This has been in the planning since December and I wish I could have gotten here sooner but here we are. I look forward to hearing from anyone and everyone.
Now to the business. I'm really looking forward to this. My plan is to be here at least a couple times a week. I'm really looking forward to hearing from people. If I hear from people that means people are reading this and hopefully getting something from it. I think the timing works for me. As "The Man" has commanded us all to stay in our homes for the forseeable future, if you're like me, you are going through content at an astounding rate and I hope to add to that just a little bit. You can only spend so many hours a day practicing "Little Wing" or "Stairway" or the latest Bieber record, whatever you're into, judgement free zone bro.
If we are fortunate enough to be building a guitar for you, you can look for updates here, as well as the Facebook page. Chris puts pictures out regularly of what we're working on as I'm sure you know. There hasn't been many updates lately because we have been blindsided by illness after illness and now this Covid-19 is staring us down, it's worrisome. But we have been working. We have just been doing so on a schedule where we are physically able and not infecting each other. Nonetheless, progress is being made.
We have a beautiful black SG style with faux binding that should be wrapping up relatively soon. It has been a labor of love. Those of you who have been through the website and had the chance to check out my profile know that I'm old to painting but "new" to guitars. There has been a learning curve, thankfully I have Chris, or as he makes me call him round the shop, "Master Sensei", to guide me through some of the more difficult hurdles.
I went today and bought a new paint gun. Its even a new style to me. For 17 years I've been spraying with a gun of the "style" HVLP, that's High Volume Low Pressure for you civilians. Today I bought an HTE, I won't tell you what that stands for, maybe someone can leave a comment and tell the rest of us, I just want to see if anyone is paying attention, or maybe I don't even know and I'm trying to play it off, you be the judge. Either way, I'm looking forward to using it. I'm supposed to be back in the shop on Tuesday and I know a couple of the things lined up but I know there's some other orders already I still need informed on.
It really is exciting to hear these ideas and requests. I see some on the Facebook page. I recently sealed a Flying V style body for a customer and we shipped it out to him just sealed I heard from him on the Facebook page what he plans to do with it and it kind of hurt my soul a bit that I didn't get to do it. Presumably, I'm like you guys and gals, I love guitars. I don't care how many Heritage Cherry Sunburst Les Pauls I see, I always want to see another and each is as beautiful as if I had never seen one before.
Some of these fabric bodies we do are astonishing. The way we do it [TRADE SECRET], when they're finished, they have this depth to them and some of them have these beautiful threads in them and you stare at it wand it's as if you want to reach your hand through the finish just to touch them. I've been involved with dozens of these now and each one makes me say, "well shit, now I want to build one of those for myself".
That's what Chris' guitars do, they make you want one, and if it's yours you're seeing you just can't believe it's yours. They really are works of art, works of visual art with an added dimension of sound, in itself an art form. That we also create past the building stage now that we are winding our own pickups. I love Les Pauls above all guitars, and when I first had the chance to build my own guitar with Chris I knew right away what I wanted. I wanted to build my own "59 style Les Paul". I wanted it relic'd and I wanted it in Cherry Burst. I essentially wanted "Pearly Gates" with some extra wear on it.
I'd wanted "that guitar" for years. One day I was at Chris' and he was showing me some stuff while he waited on a customer to pick up his recently finished guitar, a complete build. I didn't know what it was, just that it was in the style of a Les Paul . Before the young man got there from his long drive from up north, if memory serves me, I take a look at it. It's another famous "Les Paul". It looked like James Hetfield's Iron Cross Les Paul. A relic'd Custom, stripe, Iron Cross, the whole nine. I fell in love, I wanted to try and buy it from that guy when he came to buy it. So from that moment on, I'm on reverb, eBay, Craigslist, everywhere just looking at Les Paul Customs.
My point is, when he builds a guitar, you fall in love with that guitar. They just look and feel amazing. I paint a large portion of these guitars these days and when they're done it's still me being in love with a guitar Chris made, I'm taken out of the process in my own mind.
I'm so very happy these days to be a part of this process. I'm excited at this opportunity as well. I get to, hopefully, reach out to other gear heads. I'm really hoping to have a discourse with you out there. If Chris has built you a guitar I'd love to hear about it. I'd love to hear about a guitar you want Chris to build, or any guitar you want or the best guitar you ever had. I just bought an Orange Rocker 15, I actually also just bought a Peavey Delta Blues but the Orange won so the Peavey goes back so tell me about your amps too. I look forward to your comments, so please, leave them. If I don't hear from you or you find this late, I'll be back in a day or three, click on that post too, lets see what it says. I really hope it's not, "Hit by the Corona"
Thanks,
Jeremy Hodges
Retro Guitars