machinehead!

New stuff. No sucking. Click to enlarge

First of all…

…Many apologies for a very long absence. The timing of the absence made things apparently worse. I pretty much went silent after posting that a typhoon was on its way. Very stupid and thoughtless of me. I was in touch with most of the posters here anyway so most knew I was fine. I suppose I wasn’t really taking the threat seriously but I should have at least dropped a sentence. I expected to be posting right away but some unforeseens were seen…Anyway to my friends and readers, please forgive me.

I have been busy as all things Hell are going well. The accessories are really taking off. Right now selling on ebay, some on the Hell website and some private sales. I’m working hard to get new products and new designs finished as soon as I can. The photo above shows some new designs that are being made at the factory now. Should have them in a couple of weeks.

The guitars and accessories are part of my master plan to develop guitars/guitar products that don’t suck. I have mentioned here and there of my general dissatisfaction with the overall poor design of especially guitar hardware. My belief is that most of what is out there is repetitive, poorly conceived and badly executed. There are a few exceptions of course but I feel that there is real dearth of intelligently designed, esthetically accomplished pieces. So we aim first not to suck while shooting for some “things” special. So far the response has been good and getting better every day. Fun stuff…

New, sexy and available soon! Click to enlarge.

We received the latest diecast guitarshit from the factory today. Must say I’m quite pleased with the lot! Took some quick pics but I’ll take some better shots later. Just wanted to give an idea of what’s in.

Here’s some more shots…

Star power... Click to enlarge.

Throw your plastic washers in the bin. This is it! Click to enlarge.

Regarding the move to our new offices, it’s taking more to get things ready than I anticipated. Still, we’re about 90% of the way there. We’re nearly completely moved and arranged but we’re still waiting for the internet connection which means I’m still doing most of my work from the home office. Hopefully soon!

100% diecast brass enameled covers and washers. Click to enlarge

The above photo looks like a drug bust shot but it really is 100% pure grade A guitarshit. Our new truss rod cover and switch washer order finally shipped from the factory today. We should have them in sometime next week. I’m looking forward to getting them in. I think we will then have enough items to open a new shop soon.

I have been incredibly busy the past two weeks preparing for our move, shipping guitars, dealing with factories and getting our next run of guitars ready to go. I’ve also been looking into buying cool machines. Robotic machines that will allow me to do some manufacturing and prototyping from the comfort of my own pajamas (if I, in fact, cared to do so). Small run manufacturing is becoming more and more affordable and I really want to move in this direction. Exciting to think that I could create all kinds of cool products from my own designs while clothed (perhaps!) in pajamas on my own premises! Just trying to figure out what I need most and what I can reasonably afford.

Office moving starts tomorrow with the main movers coming on Saturday. Woohoo!

All cleared for action. Click to enlarge.

So I put about 15 coats of clearcoat today on the pickguard. This particular poly has a hardener which gives it (potentially) a hard mirror finish. While the finish is indeed hard I decided that I wanted a somewhat pitted look to go along with the tarnished silver. I started sanding before it was completly set to get the effect. Now it looks and quite amazingly feels like an old metal sign that one might find perhaps on the side of the road on Route 66 somewhere. The gloss finish is the only part that isn’t authentic in the relic’ing but I wanted to protect the pickguard. Now, if you get too many scratches you can just buff them out or leave them for a nice effect.

The only thing that I wasn’t too pleased with is that the poly reduced the vibrance of the colors. The nice blues, purples and oranges in the silver tarnish are much more muted now. Overall though, I’ll call it a successful experiment. What do you think?

Here’s a close-up…

Nice and crappy looking! Click to enlarge.

Brand new crappy old pickguard. Click to enlarge.

Picked up some liver of sulfur today to create a nice patina on my Tele pickguard. Filled a small jar with hot water (about 80C) and added the liver of sulfur. I then applied the mixture with a cotton ball and Q-Tips to get the desired effect. I allowed between 2 to 10 minutes contact before washing off. It actually went darker than I had planned but I rather like it. I lightened it a little with some silver polish but mostly kept as is. Looks like an old tarnished, weathered relic. Would be perfect for someone with a real old, beat up Tele or a modern relic style.

Here’s a detail…

Neil Young and rust never sleeps. Click to enlarge.

As you can see, it really is a cool effect. The sulfur actually hastens the process of tarnishing which would probably take months to years to get like this depending on the conditions. As it is pure (99.9%) silver, it could be cleaned up with silver polish, but I’ll leave it like this and seal it with some clear poly which should arrest further tarnishing.

Here’s a detail shot of the guard (before the poly) on my trusty old Tele. This would really look great with relic’ed parts (which I don’t have)…

My Telestar. Click to enlarge.

I’ll put up some more pics after the poly.

On an unrelated note. I mentioned before that I was signing papers for our new office, however that morning I was informed that someone else got in ahead of us so we lost the office. I was seriously bummed. After a couple more days of looking I decided on another property. Close to home, enough space and new. For the most part I can’t complain. Papers are signed, up front money paid and move in is Friday of next week. Very happy!

I should probably post something sometime of the experience of renting property here as a foreigner. Although the system is generally very polite in Japan being a foreigner in this system is like being a brainless child. No matter how capable or successful one is it is next to impossible to get credit cards, property etc., without the help of one’s Japanese spouse (if one has one). I am grateful for the help of mine but it is unfortunate that there are so many hurdles foreigners must jump. Especially since a foreigner I indeed am…

!?

First of all, I’d like to thank those of you who commented on my original guitarshit post. Lots of  helpful  ideas/opinions.

I’ve gone through a few days of living with the name and must say that I’m still undecided. I still like the idea of it, no question about it. However I am thinking that in order for it to truly work, we have to treat the name very casually. Almost as if the site was named “guitarparts.com”. Everything played straight beyond the name. If I can somehow pull it off I think it could do well. Now just how to achieve this. Probably it’s guitarshit at the end of the day because there are absolutely no solid guitar related dotcoms left. Above is the latest design. A detail from a homepage layout. You’ll notice that the “I” has been transformed into a “!”. Still the same URL but I thought perhaps this rendering might soften the logo just enough without actually wimping out. Any opinions on this approach will be very much appreciated!

On an unrelated note, today I decided on some new office space for Hell Guitars. We’ll sign the papers tomorrow. It will be nice to have a space devoted entirely to the business. Only 4 minutes from home with a nice park across the street…