will be!! (insert anticipatory muahahahaha/ evil cackle)

Rather than divulge about the regular psychosis stemming from the relentless barrage of papers, books, and the subsequent reading, followed by the ever so often "bang head here" stress reducer I figured I'd bring some light as to the current status of my latest project.

A couple years ago I lent my first bass, a budget ESP-LTD B-50, to one of my friends. Less than an hour later I get a call saying he plugged it in and heard nothing but noise...and not the good kind! Turns out that was the definitive death knell to the thing. Taking a look at the back it turned out that the wiring was completely torn up! Fantastic. After contemplating reenacting Hendrix's iconic "set the bloody thing on fire" moment I thought I'd churn out a more productive creative response: HOT ROD IT! So, starting last year, I sanded the living tar out of it, I'm not kidding when I quote about 5 hours just on sanding alone.

So far the body is sanded down to a perfectly smooth level, working from a 50 to 250 grit sandpaper, pictures shall follow...eventually. Seeing that it was dropped several times the wood was dented and some hairline cracks and exposed grain resulted, so i found this small pot of grain filler. This stuff is so easy to apply and it has cured a lot of headache, works like a charm, just spread over and sand smooth.

Next step, finally, is to prime it, then sand it again, then prime again...you can see where this cycle is going to end up eh? MORE SANDING! After I should start laying down the base coats of paint, I was planning on a classical yellow to red sunburst. But it shant' end there, no, not at all! I went through about 12 different sketches of what I want but I have come to a conclusion...I hope. What I was planning on doing is lay down the sunburst as a foundation and then cover it in auto, or masking tape. After that, sketch in the design and cut it away with a knife. Next step will be to spray the whole thing black, where I will then pull away the tape when dry, exposing the design underneath in sunburst!

If you have no idea what I'm talking about refer to this video, all credit for inspiration goes to this guy!



And that should encompass the awesomeness of this project, I was also planning on doing a Skull like design on the back. I designed this screaming skull design a few years ago, so I'm gonna work that in somewhere! To add to the madness I also found some wicked new pickups, in the exact configuration (EMG Passive PJ format, already have actives on Isis, and batteries are freaking annoying sometimes!), so I can finally do away with the crap sounding buzz that drove me insane for the duration of its life!